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The Founders enhanced the Jem'Hadar from their original savage state as orcish lifeforms. The Jem'Hadar today are a genetically-engineered race of elite fighters, imprinted with blind obedience to the Vortas and particularly to the Founders, whom they regard as Gods and superior beings. Few Jem'Hadar have actually actually seen the Founders, instead acting under the directions of a Vorta supervisor, intermediaries and executors of the Founders' will.

In line with their function as fighting machines, the Jem'Hadar are known for their tremendous physical endurance and zealous enthusiasm for combat. To keep the focus of Jem'Hadar fighters on their work, the Founders have made the entire species male, thus rendering them incapable of natural procreation and possibly deviations from the original blueprint due to DNA mutation. They possess a natural ability to cloak themselves, do not sleep, do not eat, do not relax, and their every victory is glory for the Founders.

The Jem'Hadar live for war and victory, as their mantra "Victory is life!" suggests, but their lifespan is short: they are engineered for accelerated growth and rarely live pass the age of 20, at which stage the Jem'Hadar is considered an honored elder. The blood chemistry of the Jem'Hadar is designed to collapse without regular intake of an isogenic enzyme, Ketracel White, an additional guarantee of their loyalty to the Founders. Born within a birthing chamber, a Jem'Hadar infant will reach full adulthood within 3 days, ready to fight and vulnerable to the addiction on "White" (Short for Ketracel White). White cannot be reproduced through regular means, only handed out by the Vortas, who are in turn supplied by the Founders. Jem'Hadars that go without the White will experience severe withdrawal and eventually die. Before death, they will slaughter any and all living creatures around to bring as many to the grave as they can. Once weakened by a lack of White, their various functions, such as cloaking, will be impaired and eventually dissipate.

Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien once met with a Jem'Hadar that has lived for years without the white. He was unlike any Jem'Hadar they had met: logical, less volatile, less willing to kill, and more open to reason. He had brought along a company of normal, dependent brethren to the planet where he claimed the conditions gave him independence from the White. However, the other Jem'Hadar did not go through the same experience as he did and still remained reliant upon the White. Dr. Bashir worked furiously to find a way to simulate the missing enzyme for the dying Jem'Hadar, but was kept from completing his work by Chief O'Brien, who, not bound by the Hippocratic Oath, was anxious to leave. From this incident, it could very well be that the Jem'Hadar is capable of independence from the drudgery of Dominion service, but how that can happen is not known.

The White is intravenously taken

Jem'Hadar dependence on Ketracel white had provided the assurance of total obedience to the revered Founders and, to a lesser degree, their Vorta supervisors. The lack of accessibility to White would deter any renegades and end the life of runaways, but the same attributes that make it so powerful in the hands of the Founder make manufacturing bases of White prime targets for the Federation. With the Gamma Quadrant route closed off by the wormhole aliens, the Dominion had had to make the white in the Alpha Quadrant itself and the sabotage of the major supply depots has been central in the battle against the Dominion.

The Jem'Hadar are unchanging and unchangeable from their present state as warriors of the Dominion. Their lifespan being short and volatile, they never had the chance to develop a society, a government, or any independent thought. As long as they are born in birthing chambers and live only to kill, they will never reach the same level of development as other sentient beings, and remain as they had been for thousands of year.

The Jem'Hadar have only one purpose in life : conquer enemies in victorious battle. Once taken prisoner or failing a mission, they will end their own existence without further thought. If the death of one Jem'Hadar will make the rest stronger, then that Jem'Hadar will freely give his life. That is the way of things -- the Jem'Hadar are expendable, much more so than the Vorta, who, as diplomats and administrators value their lives highly. Though the Jem'Hadar are subservient to the Vorta and Founders, the Jem'Hadar combine all the necessary qualities that make them the most efficient and terrifying agents of the Dominion. In interstellar travel and warfare, they often can be seen manning the small Attack Craft, and the larger Battle Cruiser. The Jem'Hadar see their only redemption in the eyes of their gods is victory in the name of the Founders. Before entering battle, the First or Commanding officer of the Jem'Hadar, will declare a battle cry similar to this:

"I am First [Name] , and I am dead. As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle, to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar - remember, Victory is life!"

