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Physiology
The Founders, or Changelings, are skilled shapeshifters who are viscous liquid in their original form. They have the specialized ability to change their biomolecular structure to mimic anything, as they can manipulate mass as well as shape. The only compromising aspect of this skill is the inability to hold a shape over 16 hours. Changelings must revert to their liquid state or endure a painful "decomposition". They neither need food nor rest, and even in liquid state maintain a level of alert consciousness. 
Society
History
The Dominion
"You have no idea what's begun here." 
With an impending invasion soon to come from the Gamma Quadrant, Starfleet dispatched the first cloaked warship to come out of the Utopia Planetia Fleet Yards to Deep Space Nine. The Defiant was a sleek, maneuverable vessel built expressly for battle, initially meant as a first line of defense against the Borg, but was instead assigned to Deep Space Nine. With the Borg, at least one could always be sure who the enemy was, but the Changelings were far more insidious foes. Commander Sisko used the Defiant on a mission to locate the Founders, but was ambushed by Jem'Hadar instead. Sisko, Jadzi Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, and T'Rul returned to the Station while Kira and Odo escaped on a shuttle. While finding a way home, Odo suddenly felt an unsuppressible urge to head towards the Omarion Nebula, insisting that he must go there. There, the Founders received Odo, welcoming him to return to his place within the Great Link. He could not believe in the cause of the Founders, and rejected the invitation. When his decision was final, the Founder spokeswoman released the rest of the Defiant crew, who were held in a comatose state on that same planet, warning him they will not be so lenient next time.
Information of the Founder's locale was relayed to the Romulans, as part of the agreement between the Federation and Romulan Empire to share all information gathered about the Dominion in exchange for use of the cloaking device on Defiant. The Romulans were by then very nervous about the Dominion threat, and the Tal Shiar began secret operations with the Cardassian Obsidian Order. The covert operation was revealed in part with the discovery of heavy activity in the Orias system, but the true meaning of the secret operations was not known until it had already begun. On Stardate 48622.5, the Romulan and Cardassian intelligence agencies jointly launched a preemptive strike on the Founder homeworld, hoping to take out the Dominion by eliminating the Founders. They walked right into an ambush of 150 Jem'Hadar ships that wiped out both the Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar. A Founder had been working undercover as the Romulan Colonel Lovok, prodding both Cardassian and Romulan intelligence agencies to attack the Founders, a disaster that ultimately led to the collapse of both. The Alpha Quadrant had an inkling of the devious method of infiltration the Dominion was so apt at. The Klingons invaded Cardassia on the pretext that the Depata Council were overran by Founders, but they soon turned to attack Deep Space Nine when Sisko rescued the civilian government aboard the Defiant. Through cool manipulation on the part of the Founders, political instability soon gripped the Alpha Quadrant. The Khitomer Treaty and a major stable alliance within the Quadrant was dissolved when the Klingon Empire could not force the civilian Depata Council out of the sanctuary of Deep Space Nine. With Cardassia in ruins, Federation and Klingon hostilities rising, and Romulans lapsing into seclusion after the Tal Shiar disaster, the Quadrant was at its most vulnerable. On Stardate 49904.2, some Jem'Hadar steal equipment during an attack on Deep Space Nine, the Defiant was away and the station sustained damage and the death of 18 people with many more injured. Sisko did not intend to let an unprovoked attack on the Station go by unnoticed, and pursued the Jem'Hadar through the wormhole on the Defiant. They encounter a damaged Jem'Hadar ship with the Vorta supervisor Weyoun, who informed them that rebel Jem'Hadar was responsible for the attack. The rebels have nearly completed the Iconian Gateway (A portal that gives the user instant access to any location in the galaxy and beyond.) and will begin a takeover of the Dominion and the Federation. Captain Sisko agreed to collaboration in tracking down these rebels, whom they jointly eliminated successfully. The Founder Changelings had long been suspected to have infiltrated the Alpha Quadrant, but no one except themselves knew the extent of their network. After the exposure of the Lovok Changeling, Ambassador Krajensky of the Federation was replaced by a Changeling who went aboard the Defiant with sabotage in mind. The plan had been to initiate warfare between the Federation and Tzenkethi by forcing the Defiant to launch an unprovoked attack upon the system. Odo killed the Changeling to save the Defiant and the Federation, but he broke the law of nonviolence between his people, and was to suffer later. Odo was forced to stand trial for his crime on the Founder homeworld, where he was implanted with the suspicion that Gowron, head of the Klingon high council, was a Changeling. The Federation sought to cease warfare with the Klingons by revealing Gowron was a Changeling. Sending Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf in undercover operations, they were ready to kill Gowron when Odo suddenly realized General Martok was in fact the Changeling. The Martok Changeling was eliminated with the combined firepower of 53 Klingon Disruptor shots. 
