Cardassian

The Cardassians are a race of humanoid aliens that appear on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Their homeworld is Cardassia Prime, a planet in the Cardassian System which is part of the Alpha Quadrant.
The Cardassian race was popular with many fans, sometimes called 'Cardie-lovers'. Popular Cardassian characters from DS9 canon include Elim Garak, Kelas Parmak, Gul Dukat, Damar, Enabran Tain and the half-Bajoran, Tora Ziyal.
Seska is a female undercover Cardassian operative who was genetically altered to appear Bajoran in ST: VOY.
==Redesigns==
A popular trend in DS9 fandom is to incorporate "redesigns" of the Cardassian characters into fanworks, focusing on exaggerated or more prevalent reptilian features and physiology. Examples include, drawing Cardassians with tails or claws, writing shedding fic, or alluding to them being cold-blooded. These tropes are prevalent enough that they have ascended to headcanon status for some, believing that this was the "intended" look of the characters, and was only not realized because of practical or budgetary constraints on the show. 
==Culture==
Headcanons and meta that imagine Cardassia & mainstream Cardassian culture as homophobic and transphobic are common. One fan explains their reasoning for imagining a more expansive canon view might produce a homophobic society: 
There are, of course, fans who prefer to imagine a gender-diverse Cardassia or make Cardassian-focused queer headcanons and graphics.Wallpaper by startrekpride. Trans Cardassian wallpapers for anon!, March 30, 2020. Archived from the original on May 13, 2021.
==Fanworks==
===Fanzines===
*Cardassian Chronicles - a print-zine from the 1990s containing gen and het fiction
*Scaly Tales e-zine
*The Cardassian Inquisitor - a Gul Dukat-centered newsletter (1999-2000)
*Uncertain Times (multimedia zine) - a 2018 fanzine set in and around Cardassia and Cardassians.
===Fanfiction===
*Splintered: A Romance in Six Seasons by Cân Cennau - explores a worldbuilt Cardassia through the eyes of Julian Bashir. (Bashir/Garak/Parmak)
*Notions by ssorrell - explores the rebuilt Cardassia and Cardassian customs. (Bashir/Garak/Parmak, Garak/Lok)
* Cardassian Fairy Tales by WerewolvesAreReal; Elim Garak reflects on working with humans and what would make a Cardassian fairy tale
===Meta===
* Some Speculations on Cardassian Anatomy (2001)
* by calamitylena and shevathegun (2016)
* , post by u/ODMtesseract to :/r/DaystromInstitute (2017) 
* by spyrograph (2018)
*Lizardfuckers are Nazis by Ravenamore on Reddit in r/HobbyDrama (2020)
===Fannish Conlangs===
* Kardasi according to tinsnip and Vyc by Tinsnip and Vyc - a construction of a main Cardassian language, based on work by galileoace, Timothy Miller and RunicCode.
* Guide to the Cheða / Chedha Constructed Language by Cân Cennau - a construction of a minority Cardassian language, set in the northern peninsula of Indar/Enðarh
===Fanart===
* by xcarolinas (2020)
====Art Gallery====
File:Dukatface.jpg|Dukat by Cyndy Collins, 1999
File:Cardassian by myrine d21d9pn-fullview.jpg|Cardassian by Myrine (DS9), 2009
File:Ziyal by blacktsubu.jpg|Ziyal by blacktsubu, 2013
File:Legate damar.jpg|Legate Damar by GrayscaleArt, 2014
File:UncertainTimes-CaanZineImg.png| Kelas Parmak and Elim Garak for the Uncertain Times zine, by Cân Cennau, 2018
File:Seska.jpg|Seska by Dragon Does Fanart, 2019
==External Resources for Further Reading==
* Cardassian entry on Memory Alpha (canon resource)
* 
* 
* Institute of Alien Studies: Cardassian Orientation Studies
* on TripHammered (fannish satire)
* Wikipedia:Cardassian
==References==
Category:Star Trek Species