The Vorta are in charge of distributing the Ketracel White

Galaxy class U.S.S. Odyssey destroyed by Jem'Hadar ships

With the discovery of the wormhole connecting the Gamma Quadrant to the Alpha in 2369, the Founders grew irate at the "incursions" into their territory. Through their Jem'Hadar, they sent messages to Deep Space Nine warning the Federation that further intrusions into their territory would not be tolerated. Commerce and science expeditions in the Gamma Quadrant were badly received, and the Dominion responded by massacring the Bajoran colonists of New Bajor. Commander Sisko, Jake, Quark, and Nog were captured in the Gamma Quadrant by Jem'Hadar troops on Stardate 47987.5. Rescued at the price of the U.S.S. Odyssey and other smaller vessels who risked entering the Gamma Quadrant to find them, none of the four had suspected that the female Vorta who was with them throughout their capture was in fact a highly skilled Dominion operative. When the Vorta Eris was revealed to be a spy for the Dominion, she left a foreshadowing of what was to come: You have no idea what's begun here.

With an impending invasion soon to come from the Gamma Quadrant, Starfleet dispatched the first cloaked warship to come out of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to Deep Space Nine. The Defiant was a sleek, maneuverable vessel built expressly for battle. Initially meant as a first line of defense against the Borg, it was instead assigned to Deep Space Nine to protect the wormhole and Bajor. With the Borg, at least one could always be sure who the enemy was, but the Changelings were far more insidious foes. The first time Commander Sisko used the Defiant on a mission to locate the Founders he was ambushed by Jem'Hadar, but managed to return to the station with Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, and Romulan officer T'Rul. Kira and Odo were left behind and escaped on a shuttle. While finding a way home, Odo suddenly instinctively felt compelled to head towards the Omarion Nebula, and insisted to an objecting Major Kira that they must go there. When she acquiesced, they found a planet there, which, upon landing, looked desolate except for the large ocean of gelatinous liquid. From the sea of liquid, other Changelings emerged to receive Odo, welcoming him back into the folds of the Great Link. Both Kira and Odo were stunned to learn that Odo's people were the Founders. Odo's sense of justice objected to the Founder's pursuit of total domination of the Galaxy, and rejected the invitation. When his decision was final, the Founder spokeswoman let them go and released the rest of the Defiant crew, who were held in a comatose state on that same planet, warning him the Dominion would not be so lenient next time.

Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar attacking Founder homeworld

Information of the Founder's homeworld was relayed to the Romulans, as part of the agreement between the Federation and Romulan Empire to share all information gathered about the Dominion in exchange for use of the cloaking device on Defiant. The Romulans were by then very nervous about the Dominion threat, and the Tal Shiar began a secret cooperative venture with the Cardassian Obsidian Order. The covert operation was revealed in part with the discovery of heavy activity in the Orias system, but the implications of the discovery was not known until the the operation had already begun. On Stardate 48622.5, the Romulan and Cardassian intelligence agencies jointly launched a preemptive strike on the Founder homeworld, hoping to take out the Dominion by eliminating the Founders. They sailed right into an ambush of 150 Jem'Hadar ships that wiped out both the Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar. A Founder had been working undercover as the Romulan Colonel Luvok, prodding both Cardassian and Romulan intelligence agencies to attack the Founders, a disaster that ultimately led to the collapse of both agencies. Only then did the Alpha Quadrant begin to have an inkling of the penetrating method of infiltration the Founders were capable.

The Klingons then invaded Cardassia on the pretext that the Detapa Council were overran by Founders, but they soon turned to attack Deep Space Nine when Sisko intervened and rescued the civilian government aboard the Defiant. Through cool manipulation on the part of the Founders, political instability spread throughout the Alpha Quadrant. The landmark Federation/Klingon Khitomer Treaty was dissolved and with it a major stabilizing alliance within the Quadrant when the Klingon Empire could not force the civilian Detapa Council out of the sanctuary of Deep Space Nine. With Cardassia in ruins, Federation and Klingon hostilities rising, and Romulans lapsing into seclusion after the Tal Shiar disaster, the Quadrant was at its most vulnerable.

