History and Culture
The Breen homeworld is called Breen, according to the 1999 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "'Til Death Do Us Part", and was said to be a frozen wasteland in "Indiscretion". However, in the 1999 episode "The Changing Face of Evil", it was stated by Weyoun that it is in fact rather temperate. Given Weyoun's untrustworthy nature, it is unclear which information should be believed. Among the Breen, pregnancy at a young age was a common occurrence, according to "Elogium", a 1995 second season Star Trek: Voyager episode. However, it has not been established what is considered "young" in the Breen culture. The Breen have no blood. How the functions normally carried out by blood in other species are carried out in Breen physiology has not been revealed. Although the Breen diet is unknown, Lieutenant Commander Worf and Ezri Dax were given algae paste when they were prisoners of the Breen in "'Til Death Do Us Part".
Historically, the Klingons were among the first to discover the consequences of underestimating the Breen. As revealed in "'Til Death Do Us Part", during the Klingon Second Empire, Chancellor Mow'ga ordered an entire fleet of Klingon warships to invade and conquer the Breen homeworld. The fleet never returned and was never heard from again. The Romulans have a saying: "Never turn your back on a Breen". This adage was first stated (and illustrated) in the 1997 fifth season Deep Space Nine episode "By Inferno's Light", in which a captive Breen grabbed a disruptor pistol from the holster of a Jem'Hadar guard, whose back was turned to him in a Dominion asteroid prison, and used it to disintegrate two Jem'Hadar guards. The Breen in question had not done anything besides sit quietly up until that point, giving no indication that he would be a threat.
The Breen established the isolated Breen Confederacy in the Alpha Quadrant (the section of the Milky Way in which Earth is located, as well as the homeworlds of the Ferengi, Cardassians, and portions of the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire). The Breen established outposts near the Black Cluster, according to the 1992 fifth season Next Generation episode "Hero Worship". They also established mining facilities consisting of Breen guards and slaves kidnapped from spaceships, such as Tora Ziyal, the half-Bajoran daughter of the Cardassian Gul Dukat, whose ship, the Ravinok, had crashed on the planet Dozaria, which was controlled by the Breen, as established in "Indiscretion".
Though politically nonaligned, according to "Hero Worship", they became a powerful ally of the Dominion of the Gamma Quadrant during the Dominion War that was fought during the final two seasons of Deep Space Nine. The Breen were revealed to have allied with the Dominion in "’Til Death Do Us Part", the second episode of the nine-episode story arc that served as the final story arc of Deep Space Nine in 1999. After this occurred, the Breen attacked Earth, destroying parts of San Francisco before being repulsed. They also proved a powerful foe during the Battle of Chin'toka, in which they fought alongside the Cardassians and Dominion against an alliance of the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire. During this battle, the Breen helped destroy a fleet of Alliance ships, including the USS Defiant. The Breen also assumed great responsibility in military matters. The leading representatives of the Confederacy to the Dominion, called "Thots" (apparently similar in rank to generals), such as Thot Gor and Thot Pran, were given more powers, much to the bitterness of Legate Damar, the leader of Cardassia, another major Alpha Quadrant power that had earlier joined the Dominion. This was one of the factors which led to Damar changing sides and leading a rebellion to free Cardassia. After the Cardassians turned against the Dominion, the Dominion and the Breen were defeated in the Battle of Cardassia Prime in Deep Space Nine's series finale, "What You Leave Behind". The Breen's status with respect to the Dominion subsequent to this has not been mentioned onscreen since "What You Leave Behind", and is therefore unknown in canon.
Also non-canon, David Mack's 2010 Star Trek: Typhon Pact novel, Zero Sum Game, establishes that the Breen Confederacy is made up of many separate species, all of which wear suits to disguise their appearances and subsume their identities into the Breen name. The known Breen species are:
- The Amoniri, whose bodies have no blood and which require refrigeration in their suits to survive
- The Fenrisal, whose pronounced snouts give shape to the traditional Breen helmet
- The Paclu, who have four-lobed brains that can't be read by most telepathic species
- The Silwaan, whose appearance is most humanlike of the four Breen subspecies
Read more about this topic: Breen (Star Trek)
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