Dominion The Dominion was a major interstellar state in the Gamma Quadrant . Technologically advanced and millennia old , the Dominion was founded under the absolute rule of a group of Changeling s known as the Founder s , whose will was carried out by the Vorta and the Jem ' Hadar . The Dominion was dedicated to imposing the Founders ' vision of " order " upon the universe , " i . e . " bringing all other civilizations under its control . History . According to Weyoun 4 , the Dominion " has endured for two thousand years " , i . e . , since the 4th century . Later , in 2375 , Weyoun 8 stated " " the Dominion has never surrendered in battle since its founding 10 , 000 years ago . " " It was established by Changeling s , who sought to protect themselves against persecution by the solids via totalitarian control . Becoming known as the Founders , the Changelings used advanced genetic engineering to create two servant races , the Vorta and the Jem ' Hadar . On behalf of the Founders , these two species began expanding Dominion territory through diplomacy and military conquest . By the mid - 24th century , the Dominion had conquered hundreds of species . ( ) In the 2370s , the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole brought the Dominion into contact with civilizations in the Alpha Quadrant . After learning that Starfleet would destroy the wormhole in the event of a direct Dominion incursion , the Founders initiated long - term plans to weaken and subvert the Alpha Quadrant . ( ) In 2373 , the Dominion was able to secure both the wormhole passage and a power base in the Alpha Quadrant , through the absorption of the Cardassian Union . ( ) By the end of the year , open war erupted between the Dominion and a joint opposition consisting of the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire . ( ) The Dominion made rapid gains in the opening months of the war , beginning with the siege of Deep Space 9 and the wormhole . ( ) However , it was dealt a major setback in mid - 2374 , when Starfleet and Klingon forces retook Deep Space 9 and prevented the Dominion from obtaining reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant . ( ) Also in that year , the Romulan Star Empire joined the war against the Dominion . ( ) Despite various reversals and an eleventh - hour alliance with the Breen Confederacy , by late 2375 , the Dominion verged on defeat and was additionally beset by a Cardassian uprising . The war ended when the Female Changeling agreed to surrender , in exchange for a cure to a morphogenic virus afflicting the Great Link . ( ) Government . The Dominion was organized under a strict hierarchy , with the Founders at the top , then the Vorta , and the Jem ' Hadar next . This arrangement was referred to as " the order of things " and deviation from it was punishable by death . ( ) The Founders held ultimate authority and their decisions could not be questioned under any circumstances . However , the Founders were largely apathetic towards the affairs of solids and were content to leave the administration of the Dominion to the Vorta . ( ) The Vorta commanded the Jem ' Hadar and disseminated ketracel - white crucial for their survival . ( ) Members . Below the Founders , Vorta , and Jem ' Hadar , the Dominion included numerous subjugated " member " races . These species were expected to obey the orders of the Vorta administrators . Disobedience would be punished by massive Jem ' Hadar reprisals . ( ) Known member species included : In the 2370s , the Dosi and the Son ' a were economically affiliated with the Dominion . ( ) In late 2375 , the Dominion signed an alliance with the Breen Confederacy . ( ) While the Teplan s were punished by the Dominion for their resistance in the mid - 22nd century , their political status as of the 24th century is unknown . ( ) Society . The Founders were rarely encountered by their subjects , leading them to be regarded as myth s or god s . The Vorta and the Jem ' Hadar were both engineered to worship the Founders ; indeed , they believed that their lives belonged to the Founders , rather than themselves . ( ) The Karemma were an important commercial power within the Dominion , and constructed weapons for the Dominion military . ( ) The language of the Dominion was known as Dominionese . ( ) Although the Dominion might seem monolithic and united , there were some internal pressures , mostly between the Vorta and Jem ' Hadar . The two servant races of the Founders regarded one another with barely disguised contempt , and a delicate balance existed between Jem ' Hadar troops and their Vorta overseers . Their shared loyalty and obedience to the Founders kept them nominally at peace , but often , it was only the Vorta ' s control of ketracel - white that kept them alive , and even then , this form of control has been known to fail ; Jem ' Hadar killing their Vorta was rare , but not unheard of . Vorta and Jem ' Hadar tried to maintain the appearance of unity , but this varied between individuals ; some Vorta , such as Keevan , behaved in a false paternal fashion to their troops , while others , like Weyoun 4 , were visibly disinterested in the Jem ' Hadar ' s welfare . ( ) Military . A Dominion strategy frequently used was to not use its military might during initial contacts , but