Renegade Jem'Hadars attack DS9

On Stardate 49904.2, some Jem'Hadar stole station equipment and launched a sneak attack on Deep Space Nine. The Defiant was away and the station sustained heavy damage with 18 casualties and many more injured. Sisko did not intend to let an unprovoked attack on the station go by unnoticed and pursued the Jem'Hadar through the wormhole on the Defiant. Midway they encountered a damaged Jem'Hadar ship with the Vorta supervisor Weyoun, who informed them that rebel Jem'Hadar were responsible for the attack and that these renegades were unsanctioned by the Dominion. The rebels had nearly completed the Iconian Gateway (a portal that gives the user instant access to any location in the galaxy and beyond.) and planned to take over the Dominion and the Federation. Captain Sisko agreed to a collaborative mission in tracking down these rebels with Weyoun, and they jointly eliminated the renegade Jem'Hadar successfully.

Odo kills one of his own while saving the Defiant and its crew

The Founder Changelings had long been suspected of infiltrating the Alpha Quadrant with operatives, but no one except themselves knew the full extent of their network. Shortly after the exposure of the Luvok Changeling, Ambassador Krajensky of the Federation was also replaced by a Changeling who went aboard the Defiant but was discovered before he could sabotage the ship. His plan had been to initiate warfare between the Federation and Tzenkethi by taking the Defiant and launching an unprovoked attack upon the Tzenkethi System. Odo killed the Changeling to save the Defiant and the Federation, but he broke the law of nonviolence held sacred among his people, and was to suffer later.

Odo was forced to stand trial for his crime on the Founder homeworld, and his punishment was severe indeed -- the removal of his ability to shapeshift, the identifying trait of Changelings. During his trial, he was implanted with the suspicion that Gowron, head of the Klingon high council, was a Changeling. When he revealed this piece of information to Commander Sisko, who later relayed it to Starfleet, the Federation sought to cease warfare with the Klingons by revealing Gowron was a Changeling. Sending Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf in undercover operations, they were ready to kill Gowron when Odo suddenly realized that General Martok was, in fact, the Changeling. The Martok Changeling was eliminated with the combined firepower of 53 Klingon Disruptor shots.

Shortly afterwards, Sisko discovered a crashed Jem'Hadar warship with a dead crew, which he decided to retrieve for the Federation to study. Another Jem'Hadar ship led by their Vorta supervisor, Kilana, showed up and promptly took out Sisko's runabout from the the sky. The Jem'Hadar attacked the away team, who retreated into the wrecked Jem'Hadar ship for shelter. Kilana negotiated with Sisko for the return of "Dominion property" instead of storming the away team into submission. She was intent on retrieving the ashes of a dead Founder (killed during the crash) and gave Sisko the ship in return for the remains of the Founder. With the ship Sisko hauled in to the nearest starbase, the Federation managed to study a Jem'Hadar ship up close for the first time.

In 2372, Gul Dukat announced Cardassia's alliance with the Dominion, shaking up the status quo of the Alpha Quadrant dramatically. The Klingon invasion on Cardassia had destroyed Cardassia's industrial base and left the Union weaker than it has ever known. The assistance of the Federation in rebuilding Cardassia shamed its people, and Gul Dukat took matters into his own hands, negotiating with the Dominion secretly for the Dominion's military might in return for the Cardassian's allegiance. Dukat was subsequently named head of the new government when negotiations were closed. With the Cardassian/Dominion alliance in place, the Dominion could position their ships and Jem'Hadar within striking distance of any political party within the Quadrant, and they in return only had to do small favors for the Cardassians.

With the looming Dominion threat overshadowing other matters within the Quadrant, the Klingons resigned the Khitomer Accords with the Federation, and the two powers stood together in fronting a defense against an imminent Dominion invasion. When the fleet was out tersely awaiting the fleets of Jem'Hadar that were showing up on sensors, they were surprised to find nothing coming towards them. Instead, behind their backs, a Changeling impersonating Dr. Julian Bashir flew a runabout directly into the Bajoran sun, carrying with him with a bomb which had the capability of making the sun go nova. The Changeling and the runabout were destroyed before the mission was carried through but left everyone dazed at the ingenious designs of the Dominion.

