Founder The Founders were a group of Changeling s from the Gamma Quadrant , who mainly existed in the form of the Great Link . They were responsible for both the creation of the Dominion and all strategic decisions undertaken throughout its history . Though generally considered myth ical by some Gamma Quadrant races , they remained , as of the late 24th century , the embodiment of the Dominion itself , and the ultimate reason for its existence . ( ) History . From Changelings to Founders . Eons ago , Changelings evolved from non - metamorphic lifeform s , who were limited to one form like other humanoid s . ( ) Later , the Changelings roamed space , possibly including the planet L - S VI , searching out other races so they could add to their knowledge of the galaxy . The Changelings came in peace , though " solids " fear ed their metamorphic abilities , met them with suspicion , and even " beat , hunted , and killed " them . Deeming " Changelings " to be nothing but make - believe by the 24th century , the Rakhari as well as the Yaderan s told mythical tales of them , with the latter speaking of " evil shapeshifter s . " According to Dominion legend , on one planet , a group of Vorta – a species of small , timid , ape - like forest dwellers living in hollowed - out tree s – hid a Changeling from an angry mob , and in return the Changeling promised that one day they would be transformed into powerful beings and placed at the head of a vast interstellar empire . ( ) As an adverse reaction to being hunted and rejected by the solids , the Founders accepted the pejorative " Changeling " as their own and retreated to in the Omarion Nebula , where they existed as the Great Link . Adopting a philosophy of " what you control can ' t hurt you , " Changelings realized they had to " guide " the solids , who , in turn , had to " be broken of their love for freedom . " They determined that , in order to be safe , they had to set themselves the task of creating order from the chaos they saw around them , and as a result , they became the " Founders " of the Dominion circa 2 , 000 years ago . The Founders genetically engineered the Jem ' Hadar as their front line soldier s and also kept their promise to the Vorta by empowering them to become the Dominion ' s civil servants and commander s . Amongst other methods , both species ' loyalty was ensured by implanting into them a reverence of any Changeling as a living god . ( ) Contact and war with the Alpha Quadrant . Despite their self - protectionism , the Founders still wished to explore the galaxy and sent out one hundred infant Changelings , including Odo and Laas , in order to gather information and explore . They were genetically programmed to return to the Great Link around the late - 27th century , to share what they had learned . Laas , who initially attempted to mimic a humanoid life on Varala around the 22nd century , ultimately got disillusioned and frustrated by solids . Odo , on the other hand , was found beyond the Bajoran wormhole in the Alpha Quadrant during the first half of the 24th century and was subsequently studied by Dr . Mora Pol at the Bajoran Institute for Science . In early 2371 , roughly two years after the Bajoran wormhole was discovered by the Federation and henceforth frequented as a gateway between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants , Odo , who was still following his instinctive longing for the Omarion Nebula , returned to the Great Link . However , having spent all his conscious life amongst solids , he decided he was not yet ready to rejoin his fellow Changelings . They communicated with him by forming a female humanoid . ( ) Later in 2371 , the Founders were the target of a preemptive strike by the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order , which intended to completely eradicate the Founders , thereby removing the Dominion as a threat to the Alpha Quadrant . However , had infiltrated the Tal Shiar and , based on evidence gathered by that Changeling , the Founders relocated to in advance of the Battle of the Omarion Nebula , in which all Romulan / Cardassian forces were annihilated . ( ) The Founders proceeded with infiltrating the powers beyond the wormhole in order to prepare for their eventual invasion , while Odo continued his life among the solids of the Federation , separate from the Great Link . In late 2371 , he became the first Changeling to ever harm another , when he killed in order to save his crew mates aboard the . Odo ' s slaying of the Changeling provoked much debate and disagreement in the Great Link , also because the Founders felt a sense of responsibility for having sent him away as an infant in the first place . In late 2372 , they had Weyoun , one of their most trusted Vorta servant s , infect him with a disease to force him to return home and be judged – Odo ' s punishment was to be made into a solid . Although he regained his shapeshifting abilities a few months later in early 2373 by linking with a terminally ill infant Changeling , he was henceforth considered a traitor by the Jem ' Hadar , as he had killed one of their gods . ( , ) In 2373 , the Founders began their invasion of the Alpha Quadrant and the Dominion started a war against the Federation and the Klingon Empire . A few months after the war started , the Female Changeling came to the Alpha Quadrant to oversee the war effort and also to coerce Odo to return to the Great Link . Although they both linked , Odo was not able to understand the Founders ' arrogance and ruthlessness , and eventually decided to side against his own people . In 2375 , Odo encountered Laas , who had also been one of the 100 infants sent out by the Founders . Although they linked , Odo soon