The Founders. So called as they are the hearthstone of the Dominion and are responsible for its
creation. One of the biggest threats to Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets and a
political powerhouse of the Gamma Quadrant, the Dominion is a society based on fear so
ancient that they no longer recognize it in themselves.
Hi, Ric here with the cultural index for the far off race of Changelings from Star Trek,
also known as the Founders. A first distinction to make, the species has no true name, or
at least one that is not known to others, just as no individual within their society
has a personal name. “Founders” is the name they adopted as the organisation that
created the Dominion while changelings was a term that they were assigned in their history.
Eons ago, a frustratingly vague timescale, they were a humanoid race, aware of their
origin as beings whose development was altered by a “Progenitor”, a shapeshifting being
that imbued the species with its own properties. Although this may just be a lie that they
tell to placate curious monoforms. Either through genetic manipulation or natural evolution,
this species developed the ability to change their form, fundamentally altering whatever
society they once had and instigating a whole new way of life.
They classify as genderless Metamorphic beings capable of adopting a myriad of forms. Essentially,
they are an organic fluid compound of dense enzymes and bioorganic elements that are maintained
by an ambient Morphogenic Matrix. Their ability to assume other shapes is through a conscious
mental process, although they lack a central nervous system and other internal organs,
they maintain their essence in every shape. The transformations are triggered by enzymes
that alter the density, composition and entire makeup of the fluid.
They have the philosophy that to be an object is to understand an object. This translates
into spending entire days in a form to truly experience it. Sitting in a corner as a rock,
mimicking animals and their lives, these efforts are how they understand the universe around
them and they are not limited to solid matter. Experienced changelings can also become mists,
vapours and even fire. This often leads to them accumulating a variety
of objects that have piqued their interest, often creating sanctuaries to study them.
Their time in a single form is limited to around 16 hours after which a shapeshifter
will have to revert to their gelatinous state for at least an hour to regenerate their cellular
makeup. In this state, they are capable of linking
with another or several other changelings and sharing their consciousness, thoughts
and experience. This sensation is often described as… well, its indescribable to solids as
they have no frame of reference for this joining. It comes as naturally to them as breathing.
In fact the majority of changelings don’t exist outside of their Great Link for any
extended period of time. The species seems to be functionally immortal in terms of natural
lifespans although they do procreate. As an infant however, they possess no sentience.
A fresh and new drop formed from the link, with no mind of its own, a changing will not
grow or develop at all until exposed to environmental factors or nurtured by the Link. They can
exist in this state, simply an organic puddle with barley signs of life as we understand
for years, decades even before they are prompted to grow. Responding to stimulus, the infant
changeling develops its sentience and mass with experience, eventually forming an identity.
When raised apart from the Great Link, these individualised changelings develop a strong
independence from their species, although are still drawn to their own kind. This has
a great deal to do with never having experienced the Great Link as they do not know any different,
but once exposed to it, often realise that this is closer to their natural state than
maintaining an individual identity. This sharing of thought is more than a linking of minds
and more of a single consciousness that can then separate into individual personalities
and leads to little conflict among the species. A point of pride among them was that no shapeshifter
has ever killed another. Except once and a penalty was exacted be locking Odo’s Morpogenic
Matrix into one form, rendering him humanoid. A curious species, they were driven to learn,
even since their earliest times as a space faring culture. Unfortunately, other species
they encountered became suspicious of them even fearful because of their abilities to
hide, thinking them naturally duplicitous. This led to many a purge and hunt at their
expense and the changelings were often driven from worlds, beaten or killed. Naturally,
after repeated incidents this led them to become embittered and secretive, after all,
treat someone like a monster long enough and they may become that monster.
However, while developing a low opinion of monoforms, coning the term “Solids” to
describe their limited existence, the changelings began to realise that the only way they would
be safe was if they could control the threat, thus they became the Founders.