The Dominion offered Bajor a nonaggression pact shortly after, one that Kai Winn stalled in giving a response to at the advice of the Emissary, who had recently prevented Bajor's entrance into the Federation. The Romulan Star Empire, however, was more receptive and signed a nonaggression pact with the Dominion, an act which prompted a certain Klingon Security Officer aboard Deep Space Nine to declare:

[Bang! Fist hits table] The Romulans! I always knew they are without honor; now they have proven it.

The minefield in front of the wormhole

The buildup of Dominion presence in the sector did nothing to lessen the tension within the Quadrant. Sisko recommended mining the entrance of the wormhole to prevent any more Dominion reinforcements through, a recommendation the Federation gave the go-ahead to. Work laying the self-replicating cloaked mines immediately commenced, and Weyoun soon came aboard the station warning Sisko to deactivate the mines or face full-out warfare. Sisko refused, and a fleet of Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships attacked Deep Space Nine almost immediately. After hitting hard on the Dominion fleet with the newly installed armaments aboard the station, Sisko evacuated the station when nothing else could be done. Before engaging the Dominion fleet, Sisko recommended the Bajoran Council of Ministers to sign the nonaggression pact proffered by the Dominion earlier. Without any means to protect Bajor at the moment, the Emissary wanted to keep Bajor intact, which would be guaranteed by the pact. Gul Dukat and Weyoun successfully seized "Terok Nor", and was greeted by Kira and Odo, who because of their respective political situation remained aboard.

The price of victory was high, but a victory nonetheless for the Dominion. With Weyoun's PR prowess in full gear, Terok Nor once again lapsed into routine operation. Off the station, the Federation and Klingon forces suffered devastating defeat at the hands of the efficient and aggressive Jem'Hadar almost at every turn. Whole fleets were annihilated, and the losses were on their side alone. The Defiant led the charge of what remaining ships there were, but everyone felt the futility of their resistance bearing down on the morale of the fleet. Sisko was later reassigned to a mission to take out a major Jem'Hadar Ketracel-White supply depot deep in Cardassian space and hopefully weaken the Dominion forces if successful. Sisko and his crew flew the Jem'Hadar ship he had scavenged a year before to infiltrate Dominion lines and succeeded in blowing up the Ketracel-White depot. However, the ship they were on was badly damaged in the explosion. Its communications gone, warp drive, shields, weapons off-line, the nearest Federation starbase was 17 years away by impulse power.

Jem'Hadar ship crashes on planet surface

The limping Jem'Hadar ship was soon pursued by two ships which attacked it, forcing Sisko to crash-land on the nearest planet. There, members of their crew were captured by Jem'Hadar also stranded on the planet surface. Their injured Vorta supervisor Keevan released Nog and Garak, taken prisoner while out hunting for water and food, in exchange for Doctor Bashir's treatment. With his supply of Ketracel-White running out, Keevan sold out his soldiers to save his own neck. Keevan proposed to order his Jem'Hadar into a trap and kill them all with the help of the Federation officers. Though the Third Remata'Klan was warned by Sisko of the death sentence he was facing, he replied that it was inherently impossible for him to disobey the orders of his Vorta supervisor, even when fully knowing the result would be fatal. The reasoning Remata'Klan gave was quite simple :
I am Jem'Hadar and he is Vorta, that is the order of things. In the end, no Jem'Hadar survived, and Sisko, disgusted though he was at the Vorta's treachery, took Keevan as prisoner back to Deep Space Nine after General Martok arrived on the Rotarran and rescued them.

Back on Terok Nor, Kira and her new resistance cell (a fallback to old times) plotted against the station's Dominion masters, but the Female Founder who could not return to the Gamma Quadrant due to the minefield disrupted her plans. Having linked with Odo, the Female Founder ferreted the truth about Kira and her cell from Odo, whom she succeeded to turn away from the "solids", at least for a while. The Dominion was still hard at work dismantling the mines, and Sisko with his crew just as desperate to prevent them from succeeding. When Gul Damar eventually hit upon a solution to take the mines down and began work to do so, Sisko simultaneously led a task force of some 600 ships from Starbase 375 to forcefully retake the station. Between the Federation and the station were 1,200 Dominion and Cardassian ships. With help from General Martok and several wings of Birds-of-Prey, the Defiant broke through the Dominion front and sped toward the station, where Rom and Kira had almost succeeded in disabling power to the graviton emitter about to deactivate the minefield.

