Lacking other legitimate methods, Garak offers an alternative solution: forging a recording of Dominion officials planning to conquer the Romulan Empire, which would then be encoded onto a Cardassian data rod.

— Casey Biggs, who played the Cardassian Legate Damar on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Conceived in 1991, shortly before Gene Roddenberry's death, DS9 centers on the formerly Cardassian space station, Terok Nor.

Since scale patterns on Cardassian necks have been shown to change from appearance to appearance ( Garak, for example ), makeup artist Michael Westmore has theorized in a 2005 issue of Star Trek Insider that Cardassians continually shed and regrow scales.

The Order kept very close tabs on all Cardassian citizens to ensure loyalty, and was greatly feared.

The date of first contact between the Cardassians and Starfleet is unknown, but is likely to have occurred mid-to-late 22nd Century, as a Cardassian exile, Iloja of Prim, lived on Vulcan during that time period.

Sometime between October 2372 and February 2373, with a Dominion attack on Deep Space Nine imminent, Gul Dukat announced the Cardassian Union's entry into the Dominion, shocking not only the Federation but most Cardassians as well.

When word of the fleet's defection reached the Dominion command center, the Female Changeling ordered every Cardassian on the planet killed.

With the Cardassian fleet helping the alliance and the rebel's attack on the Dominion headquarters on Cardassia, the Dominion surrendered, ending the Dominion War.

Several non-canon sources have placed the pre-war population at around seven billion, and with the canonically established Cardassian emphasis on the family unit, the race is safe from extinction.

In their 2002 paper ( which has been cited more than 280 times ), a footnote on the " Cardassian term " states:

Martok, leading the Klingon fleet ; Admiral Ross & Captain Sisko, leading the Federation fleet ; and the Romulans attacked and defeated the Dominion on the Cardassian homeworld.

Torres reprogrammed it on a course for a Cardassian installation, but " Dreadnought " was swept into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker.

Although the colonists were offered free relocation to elsewhere in Federation territory, some insisted on remaining on the ceded worlds, effectively becoming Cardassian Union citizens.

Prior to the Dominion War, the Tal Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order secretly worked together to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Founder homeworld.

During the brutal Cardassian occupation of Bajor in the early 24th century, the Federation refused to act on the grounds that, since Bajor was at that time considered part of the Cardassian Union, the occupation was an internal matter of the Cardassian government and to help the Bajorans would violate the Prime Directive.

His most successful attack, which disabled the planetary power grid on Cardassia, was met with brutal Dominion reprisal in the annihilation of a Cardassian city and all its inhabitants.

Dominion ships retreated to Cardassia and, on the Female Founder's orders, launched a genocidal assault on the Cardassian people, ultimately killing over 800 million Cardassians in a matter of hours.

In 2369, the Cardassian civilian authorities ordered the military to withdraw from Bajor, after which the Bajoran provisional government invited the United Federation of Planets to set up base on the former Cardassian mining station of Terok Nor, renaming it Deep Space Nine, and requesting membership into the Federation.

The return of Gul Dukat as commander of the Dominion-controlled Deep Space Nine enabled the writers to contrast the space station of the audience's imagination to its incarnation as a former Cardassian mining facility.

Cardassian military ranks are similar to those used by the United Federation of Planets, but with some key differences.

The Cardassian Obsidian Order kept a fleet of Keldon class starships which were used in conjunction with the Romulan Tal Shiar during the sneak attack in the Omarion Nebula.

PADDs of various designs are used in the Star Trek universe by such space-faring organizations as Starfleet, the Andorian Imperial Guard, Bajoran Militia, Cardassian Union, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire and Vulcan High Command.

A ruse involving a murder is used to enlist the help of the Romulans against the Dominion, and dissatisfactions lead the Cardassian leader, Legate Damar, to launch a successful resistance movement against his former Dominion comrades.

In " Blaze of Glory ", the characters confront the issue of ethnic cleansing when the Maquis – a resistance group of former Federation citizens now living in Cardassian space – are hunted down and ask for the assistance of Sisko, who used to criticize their methods.

Continuing into " The Dogs of War ", Damar is forced to choose between his Cardassian comrades, stubborn in their beliefs, and the support of Kira and others whom he used to consider enemies.

Commander Benjamin Sisko is assigned by Starfleet as station commander of " Deep Space Nine " in orbit of Bajor, previously used by the Cardassian Union during its occupation of the planet, now repurposed to help Bajor to enter into the Federation.

There are two designs from Deep Space Nine that are in the game: the Heavy Escort Defiant Class and the Cardassian Starbase design used for Deep Space Nine.

This indicates that a Cardassian is in the prime of life for at least 60 + years ( assuming it takes some time to become a Gul, as it is a military and not hereditary title ).

Cardassian society generally exhibits little or no sexual bias ; for example, both men and women can rise to high ranks in the military.

In Cardassian society, advanced age is seen as a symbol of power and dignity ; it is common for many generations of Cardassian families to live together under one roof.

The Cardassian ancient ritual of shri-tal allows a dying person to reveal his or her secrets to the rest of the family, for use against their enemies.

( Their lack of starships was noted when, in one DS9 episode, a high-ranking official from the Order had to " hitch a ride " with a Cardassian warship for transportation.

When the Romulan / Cardassian fleet arrived at the Founders ' homeworld, they bombarded it, only to realize that the planet was deserted except for a token beacon.

The Cardassian Central Command uses a system of hierarchical ranks, which is the same for all branches of the service.

Of particular note is Bajor which was occupied for fifty years, and the end of whose occupation destabilized the Cardassian government and formed a key story-arc for Deep Space Nine episodes.

A number of Federation and Cardassian colonies found themselves situated within the other ’ s territory ; an agreement was reached for the transfer of those colonies.

Late in the war, Kira Nerys, acting with the Cardassian Rebellion, stole a Breen weapon and delivered it to the alliance for reverse engineering.

In 2328 the Cardassian Union, which had been taken over by a military dictatorship, invaded Bajor, occupying it for forty years, during which time they forced many Bajorans into slave labor, using them in their various mining operations.

Originally, Quark admired the Cardassian race for their version of morality, but later he seemed to take pity on the downtrodden Bajoran people, selling them food and equipment just above cost, which could have gotten him into serious trouble if the Cardassians had found out.

He was married to ( and divorced from ) a Klingon ( Grilka ) in an incident that also garnered him considerable respect from the Klingon community for his bravery, had a recurring Cardassian love interest ( Natima Lang ), was shown on several occasions to be attracted to both Major Kira Nerys and Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax, and once tried to seduce a Vulcan member of the Maquis.

In Episode " Nothing Human " a holographic version of a real-life war criminal ( whose unethical research helps save a crew-member's life ) is held responsible for the crimes of the Cardassian he was modeled upon.

In the novel The Battle of Betazed, it is shown how the planet was ruled by the Jem ' Hadar and their Cardassian allies for four months.

Later Dax discovers that the Orb is related to several phenomena near Bajor, Sisko recognizes that any investigation will tip off the Cardassians, and arranges for Odo to use his shapeshifting abilities to disable the Cardassian sensors.

He fled to the Cardassian space station Terok Nor when the Cardassians withdrew from the station, leaving it for the Federation and Bajorans.

In " The Wire ", a delirious Garak gave three different and contradictory stories for his exile ; first that he had killed some escaping Bajoran prisoners in the last days of the occupation but in the process also killed the daughter of a powerful Cardassian military official, then that he actually took pity on some Bajoran children and allowed them to escape, and finally that he had been framed for letting Bajoran prisoners escape.