Practicing advanced genetic engineering, the Founders located several primitive races and
altered their genome to make them subservient to the changelings including the Vorta and
Jem’Hadar. In order to control their servitors, they wrote into their DNA deferential treatment
of the Changeling race and even went so far as to evolve the Jem’Hadar to lack an enzyme
that they needed to survive. The Founders became the sole producers of this chemical,
named Ketracel White and thus the Dominion was born.
Now operating with the Vorta as their proxies and the Jem’Hadar as their defenders, the
Founders retreated to a new homeworld, a barely M class world on which they settled their
new Great Link. From here, they could hide and control their puppets to negotiate on
their behalf, seldom setting foot, wing or sludgy puddle beyond their home. The Vorta,
designed to be agreeable and diplomatic on the surface, were just as callous as their
masters on the inside and were given leadership over the Jem’Hadar with the finer points
of command managed by their own disciplined societies. The imbued safeguards of acquiescing
to the Changeling’s every whim developed into a reverence of the Founders from their
proxy races and soon the architects of these species adopted the moniker of Gods. Ultimately
it’s a title that they themselves don’t care for, but will use to enforce their will.
In their dealings with other races, they began to need to employ violence and military might
where diplomacy failed, jaded as they had become, they saw no problem with even genocide
as they considered “solids” to be a limited existence, not of equal worth to their own
lives and therefore disposable. Alongside this callous approach, they developed a strong
desire for order and control, a trait seen in even those raised away from the link suggesting
a species-wide predisposition. Still, they remained curious of the outside
worlds over their 10,000 years of seclusion and while their existence faded into myth
and legend, they sent out 100 new born changelings to experience life beyond their walls.
Despite the large military, the Dominion will often prefer to settle matters through negotiation
or diplomacy, but will not hesitate when resulting to combat. They tolerated Starfleet’s presence
in the Gamma Quadrant for long enough until they considered them a rival, then declared
their intention to fire on any alpha quadrant vessel they encountered. Being a superpower
on par with the Federation, in many ways being a dark reflection this was no idle threat.
The eroding of morality on its Founder’s part allowed them to use overwhelming force
when trade failed and any technology or science they wanted, they got. By the time of the
Dominion War in 2373, the totalitarian power had dominated numerous other races through
fear of eradication using bioweapons and aggressive trade.
Of course, despite all this leverage that the Dominion wielded, it was still a culture
founded on fear. The most crucial part of the Dominion, its most sacred duty was to
protect the Founders. Entire military wings and populaces were disposable if it meant
protecting one of their own, yet the changelings natural powers also made them the perfect
infiltrators so they were often sent out to manipulate foreign governments from the shadows,
observe and report back. A single changeling had the benefit of the
knowledge of the entire race to pull from if they had access to the link and a near
limitless lifespans gave them a long-term view of the galaxy, enacting plans that often
tool years to come to fruition. They had a lot of experience in empire building and destroying
and could play other powers against themselves in a way that those prejudiced monoforms once
feared possible, eons ago. There are ironically so solid and unyielding
in their views and culture, they do not seem to possess any art, furniture, performance
or anything enriching beyond their experiences in shapeshifting, not even gifting the Vorta
with the ability to appreciate art. Culturally, they are a stagnant species, so stifled by
fear of the outside that they no longer grow from exposure to it. Not that they don’t
have reason to be afraid, with their history of hostile rebuttal, but nonetheless, their
monolithic society will never change, just grow unless fundamentally their viewpoint
can be altered. Thanks for watching this index on the Changeling
Founders of the Dominion, I’ve skipped over the Jem’Hadar and Vorta specifically here
as they have their own subculture which would be worth exploring in an independent video.
Speaking of which, over on the community tab you can find a vote for the next episode of
the cultural index and I was thinking then, why not choose from those two as the subject
of the next index to continue the Dominion flavour? Thanks again for watching and until
the next video, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you later on Certifiably Ingame. Goodbye.