The Dominion leaders in Ops

The minefield went down, seconds before the power was cut, and the wormhole entrance was clear. 2,800 Jem'Hadar ships, no doubt with their Firsts rehashing the "Victory is life!" speech, were ready to invade and take out any further resistance to the Dominion within the Alpha Quadrant. For everyone who prized the freedom of the Alpha Quadrant, it was perhaps a good day to die. Sisko took the Defiant into the wormhole, seeking to stop as many Jem'Hadar ships as was possible, knowing full well he may never emerge alive. Before the Defiant was destroyed, the Prophets visited their Emissary with more urgency than before. Sisko convinced the Prophets to remove the Jem'Hadar, but he was to pay a price later. When he returned to linear timeline, the Defiant emerged from the wormhole pursued by -- nothing. All 2,800 ships disappeared without a trace, Dukat, Weyoun, and the Female Founder tasted total failure for the first time since the war began. Dukat took it hardest, having lost everything, this coupled with the murder of his daughter Ziyal at the hands of Damar broke him entirely, and he never fully recovered from these devastating losses.

The Dominion presence withdrew from the station and retreated back into Cardassian space while the Federation returned to Deep Space Nine. The Feds may have won the battle, but the war was was far from over. Lists of casualties poured in daily, and fatigue settled in even the most boisterous of Starfleet officers. In an effort to end the war quickly, Sisko involved the Romulans into declaring war with the Dominion through a plans Garak help carry through. The Romulans did end up joining the war, though not by means Sisko would have liked to remember, and the prospect of a joint Federation/Klingon/Romulan force against the Dominion boded well.

The destructive orbital weapons platforms

Among the first joint campaigns of the Klingon/Federation/Romulan forces was the taking of the Chin'Toka System. Targeted for its thin defenses, the fleet led by Sisko encountered resistance only in the orbital weapons platform deployed there. After destroying the main power source, the system came under Federation control. While the battle was being fought, Dukat, possessed by a Pagh-wraith he freed, destroyed Orb of Prophesy in the Bajoran Temple on Deep Space Nine. The wormhole inverted and collapsed, sending the Bajorans into panic about the disappearance of their Celestial Temple. Three months later, Captain Sisko restored the wormhole by rediscovering the Orb of the Emissary on Bajor.

In 2374, startling news of a plague within the Great Link was revealed to Constable Odo when Weyoun number 5 confided in him about the fatal disease that plagued the entire Link. This disease had infected all Changelings except for Odo and perhaps the other Changelings that were sent away as infants. This piece of information would prove to be a key in ending the Dominion war.

A few months later, the Breen joined the Dominion, an action which prompted Legate Damar to break off ties with the Dominion and launch a campaign to rid Cardassia of Dominion presence. However, the Dominion already had complete control over the Cardassian military, and Damar resorted to plotting a resistance movement along the lines of the tactics used by the Bajorans against the vastly superior Cardassian military at the time of the Occupation. Damar freed Worf and Ezri, captured by the Breen as gifts for the Dominion, asking them to bring word to the Federation that they had an ally on Cardassia.

The Defiant in its death throes

The Breen attacked Starfleet headquarters shortly afterwards, severely damaging San Francisco and the psyche of the Federation as well. An energy dissipater weapon the Breen utilized on their ship proved especially effective against power-hungry attack vessels the Federation, Klingon, and Romulans deployed. After San Francisco, the Breen turned their attention to the Chin'Toka System. Taken forcibly by the Federation, Klingon and Romulan last year, the Dominion were eager to reclaim it. The Federation and allied forces suffered devastating losses of ships and personnel, and the Chin'Toka System once again fell under Dominion control.