realized he did not share Laas ' disregard for the solids and decided not to join him as he continued on a journey to find others who had also been amongst the 100 infants . ( ) Unbeknownst to the Founders , the war with the Dominion was anticipated by Section 31 , a rogue Federation organization , which had secretly used Odo to infect the Great Link with a morphogenic virus back in 2372 , during his trial for murder ing another Changeling . Some Starfleet officer s who didn ' t accept the Federation committing genocide managed , in an effort to save Odo ' s life , to obtain a cure against the virus . After Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant surrendered in late 2375 , Odo cured the Female Changeling , who was subsequently taken into custody in the Alpha Quadrant . Odo then returned to the Gamma Quadrant and rejoined the Great Link , which was thus cured as well . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Conceptual origins . Not long after the three - pronged concept of the Dominion was invented , Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe started theorizing about the nature of the trinity ' s masterminds , the Founders . ( " " , p . 158 ) Wolfe recollected , " " We talked about having a race called the Founders ; we wouldn ' t know who they were , or what kind of creatures they were , for a long time . That would be a big mystery . " " ( ; " " , issue 13 , p . 12 ) Behr concurred that the writing staff of wanted the Founders to be somewhat " mysterious and aloof . " ( " " , p . 168 ) Not much information about the Founders was included in a memo Wolfe wrote about the Dominion ; as he later remembered , it clearly said of the Founders , " " We don ' t know who they are . We ' ll never see them . " " ( ) For a long time , Odo actor Rene Auberjonois had suspected that the civilization Odo belonged to would remain a mystery . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 30 , No . 9 / 10 , p . 54 ) However , one initial thought the DS9 writing staff had about the Founders was that they were actually a group of shapeshifters , of whom Odo was the once and future king . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 79 ) This notion was a private theory between Wolfe and Behr , which they conceived as a joke at about the start of DS9 ' s second season . Noted Wolfe , " " We figured we ' d never see [ the Founders ] over the course of five years or whatever . " " Throughout the second season , the pair of writers joked about the idea of the Founders being revealed as shapeshifters . ( " " , p . 158 ) " " We always said that with a laugh , " " Behr reminisced , " " because we figured it would be too big a character thing to spring on both the audience and Rick [ Berman ] and Mike [ Piller ] . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 79 ) Behr clarified , " " We never thought they ' d go for it in a million years . " " ( " " , p . 158 ) While being ridiculed and considered too radical by the DS9 staff writers , the twist of revealing the Founders as the same species as Odo was originally thought of as a revelation to be made at the end of DS9 ' s series run , or at least as a season climax . " " At the end of season seven we find the Founders [ . . . ] That ' s gonna be the end of the series , " " Ira Behr remembered thinking . The writers also imagined the group , at about the same point in the series , as being reunited with Odo and coming under his rulership , Odo serving as their rightful king . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 102 ) In fact , the writers even felt certain , from early in the series , that they wanted the Founders to be reunited with Odo at the end of the show . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 32 , Nos . 4 / 5 , p . 89 ) Although the concept of the Founders was established in the second season finale , the writers hadn ' t yet made any firm decisions about precisely who the Founders were . During the hiatus between seasons two and three of DS9 , Michael Piller called a production meeting and , thinking the writers would reject the idea straight away , he suggested that perhaps the Founders could indeed be Odo ' s people . ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD , Special Features ) Recalled Behr , " " Michael said , ' I ' ve got a crazy idea . You ' re all going to think I ' m nuts ; what if the Founders turn out to be shape - shifters ? " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 79 ) At the same time that day , Piller additionally proposed that the Founders were Odo ' s people , another idea he thought was " nuts . " ( " " , p . 159 ) When Piller suggested these notions , Behr burst out laughing , he and the other staff writers having come up with exactly the same ideas but having expected them to be dismissed . ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD , Special Features ) Behr continued , " " We just cracked up , and Michael said , ' What ' s so funny ? " " After Piller learned the other writers had been thinking along the same lines as him over the past several months , he and Behr took the idea of the Founders being Odo ' s people to Rick Berman , who agreed the concept was a good one . ( " " , p . 159 ) Subsequently , Rene Auberjonois was immediately informed about the idea of making the Founders actually Odo ' s race . " " We had lunch with Rene Auberjonois to clue him in , " " stated Ira Behr , " " and that ' s how it came down . " " Although the actor had originally become interested in playing Odo due to having been fascinated by the character ' s uncertainty about his origins , Auberjonois happily supported the plan of establishing who Odo ' s people were . " " I must say , " " the actor admitted , " " that I was and have been very satisfied with the solution they ' ve come up with , which is something equally complex . