Born from an alliance of world united to oppose a mighty Empire, the United Federation of
planets rose to become one of four super powers who most influenced their region of the Alpha
and Beta Quadrants.
After centuries intermittent periods of war between the Federation, Romulans, Klingons
and Cardassians, borders were established and long stretches of peace maintained, though
much of the animosity between their species continued.
These years of peace were largely kept through an alliance between the Federation and Klingons,
yet their drastically divergent cultures and core values sometimes exposed the relationship
as more fragile than many might believe.
Nevertheless, by the late 24th century no single power in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants
could realistically challenge the authority of the Federation-Klingon alliance.
However, the uneasy peace of the 4 superpowers did little to protect those outside their
borders, and so expansionist and militaristic cultures like the Cardassians continued to
invade and capture resource rich planets resulting in terrible conflicts such as the 50 year
occupation of Bajor.
Yet despite the seemingly overwhelming military might of the Cardassian, the Bajorans refused
to accept subjugation launching decades of rebellions and terrorist attacks, until the
invaders at last pulled their forces from the region, allowing them to organize a united
government and join the interstellar community as an independent power.
To aid them in their recovery Bajor developed a friendship with the Federation, and eventually
petitioned for membership, with a Starfleet crew given permission to man Deep Space Nine,
a nearby space station built and operated by the Cardassians during the occupation.
And while the Federation’s relationship with this planet may have seemed a small detail
in the larger scope of quadrant politics, everything changed in 2369, when the Federation
discovered a stable wormhole to the gamma quadrant in Bajoran Space.
To the deeply religious people of Bajor, this event represented the opening of the celestial
temple which according to ancient legends was where their gods the Prophets resided.
And as if to confirm their beliefs, it was soon discovered by Commander Benjemin Sisko
of Deep Space Nine, that the wormhole was indeed home to mysterious extra dimensional
aliens, who chose him to be their Emissary and spoke abstractly about being Of Bajor.
Yet few outside of this region of space cared about the existence of non corporeal wormhole
aliens, as most others were instead focused on the potential of having a gateway into
the Gamma Quadrant, with ships now able to travel 70,000 light years away in mere moments.
As might be expected many began to explore this far away region of space, such as the
Bajorans who quickly established colonies and the Ferengi who began forging trade relationships
with newly encountered species.
Yet it was not long before these travellers started to hear rumors about a mighty superpower
known as the Dominion, said to rule large portions of the Gamma Quadrant and who did
not appreciate seeing unfamiliar ships flying through their space.
As the Dominion threat grew larger, the Federation learned that they were ruled by Changeling,
a species of highly intelligent, and technologically advanced non humanoid shapeshifters.
More formally known as the Founders, these beings were revered as gods by two genetically
engineered species they helped create, using the Vorta to administer their holdings while
the Jem Hadar fought their wars.
Free from the responsibility of running the day to day operations of the Dominion, the
Founders were able to remain on their home planet engaged in the Great Link, a process
unique to their species where individuals could join together in a vast sea of interconnected
thoughts, and feelings.
Yet despite the Founders complete disinterest in actually being a part of their interstellar
community, they were ruthless in eliminating any possible opposition against them, as they
held deep hatred against the solid species of the galaxy who in the past hunted their
kind and threatened their very survival.
And so in order to protect their people, they settled on a hidden planet and used their
intellect to breed 2 subservient species which helped them conquer their region of space,
thereby eliminating any possible threat to their continued survival.
And so when they discovered that a wormhole had opened connecting them to the Alpha Quadrant,
they once again believed themselves threatened by unfamiliar solids, and so by 2370 they
began to deal with these outsiders, destroying a Federation Ship, and quickly sending a message
to the Alpha Quadrant that they were on the brink of war.
However the Founders had a great deal of experience with conquering other species, and so began
their invasion not by sending armies through the wormhole, but by sending spies and infiltrators,
in order destabilize the region before the outbreak of open war.
Unfortunately for the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, the Founders were expert shapeshifters and
could take the form of just about anyone, allowing them to replace prominent political
or military figures and reap chaos across the region.
One such infilitrator replaced Colonel Lovok of the Romulan espionage agency the Tal Shiar,
which then allowed him to forge an alliance with Enabrin Tain head of the Cardassian espionage
agency the Obsidian Order, who wanted to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Dominion,
believing that if they could destroy the Founder Homeworld, a larger war might be averted.
Launching their mission without permission from the Cardassian and Romulan governments,
they flew a small cloaked fleet into the Gamma Quadrant, and engaged in the Battle of the
Omarion Nebula.
However with the infiltrator reporting all their plans to the Dominion, the battle was
a massacre, with an armada of Jem Hadar ship waiting for them, destroying all but one of
their ships.
Through this deception, the Dominion was able to present themselves as the aggrieved victims
of an unprovoked attack, while also crippling two enemy spy agencies and damaging the reputation
of their governments.
These events then had larger ramifications, as it led to the fall of the Obsidian Order,
allowing for Military Central Command to take full power within the Cardassian Union.
This in turn led an ever growing dissident movement to stage a coup and established a
new Civilian Government under the Detapa Council.
Matters only grew worse for the Cardassians as they struggled to stabilize their own government
while also fighting a war against the insurgent Maquis, who wanted to liberate their home
planets in the Badlands.
Capitalizing on their weakened state, another Dominion infiltrator, this time posing as
General Martok of the Klingon Empire, manipulated their government into launching an unprovoked
attack against the Cardassian Union, justifying their actions by claiming that the recent
change in government may have been a Dominion plot to take control of an Alpha Quadrant
power.
This then put a severe strain of their alliance with the Federation who was working through
their own internal struggles, as a terrorist attack against Earth led a faction of Starfleet
to attempt a coup against the government, believing them too weak to fight this kind
of war.
Nevertheless the Federation tried to remain true to their principles, condemning the actions
of the Klingon government which infuriated Chancellor Gowron, prompting him to end their
alliance, and eventually led to war between these powers.
As a result of their scheming and manipulations, by 2373 the Dominion had successfully accomplished
many of their early goals, signing non aggression treaties with the Tholians, the Miradorn,
the Bajorans, and the Romulan Star Empire, while the Cardassians were weakened from political
instability and invasion, the Klingons weakened by fighting wars on two fronts, and the Federation
weakened by being at war with a former ally.
As was pointed out by Bejamin Sisko, the powers of the Alpha Quadrant were clearly losing
the peace against the Dominion, and so a war might be their only hope.