Tal Shiar



The Tal Shiar is the elite intelligence agency of the Romulan Star Empire. It is a highly-respected and feared force in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Its purpose is guarding the security of the Empire, both from the Romulans' interstellar enemies - most notably the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire - as well as from traitors within the Romulan population itself. The covert, often invisible presence of the Tal Shiar keeps the general populace in a constant state of paranoia. Dissent and dissatisfaction with the status quo are met with severe punishment and often dissidents have been known to "disappear". 



Organization
It was common practice for the Chairman of the Tal Shiar to be a member of the Continuing Committee. This was initially not the case for Chairman Koval, who was kept off the Committee, as he had often displayed anti-Federation sentiment and was opposed to the Federation Alliance against the Dominion. 

Senator Vreenak was the Vice-Chairman of the Tal Shiar in the 2370s. The Tal Shiar reports only to the highest levels of the Romulan government, and even so they undertake many missions without the direct knowledge of the Romulan Senate, conducting operations with virtual impunity throughout the Empire. Their authority supersedes that of most Romulan military commanders, resulting in a mutual distrust and hatred between the two organizations. The Tal Shiar operates their own fleet, often to their own aims. 

History
In 2369, the Romulan underground movement forced Counselor Deanna Troi of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) to pose as Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar in order to facilitate the defection of Vice-Proconsul M'ret and his aids to the Federation. The real Major Rakal was killed prior to the operation. 

In 2371, the Tal Shiar formed a secret coalition with the Cardassian Obsidian Order, to carry out a preemptive strike against the Founders' homeworld in the Dominion. As part of this operation, they carried out the assassinations of several former Obsidian Order operatives, including (unsuccessfully) Elim Garak. However, the Tal Shiar itself had been infiltrated by the Founders, and their combined fleet of twenty ships was ambushed and annihilated at the Battle of the Omarion Nebula. 

Unlike the Obsidian Order, the Tal Shiar was able to be rebuilt after the attack on the Founder homeworld. In 2374, operatives of the Romulan Military hijacked the prototype starship USS Prometheus (Prometheus class) and attempted to bring it to the Empire. They were supposed to bring it to the Military but received orders during the operation to deliver it to the Tal Shiar's fleet instead. 

In late 2374, the Tal Shiar investigated the destruction of Senator Vreenak's shuttle. Their preliminary report pointed towards Dominion sabotage. 

The chairman of the Tal Shiar during the Dominion War, Koval, was in fact a Federation collaborator who was planted in preparation for feared hostilities following the war. Following covert maneuvering orchestrated by Section 31, Koval became a member of the Continuing Committee from which he had been previously excluded. 

In 2375, the Tal Shiar was responsible for the security arrangements of the Romulan Conference. 

Members

 * Almak
 * Koval (Federation double agent)
 * Lovok (secretly replaced by a Changeling)
 * Rakal (secretly replaced by Deanna Troi)
 * Rekar
 * Vreenak

Background information
The Tal Shiar was first mentioned in the form of the Federation impostor Major Rakal in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. However, the agency would not be mentioned on that series again.

"Face of the Enemy" writer Naren Shankar named the organization as a homage to the tal-shaya, a Vulcan martial arts technique from. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion).

In an unfilmed scene of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Wire", Benjamin Sisko mentioned Stolpan, a Romulan friend of his, being arrested by the Tal Shiar and taken to their headquarters.

Apocrypha
In Star Trek: Countdown, in 2387 the Tal Shiar had been experimenting with Borg nanoprobe technology, and chose the miner Narada as a test-bed for the system - explaining how Nero's "simple mining vessel" could become the all-but-invincible force seen in.

In The Way of D'era, the Tal Shiar has a military counterpart, the Tal Diann. The Tal Diann was set up by the Romulan Navy to keep tabs on both the Tal Shiar and several fleets directed by Senators, reporting the former's actions to Star Command, and the latter's to the Praetor.

In Star Trek Online, set in the year 2409, the Tal Shiar are the main rivals of Empress Sela for control of the dying Romulan Empire, which has become engulfed by internal conflict since the destruction of Romulus in 2387. The Tal Shiar have aligned with the Iconians against the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the dissident colony of "New Romulus", seeing the Iconians as their best bet of regaining their former glory. In the feature episode series "Cloaked Intentions", players from both the Federation and the Klingon Empire join the Reman resistance against the Tal Shiar and their commander, Colonel Hakeev, culminating in a showdown at a secret Romulan base that incorporates active Iconian gateways. In STO's expansion pack, Legacy of Romulus, the Tal Shiar is the principal antagonist of the Romulan Republic's storyline, which ends with the five missions of "Cloaked Intentions".

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