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 79 ) Robert Hewitt Wolfe observed a likeness between the Founders and the Roman Empire . " " They would rather take over someplace without firing a shot , but they ' re " going " to take over , " " he said , pointing out the degree of similarity between the two powers . ( " " , p . 167 ) On the other hand , Ronald D . Moore stated that the Founders " are , in a metaphorical sense , Nazi s . " Ira Behr likewise posited that the Founders had " fascist [ . . . ] tendencies . " ( " " , pp . 234 & 354 ) Episodic introductions . In the script for , the Founders were implied as being the breeders of the s , genetically engineering them to be gifts for the Hunter s . There was a little uncertainty about precisely when to reveal the Founders as Odo ' s people . " " [ That ] was actually something they were planning for a third season cliffhanger , " " recollected Ron Moore , who joined the series at the start of that season , " " but Michael [ Piller ] said , ' Let ' s do this at the beginning [ of Season 3 ] . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 90 ) Moore thought the revelation , ultimately exposed in third season opener , was " a risk . " He commented , " " I think it was ultimately a good decision to just go for it , because now we can play all the [ complex emotions and ] things with Odo and his people out there who want him back . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 82 ) The script for " The Search , Part I " described the Founders thus ; " " Their face s have the same ' unfinished ' look that Odo ' s does and they appear to wear simple tunics . " " Ron Moore explained , " " The Founders [ . . . ] modeled their look after Odo . They did this initially as a compliment and way of reaching out to their long - lost Changeling , and later they kept doing it as a dig and reminder to him of his own limitations . " " An illusory scenario created by the Founders in indicated how powerful they could be . " " If the Founders are capable of " playing " with us like that , " " reasoned Ira Behr , " " how much worse could they be in reality ? That was our intent , to show that these guys were so ahead of us that they were literally playing with us . " " Regarding the " The Search " two - parter , Robert Hewitt Wolfe remarked , " " Taken as a whole , the episodes showed both sides of who the Founders are . " " Their interactions with Odo demonstrated the public face of the Founders , whereas their duping of crew members from the " showed their secret face , the dark truth , " added Wolfe . He believed the implanted illusion was characteristic of how the Founders tended , like the Roman Empire , to prefer conquering other races without resorting to combat . " " So the whole thing was a test for them , " " he stated . " " Can we take over by diplomacy ? Can we offer a treaty , get our foot into the Alpha Quadrant and slowly absorb them through cultural imperialism ? " " ( " " , p . 167 ) During development of , a Founder ( referred to , in a summary of discussions that initiated the series , as " Soup Guy " ) was briefly considered as a main character of that series . ( " " , p . 177 ) Establishing the Founders as capable of assuming a convincing humanoid form ( first established in third season installment ) facilitated later developments for the group . Explained René Echevarria , " " It allowed us to set up the element of paranoia that would come into play later on [ . . . ] What ' s really interesting to me about the Founders is thinking that it ' s us , that it ' s you , it ' s Sisko , and containing the story . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , pp . 91 & 99 ) Further developments . Originally , the Founders were to have featured in a two - parter that would have ended DS9 Season 3 before concluding at the beginning of the series ' fourth season . The plot would have involved " " learning that shape - shifters were on Earth and had infiltrated the very heart of . . . " " René Echevarria paused . " " That was the cliff - hanger ending . " " When Paramount announced they didn ' t want a cliff - hanger to end the third season , the notion of nevertheless using the Founders remained . However , choosing what to do with them was an issue for the DS9 producers . They decided to keep the Founders - on - Earth storyline for the next season . They also chose to make the third season finale , ultimately entitled , about " shape - shifters running amok , " in the words of Robert Wolfe , and structure it around the statement , " " No Changeling has ever harmed another , " " which the writers had first established in " The Search , Part II " . ( " " , pp . 250 & 251 ) Some production staffers approved of the Founders being established as omnipresent in " The Adversary " . " " It [ . . . ] represented an interesting way to use the changelings , making them more of a threat , " " Ira Behr remarked . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , pp . 80 & 99 ) Commented René Echevarria , " " It also provides another opportunity for [ . . . ] setting up in the minds of our fan s that this – the changelings – is an ongoing , very dangerous problem . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 99 ) Ira Behr held the opinion that " deepening " the Founders and their relationship with Odo was an important aim for the writers to bear in mind for DS9 Season 4 . