Gessatra ir'Virinat t'Prell, galae'Enriov s'Tal'Diann,
to D'Tan, Ehkifv Temjahaere s'Kreh'dhhokh Mol'Rihanai,
concerning the Romulan Way and Reunification:
Jolan'tru, my dear Proconsul,
Serving the cause of Freedom in the office of hru'Phi'Tlarum Mol'Rihanai is a great honor, and a terrible responsibility. S'task and Tellus, along with numerous dissidents, left ch'Thaei long ago, with that one passion underlying all of their several motivations. Freedom burns savagely in the grey heart of every Romulan and and every Reman. Freedom is the passion we cradle to our breasts, the most fundamental sigh of the voice of everyone whose ancestors left ch'Thaei, the great longing in the most intimate whispers of those whose ancestors marched beneath the raptor's wings.
Those who remained behind and became the Thaessu embraced a radical new dogma, which, however much it claimed to celebrate infinite diversity in infinate combinations, was woefully intolerant and thus failed to live up to its high ideals. They persecuted our ancestors until they drove them away, and have played the victim ever since, when it suited them. Other times the Thaessu would display blatantly their arrogance and conceit, and their bigotry. They martyred their own savior, perverted his teachings to suit themselves, and deified him, and, with the accused not present, bore false witness against our ancestors, charging our ancestors with deicide.
The Thaessu fell from the lofty precepts of their savior long ere Surak had even passed from this life, and, because our ancestors would not bend the knee, nor bow the head, nor avert the eyes, the Thaessu drove our ancestors by much attrition to set out on a quest for a new home, leaving the old home behind, usurped by an upstart clan spreading a perversion of the scribblings of a Wise Fool because they could not apprehend the intentions of the Mad Savant. Our ancestors having departed then followed the road of the stars for a time, encountered threats and dangers, suffered losses, made a false start, and after all these diverse and sundry trials, found their new home in two planets within the Eisn system known also by the name of the Thaes god Ket-Cheleb, particularly among the followers of Tellus. This new home, too, would eventually prove to be a false start, although an age would pass away ere this verity were recognized.
Initially on finding the two worlds, however, our ancestors divided in three, with some settling a planet which they named ch'Rihan ("of the Declared Ones"), and others settling a planet which they named ch'Havran ("of the Travellers"), and some forming clans whose life would be spent primarily aboard ships, conducting commerce and tourism between the two worlds (these were called na Mhashein ih'Hierar, "the Ship Clans").
Travel between the two worlds of the Eisn system was not the only tourism or commerce. Our ancestors and the Thaessu carried on a centuries-long exchange, primarily in the form of covert affairs, spycraft, infiltration, political influence and intrigue, subtle and hidden philosophical studies, mystical exploration, cultural anthropology, the pilfering of technology, and so on. Some names are well known to their posterity: Valdor, Keras, Di'on Charvon, Valeris, T'Pel, T'Prell, among a few others. Some were so successful in their covers that they have remained hidden from the annals of history. However, defections were also neither rare nor one-sided; for over a thousand years, Thaessu dissaffected with the sterile orthodoxy and/or the hypocrisy of their leaders managed to find their way through an underground network to the worlds of the Eisn system, and both Rihannsu and Havrannsu disgusted by the guile, decadence, corruption, and/or madness of their leaders would likewise in the opposite direction finding their way to ch'Thaei.
During the earliest period in which an external party who took the time and put forth the effort necessary for the establishment of historical archives was interacting with the Thaessu, some 300 years before the present record, the Kir'Shara (Surak's original writings detailing the teachings of Cthia), long believed lost, were rediscovered, and the society of ch'Thaei began a reformation, which continues to this present moment. The Thaessu have come a long way in those three centuries, but they have yet some way to go before the reformation of their society and culture can be considered complete. Romulan-Vulcan intrigue had a great deal to do with the expedition of the Thaessu and Terrhasu which located the long-lost texts and set off the much-needed reformation. The goal motivating this intrigue was a plan to reunify the Thaessu with the Rihannsu and Havrannsu, but before that could be considered seriously by the majority necessary for bringing the plan to fruition, the Thaessu would have to see their false orthodoxy for what it was in the light of truth. The seed would then germinate, inexorably leading to the actualization of Reunification, as the Thaessu would learn a powerful lesson by these events, the lesson to question tradition, custom, and authority, and it would take time for the collective psyche of the Thaessu to be humbled by the revelation that they had been led away from the original teachings of their savior at the hands of unscrupulous power-mongers, as it would likewise take some time for the obligatory reforms to actuate the Thaessu. A new generation would enjoy the harvest.
Llairhi Spahkh ch'Thaessu would reawaken the Reunificationist impulse among the Thaessu, over a century later, his Thaes heart still seeping with the love he had not been able to justify, a love he could not prevent himself from feeling, but which he had not been free to demonstrate in the manner his beloved Di'on had hoped.
The power-grabbing schemes of the Tal'Shiar formed the underlying cause of the Hobus supernova, the destruction of ch'Rihan and ch'Havran, and the mass murder of billions of Rihannsu. The second false start had been brought to an end by greed, paranoia, incompetence, ignorance, and sycophancy, passions more well-suited to Feh'rengsu, Jem'Hadarsu, Pakledsu, Terrhasu, and Vortasu than to Rihannsu and Havrannsu.
The same Spahkh ch'Thaessu was unable to save ch'Rihan and ch'Havran, but he gave his all to prevent further planets from suffering the same fate, successfully containing the subspace rupture by means of creating an artificial singularity. Spahkh was also half-Terrhasu, his mother being from Terrha. His name deserves commemoration and honor; in the end, he chose his Passion over "rational" self-preservation, having already rejected the absolute purgation of Emotion as of no worth.