Shortly afterwards, Sisko discovered a crashed Jem'Hadar warship with a dead crew, which Sisko decided to retrieve for the Federation to study. Another Jem'Hadar ship led by their Vorta supervisor, Kilana, showed up and promptly took out Sisko's runabout from the the sky. The Jem'Hadar attacked the away team, and they retreated into the wrecked Jem'Hadar ship. Kilana negotiated with Sisko for the return of "Dominion property" instead of storming the away team into submission. She was intent on retrieving the ashes of a dead Founder (killed during the crash) and gave Sisko the ship in return for the remains of the Founder. So it was in this way that the Federation managed to study a Jem'Hadar ship up close for the first time. In 2372, Gul Dukat abruptly announced Cardassia's alliance with the Dominion, shaking up the status quo of the Alpha Quadrant dramatically. The Klingon invasion on Cardassia had destroyed Cardassia's industrial base and left the Empire weaker than it has ever known. The assistance of the Federation in rebuilding Cardassia whittled shamed its people, and Gul Dukat took matters into his own hands. He was subsequently named head of the new government when negotiations were closed. With the Cardassian/Dominion alliance in place, the Dominion could position their ships and Jem'Hadar within striking distance of any political party within the Quadrant, and they in return only had to do small favors for the Cardassians. With the looming threat overshadowing other matters within the Quadrant, the Klingons resigned the Khitomer Accords with the Federation, and they stood together in fronting a defense against the imminent Dominion invasion. When the fleet was out tersely awaiting the fleets of Jem'Hadar, they were surprised to find nothing coming towards them. Instead, behind their backs, a Changeling impersonating Julian Bashir was on a runabout attempting to make the Bajoran sun go Nova. The Changeling and the runabout was destroyed before the mission was carried through but left everyone dazed at the ingenious designs of the Dominion. The Dominion offered Bajor a nonaggression pact shortly after, one that Kai Winn stalled at the advice of the Emissary, who had recently prevented Bajor's entrance into the Federation. The Romulan Star Empire, however, was more receptive and signed a nonaggression pact with the Dominion, an act which prompted a certain Klingon Security Officer aboard Deep Space Nine to declare: "The Romulans! I always knew they are without honor; now they have proven it."The Romulans sought neutral status during the gritty warfare, content to watch its neighbors fight and perish. Welcome to the Dominion War
The buildup of Dominion presence in the sector did nothing to lessen the tension within the Quadrant. Sisko recommended mining the entrance of the wormhole to prevent any more Dominion reinforcements through, to which the Federation agreed. Work laying the self-replicating cloaked mines immediately commenced, and the Dominion negotiated with Sisko one last time. When Sisko refused to deactivate the mines, all out war between the Dominion and the Federation began. After hitting hard on the Dominion fleet, Sisko evacuated the station when nothing else could be done. Before engaging the Dominion fleet, Sisko recommended the Bajoran Council of Ministers to sign the nonaggression pact proffered by the Dominion earlier. Without any means to protect Bajor at the moment, the Emissary at least wanted to keep Bajor intact, for the time being. Gul Dukat and Weyoun successfully seized "Terok Nor", and was greeted by Kira and Odo.
"I am Jem'Hadar and he is Vorta, that is the order of things."In the end, no Jem'Hadar survived, and Sisko took Keevan as prisoner back to Deep Space Nine after help arrived. Back on Terok Nor, Kira and her new resistance cell (a fallback to old times) plotted against the station's Dominion masters, but the female Founder Leader who could not return to the Gamma Quadrant due to the minefield was also there. She melded with Odo and he unwittingly betrayed Kira and her plans. The Dominion was still hard at work dismantling the mines, and Sisko with his crew just as desperate to prevent them from succeeding. When Gul Damar eventually hit upon a solution to take the mines down, Sisko led a task force of 600 ships from Starbase 375 to forcefully retake the Station and keep the mines intact. Between the Federation and the station were 1,200 Dominion and Cardassian ships. With help from General Martok and several wings of Birds-of-Prey, the Defiant broke through the Dominion front and sped toward the station, where Rom and Kira had almost succeeded in disabling power to the graviton emitter about to deactivate the minefield. The minefield went down, seconds before the power was cut, and the wormhole entrance was clear. 2,800 Jem'Hadar ships, no doubt with their Firsts rehashing the "Victory is life" speech, were ready to invade and take out any further resistance to the Dominion within the Alpha Quadrant. For everyone who prized the freedom of the Alpha Quadrant, it was perhaps a good day to die. Sisko took the Defiant into the wormhole, seeking to stop as many Jem'Hadar ships as was possible, knowing full well he may never emerge alive. Before the Defiant was destroyed, the Prophets visited their Emissary with more urgency than before. Sisko convinced the Prophets to remove the Jem'Hadar, but he was to pay a price later. When he returned to linear timeline, the Defiant emerged from the Wormhole pursued by -- nothing. All 2,800 ships disappeared without a trace, Dukat, Weyoun, and the female Founder tasted total failure for the first time since the war began. Dukat took it hardest, having lost everything, this coupled with the murder of his daughter Ziyal at the hands of Damar broke him entirely, and he never recovered from his disturbed mental state. The Dominion presence withdrew from the station back into Cardassian space and the Federation returned to Deep Space Nine. The winds of war has died down since the devastating loss of Jem'Hadar ships, but the danger remains constant. Lists of casualties pour in daily, and fatigue is settling in. In an effort to end the war quickly, Sisko involved the Romulans into declaring war with the Dominion through his plans with Garak. Now, with the Romulans joining the fight, the chances for a final victory is far greater, but the war is far from over. Startling news of a plague within the Great Link was revealed to Constable Odo when Weyoun number 5 confided in him about the Founders' imminent deaths. This disease had infected every single member of the Great Link, except for Odo and perhaps the other Changelings that were sent away as infants. The Founders have infiltrated important political arenas within the Alpha Quadrant, and succeeded in wreaking extensive damage before being revealed. Their ambition to bring order to the entire universe caused a war of massive proportions. But will they survive the strange disease? There are endless possibilities, and only one thing is for certain, the end is yet to come. |
| Rang / Beruf | Charakter | Schauspieler | Episode / Film |
Constable Representative |
Odo Founder Leader |
Rene Auberjonois Salome Jens |
"Emissary" (DS9) "The Search" (DS9) |
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von medical log: supplemental