The physical extent of the Romulan Star Empire TNG era

Granitehewer · Post by **Granitehewer** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:11 pm

Hi everyone.
I'm curious to how people, perceive the romulan star empire in terms of dimensions, i have the non-cannon starcharts book which shows the romulan domain, to be considerably smaller than both the federation and Klingon empire, yet an apparent off the cuff comment from Ronald Moore(i can't cite the source yet, as lost the bit of paper it was hastily scribbled on,lol) was that the romulan star empire was supposed to be bigger than the klingon empire yet smaller than the federation.
Clearly there doesn't seem to be a clear cannonical statement on the matter, and fan opinion seems to vary wildly, for example see the huge area designated as Romulan space on the Voyager Elite Force map... so was just wondering what people thought

Thanks for reading the post, hope everyone is ok
pete

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:50 pm

I'm not sure what we can say to that. The ONLY source I've ever seen is the wonderful Star Charts book. It seems reasonable to believe it is smaller than both, if for no other reason than that they appear to be quite xenophobic and reclusive.

I'm afraid you'll have most of the DITL'ers stumped.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:15 am

Humans kicked there ass about 200 years ago and put them behind the nutral zone so I can't see them being to big. Also they are very agresive so if they were huge they would attack us.

I say the star charts are right.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:18 am

I would say that they haven't expanded towards the federation because of the neutral zone but that's not to say that they didn't expand the opposite way.

And remember space is 3d so they could very well be overlapping the Federation when viewed from above on a galactic map.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:04 am

Monroe wrote:I would say that they haven't expanded towards the federation because of the neutral zone but that's not to say that they didn't expand the opposite way.

And remember space is 3d so they could very well be overlapping the Federation when viewed from above on a galactic map.

You're the first person to really point this one out. However, for practical purposes, any overlap would be essentially minimal, due to the number of adjacent systems likely to be held by the opposing side. It's tough for humans to think 3D, anyway, which is why I'm guessing Trek sorta left Z-axis out of t hings.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:23 am

I would imagin when they dreated the nuetral zone they made it go up and down to to prevent overlap.

Also if we did beat them 200 years ago they couldn't have been that big. Look at how pathetic humans were during enterprise. Thus I doubt they could have grown to much in 200 hundred years. It takes longer to expand through the miltary than it does diplomatically.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:09 pm

I don't think there have been any canon statements as to the size of Romulan space. I'd personally have it smaller than the UFP and Klingon space, but larger than all the others.

Granitehewer · Post by **Granitehewer** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:33 pm

The empire's exact size has never been declared. Star Trek writer/producer Ronald D. Moore has indicated that it is larger than the Klingon Empire but smaller than the Federation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulan#Ro ... tar_Empire

I found the above statement from wiki, but not sure if its reliable, plus of course just because Ronald says something doesn't make it cannon, even though as Thot Gor would say, '' he has ''breen'' there and done that

T'would be nice if there were a cannon atlas out there but possibly laying set boundaries might be too restrictive regarding future episodes or the non-cannon novels, who knows?!
I like the starcharts book, esp for the classification of planets and suns, am considering getting some of the technical manuals but some of the reviews vary from scathing to semi admiration,apparently.
Thanks for responding to the post,its good to hear all of your ideas.
pete

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:24 pm

I think they leave it vauge so latter writers aren't stopped from doing story lines latter on.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:18 pm

Thats probably a good idea.

RK_Striker_JK_5 · Post by **RK_Striker_JK_5** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:30 am

I'd say it's smaller. They always did go for subterfuge rather than open war...

Post by **Mikey** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:20 am

They always did go for subterfuge rather than open war...

I think that's indicative of a racial tendency, not a necessity. Nothing we've seen has shown us that the Romulan Star Empire was ever short of resources... they construct massive ships in what appear to be large enough numbers, even a subjugated sub-race was able to construct a ship like the Scimitar.

Post by **Teaos** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:26 am

The fact that there are feared by all the major players mean that they are at least big enough to pose a serious threat.

JudgeKing · Post by **JudgeKing** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:34 am

The Romulan Star Empire is bigger than our Solar System.

...But it still can't fit an XBox in there.

Captain Peabody · Post by **Captain Peabody** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:39 pm

I've always seen the Romulans pretty much as Ronald D. Moore... much bigger than the Klingons, but not as much as the Interstellar U.N. of the Federation. Everything we've seen of them is 'big', (e.g. the huge warbirds) and it would seem right for their territory to be likewise. But, really there's not much to go on; until we get a canon statement, though, I'll follow Moore's lead...