There are some differences in their history and the way they are portrayed on television, in the motion pictures and in several books by Diane Duane, called the Rihannsu series, after the term they use to refer to themselves in their Romulan native language.

( This is the SFU explanation for the ' sublight ' Romulan vessel seen in Balance of Terror: in the SFU, sublight engines are a common term for Warp engines incapable of tactical combat maneuvering as they only allow a starship to fight at slower-than-light speeds.

The term ' shields ' first appears in the Star Trek episode " Balance of Terror ", in which they were deployed, albeit to little effect, by a Federation outpost under attack from a Romulan Warbird.

There were also hopes for an episode in which T ' Pol would finally meet her father and discover that he was in fact a Romulan agent who had posed as a Vulcan officer prior to faking his own death.

Gowron won the war after Starfleet exposed Romulan support for the House of Duras.

He was attending the wedding of William Riker and Deanna Troi on Earth and was traveling to Betazed with the Enterprise crew for the second wedding ceremony when the ship was diverted to investigate positronic signals from a system near the Romulan border.

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.

" ( However, some sources believe " Kali-fal " to be the proper name for Romulan ale due to their similar appearance.

The Romulan contempt for Vulcans, their treatment of other sentient species, such as the Remans, and their need for strict conformity, suggests that Romulan society is racist / speciesist.

It's usually reserved for executive officers on Romulan ships ( Tal in TOS's " The Enterprise Incident " and N ' Vek in TNG's " Face of the Enemy "), but in rare cases, subcommanders may captain their own Warbirds ( Taris in TNG's " Contagion ").

In the Pocket Books novels by Diane Duane, the Romulan name for the planet is ch ' Rihan, hence the endonym for the people is Rihannsu.

Hope for a more cooperative future between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire was strengthened after Shinzon's fall.

A number of designs for Romulan starships have been presented.

( The script of " The Enterprise Incident " originally called for a Romulan ship to appear, but the original model was not available: rather than go to the expense of building a new one, the Klingon D7 model was substituted.

The Romulan Commander Tebok explained that the Romulans had decided to concentrate on their own internal affairs for the past fifty years and said " We are back ," indicating that Romulans would again be active in galactic affairs.

The Klingon Empire even launched devastating raids against Romulan frontier bases and squadrons, and was planning a full-scale invasion were it not for the misfortune of the Tholians ' arrival.

A Romulan mining ship called the Narada captained by Nero attacked the ship in which Spock traveled as Nero blames the Federation ( Ambassador Spock in particular ) for the destruction of his homeworld and for the death of his wife and child.

A Romulan General becomes enamored when he sees her, and he strikes a deal in which Tasha would be his consort in exchange for the lives of her fellow survivors.

He has since consulted for the 2009 Star Trek film in their use of the Romulan and Vulcan languages.

As a result of this incident the Federation pulled the Defiant out of storage, complete with a Romulan cloaking device, and began preparations for a drastic increase in Deep Space Nine's defensive capabilities.

In 2371, under the leadership of Tain who believed that the Central Command was being too complacent about the threat of the Dominion, the Obsidian Order and their Romulan equivalent, the Tal Shiar, allied in an attempt to destroy the Dominion.

It is possible that the Borg had already attacked both Federation and Romulan outposts, which bears the signatures of their attack style, in the first season finale " The Neutral Zone ".

The events of 2154 suggest the Vulcans withheld from humans their prior knowledge of Romulan kinship with Vulcans.

In 2371 the Romulan Tal Shiar intelligence agency and their Cardassian counterparts, the Obsidian Order, launched a preemptive strike against the Dominion ; their entire fleet of approximately 4 Warbirds and 12 Keldon class Cardassian vessels, however, was destroyed, and it was revealed that the Tal Shiar officer leading the attack was actually a Dominion agent.

* Robert Greenberger's 1995 The Romulan Strategem involves Jean-Luc Picard and his crew competing with the Romulan officer Sela to convince a planet to join their respective states.

After the General War, the Romulan Empire erupted in civil war, had their border stations destroyed by the Interstellar Concordium in the course of the ISC War of Pacification, and subsequently aided in resisting the Andromedan invasion.

A bruised Romulan Republic emerged from the ruins of their once proud star empire.

Threatened with Dominion penetration into the inner sphere of the Federation, the Alliance forces were at a disadvantage, but were saved when the Romulan Star Empire entered the war on their side in response to an alleged, but faked Dominion plan of assaulting the Empire that Sisko and Garak created.

Members of the Cardassian Obsidian Order and the Romulan Tal Shiar intelligence factions plan to eradicate the Founders and their homeworld, but are themselves deceived by a shapeshifter and ambushed.

Following first contact with the Founders, the Obsidian Order – a covert Cardassian intelligence force – ally themselves with the Tal Shiar, their Romulan counterpart, and launch a secret, pre-emptive strike to destroy the Founders ' homeworld, hoping that the Founders and the rest of the Dominion will collapse.

Before the Romulans open fire, Peter challenges the Romulan commander to a ritual fight-to-the-death ( using an obscure but still valid Romulan law predating their schism with the Vulcans ), in which actual battle is prohibited until the contest is resolved.

Star Trek Star Charts place the Romulan Empire into the Beta Quadrant of the galaxy, however, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, they are referred to as an Alpha Quadrant power.

The fourth installment of the novel series is titled The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm, by Michael A. Martin was announced in Star Trek Magazine issue 154, released in trade paperback format on October 25 2011 and is the final novel in The Romulan War series, taking the story to the end of the Romulan War and the decommission of the Enterprise.

In the official comic book prequel to the movie Star Trek, Worf is a General in the Klingon Empire who is dispatched to deal with Romulan Captain Nero and his significantly altered mining vessel, the Narada.

The Romulan heart is said to be gray, though this may simply be poetic imagery.

Romulan ale is a fictional popular blue alcoholic beverage which was illegal because of a Federation trade embargo in the late 23rd century ( per Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) through the late 24th century ( per Star Trek Nemesis ).

The Romulan government is very similar to that of the Roman Republic before it became the Roman Empire.

However, it is unclear when the Romulans possessed this system of government, or how it functioned in relation to the Romulan Senate, or even if they have abandoned the monarchy.

It is generally accepted canon that Romulan females are equal to males, both having equal ability to rise through the ranks of the military.

Notable females include Sela ( Tasha Yar's daughter ), Caithlin Dar ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ), Donatra ( Star Trek Nemesis ), Taris, and Toreth ( TNG: " Contagion " and " Face of the Enemy ", both played by Carolyn Seymour ) and the Romulan Commander in the TOS episode " The Enterprise Incident ," who is never referred to by name ( in Star Trek CCG and some noncanon novels, she is called " Commander Liviana Charvanek ").

One lowly rank in the Romulan Guard is " uhlan " ( TNG's " Unification Part II ").

" Sublieutenant " presupposes the next-higher rank of " lieutenant ," but this is speculation because no Romulan character has had that rank.

However, it is possible that the unnamed Romulan general officer who rescued Tasha Yar and fathered Sela ( TNG's " Redemption Part II ") was with the Tal Shiar: without official canon sources, these remain purely conjectural.

The Tal Shiar is a Romulan intelligence organization.

The Romulan Senate also has the Continuing Committee, which is composed of senators and the chairman of the Tal Shiar and confirms the new praetor.