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 115 ) During the show ' s third season , Behr and Ronald D . Moore had a discussion which determined how the Founders went on to be developed in the fourth season . This period in the evolution of the group was inspired by a statement in , when a Founder posing as a Romulan named Lovok comments , " " After today , the only real threat to us from the Alpha Quadrant are the Klingon s and the Federation . And I doubt that either of them will be a threat for much longer . " " Remembering the conversation , Behr related , " " I said , ' You know , Ron , a really interesting way to continue the Founders threat is by causing between the Klingons and the Federation . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 28 ) Once season four of DS9 began , René Echevarria reported about the threat imposed by the Founders , " " To a certain extent , it ' s felt in the fourth season . We ' ve had a lot of internal debates about what this would mean [ . . . ] So it ' s something we ' ll keep alive but will be careful not to overdo . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 99 ) In an early version of the two - parter " Homefront " and " Paradise Lost " , the Founders played an important role . " " The changelings come to Earth , infiltrate the populace , and cause near civil war within the Federation , " " reported Ronald D . Moore , recalling the story . ( " " , p . 298 ) As the narrative evolved from then on , though , the repercussions of the Founders ' presence in the Alpha Quadrant were toned down , focusing on Earth in particular . " " In the most basic sense , Founders on planet Earth was what we wanted to do , " " remembered Robert Hewitt Wolfe . The much - feared alien s could still be viewed as a metaphor for other groups in human history , with Wolfe likening them to " the Communist s " or the targets of " any number of other witch hunts in history . " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , pp . 43 & 45 ) Ira Behr could foresee , at this relatively early stage , the doom of the Founders , deciding to make it come about via their " rigidity . " He elaborated , " " They are so anal retentive , so paranoid , so set in their ways . Ultimately , that will be their downfall . " " ( " " , p . 300 ) Ever since fourth season finale was in its earliest form as a story pitch by freelance writer George Brozak , the Founders took Odo to be judged for committing what was , to them , an inconceivable criminal atrocity , Odo having killed another Changeling exactly a year beforehand , in " The Adversary " . Ira Behr believed that the Founders ' punishment of leaving Odo ' s face as it was , despite changing the rest of his body to become Human , was one of the writers ' " many ways , both macro and micro , of making the Founders deliciously evil and calculatingly clever . " ( " " , pp . 353 & 354 ) As was noted by Robert Hewitt Wolfe , a big revelation involving the Founders provided a cliffhanger ending to both the third and fourth seasons . " " The third season was ' Oh , shit , they ' re everywhere , ' and the fourth season is ' Oh shit , they ' re running the Klingon Empire and are going to start a war , " " Wolfe pointed out . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 121 ) For a long time , the writers planned to establish the Founders in such a way as they are depicted in the latter conclusion . " " We felt it was an unfolding complication . We always felt the Founders were behind what was going on with the Klingons if nothing else than just because they were making the Klingons paranoid , " " Wolfe explained , " " but we always wanted to show it may be more overt than that . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 70 ) After the Klingons having been reintroduced as antagonists in DS9 Season 4 , resuming the focus on depicting the Founders as the show ' s main villains was important to DS9 ' s writing staff . Ira Behr recalled , " " We were moving back toward making the shape - shifters [ . . . ] our enemies . " " Hence , once a Founder was identified as misleading the Klingon Empire in fifth season ' s , the Founders were deliberately further concentrated on . " " After doing ' Apocalypse Rising ' to open the season , we knew we " had " to get the changelings back into the show , " " Behr emphasized . ( " " , pp . 359 & 422 ) Although the concept of Founders infiltrating Earth had been popular , the nature of the threat posed by the Founders was thereafter changed , because Earth wasn ' t seen as an appropriate setting for " Deep Space Nine " . As a result , their menace evolved to become , for instance , a Founder who had secretly replaced Dr . Bashir , as established in fifth season episode . ( " " , p . 422 ) When DS9 Season 6 installment was written , Ira Behr already knew that the series would end with the Founders being reunited with Odo . ( " " , p . 560 ) This influenced the writers to make the Founders unwell , firstly in DS9 Season 7 entry . Behr remembered that " giving the Founders an illness seemed to give " Odo a motive for returning to them and trying to save them . ( " " , p . 619 ) Meanwhile , Rene Auberjonois felt it was " inevitable " that the Founders would end up reunited with Odo and that " the Founders ' paranoia , and their feeling that they need to destroy the Federation " would peacefully be put to an end by him . The actor also believed this was " the right thing . " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 32 , Nos . 4 / 5 , p . 40 ) Ira Behr believed that , by callously disregarding and underestimating the Cardassian s during the Dominion War , the Founders were akin to those who underestimated the in the and George Armstrong Custer when he underestimated tribe s of Native American s at the . Behr concluded about the Founders , " " They ' re still not nice people . " " ( " " , p . 709 )