rather , to take over via influence and espionage . While Jem ' Hadar fighter s destroyed the as a show of force , the Dominion used its vast influential and espionage tactics to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant . For example , the Dominion precipitated a war between the Cardassian Union and the Klingon Empire , and then struck an alliance with the Cardassian Union , knowing full well they would accept due to their dire state , so that the Dominion could gain support and a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant before deploying its military power . ( ) The Dominion was founded on the principle of control , with the intent being to neutralize any potential threat to the Founders by whatever means necessary . In cases involving cooperative species such as the Karemma , the extent of Dominion interference was fairly minimal and restricted to material support . However , if the target species was or became less cooperative , the Jem ' Hadar were dispatched to wipe out any opposition . The fear of massive Jem ' Hadar reprisals was enough to keep most planets in line . For a prospective member , at first contact the Dominion may have appeared helpful , or even benevolent . A typical Dominion strategy was to make concessions in the short term for an advantage in the longer term , which may have been centuries in advance . ( ) Technology . By the time of the Dominion War , Dominion technology appeared to have significantly outpaced that of most Alpha Quadrant species . Instead of phased energy or disruptor beams , Jem ' Hadar rifle s emitted powerful polaron beams . They had a side effect of acting as an anticoagulant in some humanoid s , thereby impeding the natural wound healing process . ( ) Similarly , Dominion warships displayed more impressive firepower than their Alpha Quadrant counterparts . Phased polaron beam s were mounted on all Jem ' Hadar attack ship s . These initially cut through Federation shielding without effort ; however , the DS9 crew subsequently managed to adapt their shields to withstand Dominion weapons for short periods . By the time of the Dominion invasion of the Alpha Quadrant , Federation shields had no more difficulty withstanding polaron weaponry than any other energy weapon . The Breen also wielded a huge advantage on the battlefield with an energy dissipating weapon , which was capable of disabling Federation and Romulan vessels with a single shot . Effective countermeasures were eventually developed by Starfleet engineer s . ( ) Dominion transporter s utilized transponder s , which enabled them to transport individuals across distances as far as three light year s . ( ) Dominion warp capability was less advanced when compared to most major Alpha Quadrant species . A Dominion fighter was capable of at least warp 7 and a battle cruiser was capable of at least warp 4 . 7 . ( ) While some Dominion technology was in many ways more advanced than that of the Federation , the Vorta Keevan once lamented that Starfleet engineers were famed for being able to " turn rocks into replicator s " . ( ) At least some Dominion technology was manufactured by Dominion member species ; it is known , for example , that at least one type of torpedo carried on board Jem ' Hadar attack vessels was sold to the Dominion by the Karemma , a Dominion member . ( ) The Jem ' Hadar did , however , seem capable of performing not only some minor and emergency repairs , but also understanding complex engineering on even Starfleet vessels . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Origins . The Dominion resulted from several meetings which the writing staff of had about establishing villains in the Gamma Quadrant during the show ' s second season . " " We had meeting after meeting on what those guys would be like before the word ' Dominion ' was ever dropped into a script , " " stated Robert Hewitt Wolfe . ( " " , p . 73 ) Ira Steven Behr once referred to the Dominion as " an attempt by the staff to come up with something specific about the Gamma quadrant . " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 25 / 26 , No . 6 / 1 , p . 100 ) He also related , " " I remember saying [ to Wolfe , James Crocker and Peter Allan Fields , while having lunch together ] one day , ' Okay guys , we ' re gonna come up with villains , not one but " three " sets of villains . And we ' re gonna make them as scary as any villains you can possibly find . " " As part of this mandate , Behr tasked the writing team to read Isaac Asimov ' s " Foundation " trilogy , which all the writers then read . ( " " , p . 153 ) " " The Dominion was definitely a group project , " " clarified Wolfe . " " That was something that Ira , Michael [ Piller ] , Pete , Jim and I talked about and conceptually worked on as a group . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 112 ) Wolfe continued , " " We just felt it was time to give a face to the Gamma Quadrant . " Voyager " was going to be wandering through the Delta Quadrant from place to place , meeting new people every week , and we wanted to make the Gamma Quadrant distinctly different from that , by creating the Dominion [ . . . ] Instead of like the big mysterious out there , which all the other " Star Trek " shows had done , and " " was going to do , it was a very specific , dangerous , nasty Other , so that was part of the motivation . " " ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD special features ) The invention of the Dominion not only fulfilled the need to define the Gamma Quadrant but also came about because Behr thought " villains are cool . " ( " " , p . 