Damar launched his campaign officially after the Dominion's victory at Chin'Toka. He gave a speech calling on Cardassians everywhere to resist the Dominion and began his resistance movement with an attack on a Vorta cloning facility, an action confirmed by Starfleet intelligence reports. To aid Legate Damar in driving out the Dominion, Starfleet sent his resistance cell runabouts, supplies, and the expertise of Colonel Kira, Odo, and Garak to help him in his efforts.

The Breen, Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships form a defensive perimeter around Cardassia Prime

The Dominion never took Damar's resistance movement seriously, but they had no idea how damaging the sabotage missions he ran would prove to be. After bribing Gul Rovok to betray Damar, Weyoun crushed Damar's organized resistance completely, destroying all eighteen cells. Damar did not surrender even at that point and, with help from civilian dissidents, took out power for the duration of the Federation, Klingon, Romulan attack on Dominion forces which had pulled back to establish a tight defensive perimeter around Cardassia Prime. With communication cut, Weyoun and the Female Founder could not contact their fleet, and the Founder was so incensed she ordered Lakarean City, 2 million in population, destroyed. She also ordered every house levelled in Cardassia if necessary until Damar and his rebels were found. The Jem'Hadar eventually knocked found them, and were about to kill the trio when the Cardassian soldiers that had come along with the Jem'Hadar killed the Dominion soldiers and pledged their loyalty to Damar.

Sisko, Martok, and Ross led the attack against the combined Breen, Jem'Hadar, and Cardassian fleet, but they clearly were losing ground when the Cardassian ships suddenly turned to fire on the Dominion. Soon, the tides turned and the Dominion fleet found itself in a lost battle, and it was only then that long-range communications returned to Weyoun and Founder. Knowledge that the entire Cardassian fleet had turned against the Dominion angered the Founder into declaring that all Cardassians untrustworthy. She immediately ordered the extermination of the entire population on Cardassia Prime and sent Jem'Hadar ships to level every inch of Cardassia Prime. The Breen general Thot Gor insisted on fighting in the front lines, leaving Weyoun and the Founder almost entirely alone on the planet surface.

Damar died in the crossfire while penetrating into the control center, but the survivors pressed on to find the Founder and Weyoun virtually alone. The Founder refused to call off the attack force and was content to let all of her forces die, taking as many of the enemy as they could with them. Only when Odo linked with her and healed her disease did she change her mind, agreeing to sign a peace treaty and to stand trial as a war criminal in exchange for Odo returning to the Link and healing the rest of the Changelings.

The end of the war

The war was over! Every side paid dearly, and the Dominion acknowledged a defeat for the first time in the 2000 years of its history. The xenophobic nature of the Founders created the Dominion, and its system had been so efficient and successful only the determined resistance of the combined Federation, Klingon, and Romulan powers could stop the them, and then only at a very high price. Odo rejoined the Link as part of his bargain, but also because he saw the wrong in what the Founders believed in and practiced. He leaves behind Kira and the world he's known in the hopes that his experiences will change the Founders perception of solids, and end the Dominion's history of violence and oppression.

| Dominion || Cardassia Union || Obsidian Order || Federation |

| Klingon Empire || Romulan Star Empire || Tal Shiar |

First Kudak'Etan

Second Ixtana'Rax

Limara'Son

Third Remata'Klan

Victory is life! ~Ikat'ika 56kb

I have been waiting for another Klingon. ~Ikat'ika 61kb

This is Internment Camp 371. You are here because you are enemies of the Dominion. There is no release, no escape, except death. ~Ikat'ika 211kb

Obedience brings victory. And victory is life. ~Remata'Klan 66kb

Our death is glory to the Founders. ~Remata'Klan 35kb

We are Jem'Hadar and they are Vorta. It is the order of things. ~Remata'Klan

The Founders exist. They created the Dominion. ~Talak'talan 81kb

The Dominion will no longer stand by and allow ships from your side to violate our territory. ~Talak'talan 114kb

We are more loyal to the Founders than the Vorta ever will be. It is the reason for our existence. It is the core of our being. ~Omet'iklan 200kb

The Great Link Unparalleled database for all things pertaining to the actions and ideals of the Dominion and many other races.

Steve's Star Trek Page Dominion Dictionary It is always prudent to proceed with Dominion dealings with caution and learning their language is a must. Useful phrases and a full dictionary of words can be found in this one source.