Cardassian

Cardassians, a spacefaring race in the fictional Star Trek universe, and the Cardassian Union were introduced in the ' episode "The Wounded". Cardassians were one of the main parts of the storyline in '. The Cardassian homeworld is Cardassia Prime in the Alpha Quadrant.

Culture

Cardassians tend to be predatory in nature, like wolf packs, always seeking out the dominant position in any social gathering. In normal courting behavior, Cardassian couples routinely act bitter and snap at each other. Cardassian society is generally non-sexist - both men and women can rise to high ranks in the military, for instance. However, other fields are not so diverse, such as the scientific community which is mostly female.

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Cardassia's educational system is legendary throughout the quadrant. From a very young age, Cardassian children are trained in techniques such as photographic memory which allow them to retain vast amounts of information. It is rumored that deep hypnosis also plays a role in Cardassian schooling. Cardassian mental disciplines are rumored to be so complete that a Cardassian will prove almost totally resistant to torture; a Vulcan mind meld is also usually ineffective against a Cardassian who is properly trained.

Related Topics:
Photographic memory - Hypnosis - Vulcan - Mind meld

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Cardassians generally believe the state is more important than the individual and thus have been described as fascist. Certainly their government is powerful and the intelligence service, the Obsidian Order, excels in ruthless efficiency. Cardassians seen on Deep Space Nine are generally proud and patriotic, and reference is occasionally made to their xenophobic tendencies, although they are often seen co-operating with other races with no apparent friction. When representatives of the science ministry visited DS9 in "Destiny", they were noticeably less patriotic and more liberal than most Cardassians seen previously.

Related Topics:
Fascist - Obsidian Order - Deep Space Nine - Xenophobic - Destiny

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They are generally cunning and suspicious. This is evident in battle, as evidenced in "Soldiers of the Empire" in which a Klingon speaks admiringly of Cardassian adversaries who always had 'a plan within a plan within a plan leading to a trap'. A popular Cardassian board game is 'Kotra', which, as Garak describes it, favours bold tactical manoeuvres over defensive play; hence Garak's criticism of Nog's attempts to regroup his pieces during a game they played in the episode "Empok Nor".

Related Topics:
Soldiers of the Empire - Klingon - Garak - Nog - Empok Nor

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In Cardassian criminal trials the defendant is presumed guilty and in fact the punishment is already decided before the trial begins; the purpose of the trial is merely to help the defendant acknowledge his wrongdoing. In Cardassian mystery novels, everyone is always guilty, the puzzle being to work out who is guilty of what.

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Cardassians are also very concerned about their families. For example, Garak enters a Dominion prison camp to speak with his father, Enabran Tain, one last time before Tain died. In another incident Gul Dukat is driven insane when his daughter Tora Ziyal dies. In Cardassian society, advanced age is seen as a symbol of power and dignity; in Cardassian families, it is common for many generations to live together under one roof.

Related Topics:
Garak - Enabran Tain - Gul Dukat - Tora Ziyal

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Cardassian literature often confounds humans. For example, humans see all Cardassian mystery stories as having an identical plot: the inevitable result is that all the suspects are eventually proved guilty of the crime (parallelling the plot of one of Agatha Christie's best known novels) and proving the supremacy of the state. However, human entertainment often confounds Cardassians. For example, most Cardassians figure out during the first act of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that all the conspirators are going to kill him, but cannot understand why Caesar cannot figure this out (or is willfully blind to an impending coup d'état) until the knives are literally coming at him from all directions.

Related Topics:
Mystery stories - Agatha Christie - Shakespeare - Julius Caesar - Coup d'état

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See also: Gul (Star Trek)

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