97 ) He remembered , " " With the Dominion , we came up with characters , people , aliens and problems that impact not only in the Gamma Quadrant but the Alpha Quadrant as well . I came up with the idea for the Dominion , then the staff met every day for lunch for a week or two , and we would kick around what to do about this Dominion , then we presented it to Mike [ Piller ] and Rick [ Berman ] and they were receptive to it . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 76 ) Peter Allen Fields highly approved of the name chosen by the writing staff for the new group , saying it " was a pretty good name . " ( " " , p . 153 ) The Dominion was conceived as " a sort of unifying anti - Federation in a way , just to give it a completely different character , " said Robert Hewitt Wolfe . Indeed , the group was intended to be similar in structure to the Federation but with very different ideologies . The Dominion was to represent a wide array of alien races , just as does the Federation ( as opposed to the mono - species Klingon Empire , Romulan Star Empire , and Cardassian Union ) , but it was to be fascist - like , ruled by coercion and domination , in contrast to the cooperation and freedom of the Federation . As Wolfe explained , " " The Dominion was not monolithic . It wasn ' t just the Romulan s or the Cardassian s . They were distinct in that they were the Dominion . They were , like the Federation , a collection of different races . But unlike the Federation , they were bound together by fear and extortion , whereas the Federation is bound together by noble thoughts and love and friendship and all that good stuff . So in a lot of ways , they were the mirror image of the Federation . " " ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD special features ) Ira Steven Behr explained , " " We wanted warriors , businessmen , and a dark force that was controlling it all . " " Wolfe elaborated , " " Basically , the idea was that the Dominion was the Carrot - and - Stick Empire . The businessmen , the Vorta , were the negotiators , the friendly guys who show up with the carrot [ . . . ] Then , if you don ' t toe the line , they kick your ass with the Jem ' Hadar . " " ( " " , p . 154 ) Michael Piller offered , " " Ira and Robert and the staff worked very hard on creating a new group of aliens that are quite different than the others that we have had before . There ' s a symbiotic relationship where you have to peel back several layers to understand what they really are . What seems to be the most threatening is not necessarily the most threatening . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 76 ) Initially , the plan was for numerous different species to be seen on Dominion vessels and involved in various parts of the Dominion ' s activities , although eventually , only three " main " species were firmly established : the Founder s , the Jem ' Hadar , and the Vorta , although the Karemma were also a member and , subsequently , both the Cardassians and the Breen became members . The concept of introducing three species at once , as opposed to the more traditional " Star Trek " method of introducing major races one at a time , was Ira Behr ' s and came from the fact that he didn ' t want to risk introducing only one species which may not work . If the Dominion was basically a single race , and the audience didn ' t accept that race , the ramifications for the show would have been disastrous , so Behr felt it better to err on the side of caution , feeling that if he introduced three races , at least one of them was bound to work . As it turned out , all three were readily accepted by viewers , and all three became major players in the later years of the show . Robert Hewitt Wolfe explains the structure and organization of the Dominion : " " The Gamma Quadrant [ . . . ] [ is ] bound together by the Dominion , a very very tough , very smart , very old civilization , run by the mysterious Founders , who are experts in genetic engineering , and who turn out to be Odo ' s people , the Shapeshifters . They then go and engineer these slave races that do their bidding . Essentially , the two main slave races were the ' carrot ' and the ' stick ' . The carrot being the Vorta , who would come to your planet and say , ' Hey , you ' re nice people , here ' s some M - 16s and some popcorn , and whatever else you want baby , alcohol , fire - water ? All you have to do is sign this little contract and we ' ll make you cool . ' Then there ' s the Jem ' Hadar . So the Vorta say , ' Oh , you don ' t want to play ball ? Then meet these guys . They ' re gonna kick your asses . " " ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD special features ) One idea that the writers had that was never actively utilized on - screen was that the Dominion knew about the Federation long before the Bajoran wormhole was discovered , and that they were developing a long - term strategy to deal with the inevitable contact . As Wolfe explains , " " The Dominion knew the Federation was out there long before the wormhole was opened , and they had plans to deal with the Federation when the Federation was projected to enter their space in two hundred years , and they were building slowly towards that , that ' s why they sent out Odo in the first place . But then the wormhole opens up and suddenly the Federation is in their backyard " today " and it just throws everything into question for both the Federation and the Dominion . " " ( " The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond " , DS9 Season 3 DVD special features ) Ultimately , Ira Behr was pleased to have been instrumental in the creation of the Dominion , happy his " Star Trek " legacy resulted in something more than merely altering the Ferengi . " " I was hoping that it would be something else I could leave to the " Star Trek " universe , " " he expressed , " " and I ' m really glad it was the Dominion and the Founders and that whole thing . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 102 ) Michael Piller similarly appreciated the design of the Dominion , saying , " " We have a good look to some of them . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 76 ) Episodic developments . The Dominion was first mentioned in , then in and next in , before finally being encountered in ( whose original name was " The Dominion " ) . " " We sort of peppered mention of the Dominion into several episodes before we actually saw them , " " recalled Robert Hewitt Wolfe . " " Basically , we were trying to build the idea that there was something big out there , something pretty tough . " " ( " " , pp . 73 & 153 ) References to the Dominion in " Rules of Acquisition " altered how Ira Steven Behr thought of the episode . He reflected , " " It [ . . . ] gave us the opportunity to introduce the Dominion [ . . . ] Suddenly the weight of the show became more important because I wanted the Dominion to work . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 25 / 26 , No . 6 / 1 , p . 100 ) Behr also said , " " The thing that sold the show to me was coming up with the Dominion . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 65 ) Although the Dominion was conceived as three main species , the first Dominion race to be referenced was the Karemma , in " Rules of Acquisition " . A reference to the Dominion was also deliberately included in " Shadowplay " . " " It just seemed like the perfect place to keep it alive , " " Ira Steven Behr noted . ( " " , p . 124 ) In the script of " The Jem ' Hadar " , the Dominion is directly linked with " the s [ and ] [ . . . ] the hunter s . " Indeed , Robert Wolfe has speculated that the Vorta had supplied the Hunters with the Tosk , as part of a general policy providing benefits to Dominion members . ( " " , p . 154 ) Michael Piller said about how the Dominion are portrayed in " The Jem ' Hadar " , " " It ' s only the tip of an iceberg . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 76 ) Ira Steven Behr promised the Dominion would have a profound effect on DS9 Season 3 . " " The Dominion is going to add a new element into the show that I think will build on what ' s already there , " " he predicted . " " We will expand this into the gamma quadrant and it will have a tremendous impact on our people . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 25 / 26 , No . 6 / 1 , pp . 98 & 111 ) He later said , " " The major thing we wanted to accomplish in year three was to take the Dominion , which we had been teasing the audience with throughout the last half of the second season , and really bring them to some kind of fruition . We needed to show that there was something worthwhile in the Gamma Quadrant [ . . . ] I think that ' s what we went in thinking : How do we make this Dominion the next big enemy or antagonist of the " Star Trek " franchise ? " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 82 ) When Ronald D . Moore and René Echevarria joined the DS9 writing team at the beginning of the series ' third season , the Dominion was an aspect that appealed to the newcomers . " " Ron and I came in and saw all this new stuff they were doing with the Dominion and we realized what a rich backdrop it was for storytelling , " " reminisced Echevarria . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 91 ) In , the writers wanted to depict the Dominion as powerful enough to run elaborate scenarios in the heads of the DS9 main characters , just to see how they would react . Ira Behr related , " " We said , ' OK , we ' re going to give the audience what they think they want , ' which is what happens if the Dominion gets into the Alpha Quadrant . " " Added Ron Moore , " " What would really happen if these things occurred ? How would the characters react ? Ultimately , that ' s what the Dominion was trying to find out . " " The use of the illusory situation set the Dominion ' s stratagem apart from the strategies usually employed by other villainous " Star Trek " races , since the writers didn ' t want Deep Space 9 and its regular crew to be constantly under siege from the Dominion . " " We basically wanted to set up what the Dominion was and establish that they had a different strategy , " " explained René Echevarria . " " It wasn ' t going to be them sending the Jem ' Hadar to battle us , but they were going to have a long - term strategy of destabilization . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 83 ) Following the " The Search " two - parter , the Jem ' Hadar continued making regular appearances in DS9 but the Vorta seemed to disappear for a while , possibly indicating there had been an altercation between them and the Founders . The writers wanted to keep the latter group somewhat mysterious and distant , so the Vorta were considered vital to continue establishing as an intermediary party between the other two races . This idea led to the notion of enmity possibly existing between the Jem ' Hadar and the Vorta , which led to the subsequent return of the Vorta in Season 4 ' s . ( " " , p . 168 ) Even though the discovery of the Dominion in " The Search " occurs chronologically several months before " Voyager " is taken to the Delta Quadrant ( and despite featuring a holographic simulation in which a Jem ' Hadar fighter is pictured on " Voyager " s viewscreen ) , they are never referred to as the Dominion by " Voyager " s crew . In , after learning of the Dominion War following communication with Earth , Chakotay tells B ' Elanna Torres of how the Maquis have been wiped out by the Cardassians , who have " an ally [ . . . ] from the Gamma Quadrant who supplied them with ships and weapons , " implying he had never heard of them before . One potential way of using the Dominion was inspired by a line of dialogue from season three outing , in which a Founder posing as a Romulan named Lovok predicts , " " After today the only real threat to us from the Alpha Quadrant are the Klingons and the Federation . And I doubt that either of them will be a threat for much longer . " " Ira Behr recollected , " " I [ . . . ] said to Ron [ Moore ] at the time , ' You know , we could do a whole show about that if we wanted to , how the Dominion would want to get between the Klingons and the Federation . ' But the Earth didn ' t move . Nothing shook . " " ( " " , pp . 255 - 256 ) The Dominion was further developed in DS9 Season 3 finale . " " We knew that we wanted to do something with the Dominion [ in that episode ] , " " recalled Ira Behr . ( " " , p . 250 ) Robert Wolfe concurred , " " We wanted [ to ] show that the Dominion was a really smart organisation and they went about things in an intelligent way . Making your enemies fight each other is a good thing to do . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 114 ) At the conclusion of the third season , Ira Behr was satisfied with how the Dominion had been developed during the course of the season , remarking , " " We ' ve been able to get good use out of it . " " He also believed " keeping the Dominion alive " was an important goal for the writers to bear in mind for DS9 Season 4 . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , pp . 102 & 115 ) Although the DS9 staff writers wanted to concentrate on the Dominion , they were distracted from focusing on the group by the introduction of the Klingons into the series , which took place in the fourth season . ( " " , p . 256 ) Nonetheless , Rene Auberjonois considered that making the Klingons fearful of the Dominion was " a way of pumping up the danger of the Dominion , which has taken some doing . " He continued , " " They ' re not the Borg , they ' re not the Klingons ; they ' re something else , and it ' s a more complex kind of danger that ' s being presented . " " ( " " , issue # 222 , p . 31 ) Though the Dominion became a major part of " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " , not everyone who worked on the show cared much about the alien organization or how the writers chose to develop it . Jadzia Dax actress Terry Farrell , for example , was often confused by the Dominion subplots in the fourth season . She conceded , " " I don ' t put much thought into the whole Dominion thing [ . . . ] If they ' re going to do something interesting with the Dominion , great , but if they ' re going to let it hang there , there ' s nothing I can do about it . " " ( ) In fourth season installment , a discussion regarding the Dominion appealed to Ron Moore . " " My favorite moment [ in that episode ] is when the central Jem ' Hadar is talking about the Founders and the fact that they ' re like gods , but these gods don ' t talk to them even though they die for their gods . I thought that stuff was pretty interesting , " " Moore commented . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 107 ) Midway through DS9 Season 4 , Bashir actor Alexander Siddig thought the Dominion weren ' t entirely satisfactory villains , at least not yet . " " I don ' t think [ . . . ] the Dominion have gotten to first base with regard to being a serious threat , " " he remarked . " " I don ' t think anybody bites their nails over them . " " ( ) To prepare for directing , LeVar Burton had to learn about the Dominion , specifically the relationship between the Jem ' Hadar and the Founders , by watching earlier installments of DS9 . ( " " , p . 347 ) Regarding " To the Death " , Ira Behr noted , " " I thought it really filled in a lot of the Dominion backstory that I thought was really necessary . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 119 ) Ron Moore similarly approved of how the Dominion are portrayed in . " " I thought it [ . . . ] said something interesting about the Dominion and how they deal with dissent , " " he remarked . " " That they weren ' t just berserkers that went around killing everybody , they actually make examples of you and make you suffer quite a bit . They do it in a really nasty way , which adds more to the franchise overall . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 120 ) The Dominion was briefly referenced in the first draft script of , Quark being referred to ( by both his brother Rom and Quark himself ) as the first Ferengi to have made contact with the group . However , the organization isn ' t mentioned in the final version of that installment . As noted by Robert Hewitt Wolfe , big revelations about the Dominion served as the conclusions to the second , third , and fourth seasons ; DS9 established the existence of the Jem ' Hadar at the end of the second season and developed the prevalence of the Founders at the end of third season as well as the conclusion of fourth season . ( " " , p . 353 ) As a sign of the times , Robert Wolfe stated about the Dominion , at the end of DS9 Season 4 , " " The Dominion threat is being dealt with . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 102 ) However , the DS9 writing staff wanted to establish the Dominion as antagonistic more in DS9 Season 5 than the aliens had been in the fourth season . In fact , during the fifth season , the creative staff tried to return focus on making the Dominion the main enemies of the series . About halfway through DS9 Season 5 , the writing staff had a meeting with Paramount in which the writers told the studio , " " We want to get back to the Dominion . " " Ira Behr later said , " " It was slow going getting back [ to them ] . " " ( " " , pp . 359 & 256 ) An opportunity to refocus on the Dominion presented itself to the DS9 writers in the form of fifth season two - parter and . Ira Behr recalled , " " After doing to open the season , we knew we " had " [ . . . ] to get the Dominion back on the playing field . " " ( " " , p . 422 ) Behr also said about how the Dominion are portrayed in the two - parter , " " We brought the Dominion back into focus as the leading villains in the galaxy for us , which I thought was important to do after the sidetrack of the Klingons . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , Nos . 6 / 7 , p . 47 ) Weyoun actor Jeffrey Combs suspected that , when the Dominion formed an alliance with the Cardassian government in season five , they were " using " Cardassian leader Gul Dukat . " " We ' re perhaps the true power behind the throne , " " Combs remarked , from the perspective of the Dominion , at the end of the season . " " That all remains to be seen , because I don ' t know what the writers have in mind . " " Combs reckoned , though , that the Dominion didn ' t " trust anybody " but that " they will certainly use them for their own purposes . " The actor went on to say , " " I think we feel that we can at least get what we want , and then perhaps do away with [ the Cardassians ] at a later time . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , Nos . 6 / 7 , p . 61 ) However , at the start of DS9 Season 6 , Ron Moore couldn ' t foresee a time when the Dominion wouldn ' t be allied with the Cardassians , though he also suspected that the Dominion ' s relationship with their Cardassian allies might be strained due to the Cardassians still having a long - held goal of reconquering Bajor . The Dominion played a role in the story for DS9 Season 6 finale at least as far back as when Ira Behr gathered the writing staff and announced , for the first time , details of the plot to them . " " We basically knew we wanted to [ . . . ] have the Dominion attack the Prophets in some way , shape , or form , " " recalled René Echevarria . ( " " , p . 586 ) Concluding their exploration of the Dominion was an important aim to the DS9 writers , in the interim between season six and the show ' s seventh and final season . " " We want to wrap up many of the implicit promises that we made to the audience about [ . . . ] the Dominion , " " René Echevarria said . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 30 , No . 9 / 10 , p . 67 ) Many viewers began to wonder if , at the end of " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " , Dominion forces would overrun space station Deep Space 9 . This theory was motivated by the show ' s seventh season increasingly referencing the Battle of the Alamo , in which over 180 Texans lost their lives while defending the Alamo from Mexican invaders . However , a final Dominion invasion was not to be . ( " " , p . 594 ) In an early version of the story for seventh season installment , a new Dominion race of warriors called the Modain was introduced . The Modain were , according to an initial explanation Weyoun gave Benjamin Sisko , being bred by the Founders to replace the Jem ' Hadar but , after a Modain hatchery was destroyed by Sisko and Weyoun , it was ultimately discovered by Sisko that the Modain had actually been intended to replace the Vorta . ( " " , p . 617 ) Ira Behr recalled , " " The Dominion had to become a factor again in the series . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 32 , Nos . 4 / 5 , p . 42 )