In the wake of this ineffable crime committed by the Tal'Shiar (but years before learning of their culpability), elements within the Imperial Star Navy, already longtime foes of the overweening authority of the Tal'Shiar and the accompanying abuse of said authority, broke away from the Star Navy with their vessels and crews, dreaming of the establishment of an independent and sovereign Romulan polity which would return to seeking the actualization of the authentic
Summum Bonum cherished in the collective soul of Rihannsu and Havrannsu and our ancestors who left ch'Thaei, that passion which sings in the hearts of our peoples: Freedom. From among themselves, the schismatic military personnel elected one of their number to be their leader. That one was of course your own person, D'Tan.
Your own previous studies of Thaes cultural features, including the Kir'Shara, and with personal instruction from Llairhi Spahkh, have served you well in working for the most pressing current needs of the peoples. You understand well the challenges facing any effort to realize the dream of Reunification. The dream will not be achieved for some time yet to come. Our generation may have traveled the Star Road to Vorta Vor before the ideal becomes actual. Patience will be required, and determination. The Thaes social and cultural baggage must be exposed to the light of truth before the eyes of the Thaessu themselves, that they will have no choice but to face the truth, and abandon the undesirable (and unachievable) and illogical effort to purge emotions entirely and thoroughly, an effort not condoned nor ever taught by Surak himself. The acceptance of both emotion and passion must be encouraged by all means which I have enumerated in a separate communique to you -- not the imposition or enforcement of the Romulan Way upon the Thaessu, but by further Reform in Cthia, reestablishing the lofty virtue of Kol-Ut-Shan to its rightful place among our brothers and sisters on ch'Thaei. In our dealings with the Thaessu, we must remember to avoid their own errors. Education is the key, and not force of any form. Let that be reserved for our common foes. If the Thaessu wish to live by the Kir'Shara, then by all means, let them do so faithfully, without partiality for their own prejudices. The Kir'Shara is a path to enlightenment; there are other paths to other things.
What of the Romulan way, then, the defining cultural and social characteristics which make the Rihannsu and Havrannsu what we are? Some two millennia have passed since our ancestors began their exodus from ch'Thaei, in order to maintain the liberty of their hearts and minds against enforced conformity to an external standard. While our peoples share a number of defining qualities (acceptance of both emotion and passion, willingness to use violence when the situation requires, respect for the Old Ways from before "the Time of Awakening," and others), the one quality which underlies all of these other qualities is our Passion for Freedom.
Reunification in the context of the Romulan Way cannot become realized until the Thaessu have been made to see the value in Kol'Ut'Shan, and have come to embrace it with sincerity, rather than mere lip-service. When they do at last come to manifest authentic respect and acceptance of the infinite diversity in infinite combinations, they will be ready for Reunification with the Declared Travellers, who had to leave in order to remain true to themselves and the ways of those ancestors whom the Rihannsu and Havrannsu share with the Thaessu.
As I hold seats on the Continuing Committee and the New Romulan Star Command, I am obligated to furnish the Proconsul with advice based on my particular situation (including, among other things, the fact of my direction of New Romulan Military Intelligence, and my sharing of the Praetorate with other worthy heroes of the Republic), and so I have done with regard to a question dear to the Proconsul's heart. The Thaessu are not ready for Reunification with us yet. It may take more than half the lifespan of the current Thaes generation before the errors of preceding Thaes generations will be released into the past and Reformation will have been actualized. Based on the intel gathered by the Tal'Diann's various assets, agents, operatives, and spies, I would recommend a concerted campaign to encourage the Thaessu to scrutinize the technique of Kolinahr, to reexamine the underlying idea of the technique in light of the Syrranite Reform and the Rediscovery of the Kir'Shara. Perhaps the Terrhasu might be of assistance with this, with regard for a proverb given by one of their greatest sages (known to most Terrhasu of the present as Socrates), who stated "The unexamined life is not worth living."
On a related matter, I wish to broach the subject of stereotypes held by some officers of the Republic. Many Kolari who live under the Orion Syndicate and the Klingon Empire, are also possessed of noble virtues; and many Klingons who seek the Honor embraced by Kahless. Trill in both of the warring powers are also known who are possessed of noble virtues, Caitians and Ferasans, even Jem'Hadar, Vorta, Voth, and Tholians. Many of these have been called, as were our ancestors who left ch'Thaei, "heretics," when in reality it is they who hold fast to the Old Ways, and the others who have fallen away, corrupting their institutions and establishments, as has happened oft in our own history. Stereotypes are infantile ways of seeing the rich tapestry which is spread across the stars, ever varying in its weave, and ever repeating itself. We should hold ourselves, and our officers, to a higher standard. When I speak of these noble virtues found in individuals and groups of every species and every worldview, I speak not of the passion of battle, but of the ideal state of being in this life. The noble virtues of honor and passion and responsibility and the way to be the best that they can be, whether they embrace Cthia or Cluros or Mnhei'sahe or Batlh or some other expression of an attempt to understand the infinite and ever-rich diversity in its infinite combinations, and we will delight with them, thrill at their boasts, laugh at their jokes, console them in their losses, and ever share our Passion with that which is too deep for words -- we shall live our Passion, that Savage Fire of Green Plasma burning in the Grey Heart of every Romulan and every Reman, giving warmth unto the Eggs of the Great Raptor Mother of the Galaxy, enlivening them and arousing them to seek ever for that highest good: Sovereignty, Freedom, Independence.
Bhaonev,
Fvillhu Gessatra,
galae'Enriov t'Prell s'Tal'Diann
u'hru'Phi'Tlarum Mol'Rihanai
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