Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Pretty much straight out of the egg these babies can start scrambling around on all fours. Within a few weeks to a month they begin to take their first awkward steps, partly relying on their tail as a counter balance.
By 1 year the neck ridges and scales begin to resemble that of an adult Cardassian.
I feel like DS9 did a great job of world building overall, but I’ve gotta say, there were always a couple of things they would just drop in without any follow-through that always kinda made me scratch my head. Take the Cardassians, cuz there’s a couple of things here:
They flirt by arguing. Now, fandom has definitely expanded on this concept in some fun ways, but in the show we get a single mention of it to be funny to Miles (hot Cardassian chick thinks he’s into her since they keep insulting each other! Whoops!), then another brief reference about how Dukat’s perceptions of Kira are filtered through this lense, and that’s - kinda it! What an interesting premise! How does this look in concept with a couple, both in the initial stages and long-term?? Is there a platonic version of this type of affection?? How do Cardassians typically differentiate between flirtatious arguing and non-flirty arguing? What does a cardassian outsider see when they see two people fighting? We never find out! It’s a bit egregious since we see a bunch of Cardassian characters in belligerent relationships - Damar, Garak & Dukat all have explicitly contentious relationships with a variety of people, both cardassian and non-cardassian (Damar in particular spends easily 90% of his screentime bickering with Weyoun, and ofc Garak and Bashir are constantly debating and arguing for all of their lunch dates), but we never really get any development on how this is/isn’t similar to their flirting. And in a culture that equates bickering/debating with flirting… you’d think it would come up!
There’s also, ofc, the rigid gendered breakdown in their society of men/women for specific jobs. STEM type professions are female-dominated, and men are seen as inferior for these roles, and military/political assignments are male-dominated. The one field that seems to have an even split is spy stuff, as the Obsidian Order has both male and female agents. But again! Aside from one or two *brief* references, this isn’t ever discussed even when it should have organically come up. @icykalisartblog has discussed this before, but Damar displays engineering aptitude that would be very “feminine” by Cardassian standards. DS9 does not mention or discuss this at all. And aside from the O’Brien episode where a Cardassian scientist is sexist towards him, we never see any culture clashes when Cardassians encounter female soldiers/commanders in Starfleet or men in medical/engineering jobs (although again, the Miles episode would seem to demonstrate that Cardassians are Not Completely Chill with different gender roles, even for aliens)
Just interesting to reflect on this! Sort of wish DS9 had dealt with this stuff more in canon. There were a few other alien cultures that had the ball similarly dropped for world-building, but these stand out to me the most. Curious if anyone else feels the same!
Here’s an addition to the Cardassian courtship notes I wrote up a while ago, to explain how I think Cardassian courtship differs from other arguments! Once again, contains lots of headcanons but also applies them to moments from the show:
A running theme in all my DS9 fic has been explorations and interpretations of Cardassian courtship. I’ve spent a lot of time devising a system that I think makes a lot of sense and that I reference in all of my fanwork. At the request of @evenmyhivemindisempty I decided to share it! In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are my headcanons, featuring canon and non-canon ships alike! Also on AO3.
Baby Cardassians have mottled markings that would have allowed their ancestors to stay well hidden. As they age the patterns fade until they are nearly invisible.
Their tails are extra chubby, giving them a store calories. The first few months sees the most rapid growth rate in young Cardassians and they need the those fat stores to power through them.
LEFT Dukat’s [Marc Alaimo] Deep Space Nine costume.
[RIGHT] The station’s most prominent Cardassian civilian, Elim Garak, played by Andrew Robinson. Although viewers knew the character to be a skillful spy, he always described himself as “plain, simple Garak.”
Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann
CIVILIAN CARDASSIANS
“When the Deep Space Nine writers started doing stories
about Cardassian civilians like Garak, I wanted to put them into something
similar to the reptilian rubber suits we’d given the Cardassian military. But
then I decided that they shouldn’t just be rubber suits. So I started finding
very nice fabrics—like matelassé, which is woven and heavy, and bouclé, which
is made with looped yarn—and laminating them onto extremely thin neoprene.
Making the outfits out of that material gave them very interesting qualities.
When the actor would bend his arms or his legs, the material would bend in a
way that didn’t seem natural, that kind of didn’t make sense in a human. And no
matter how the actor stood, the material wouldn’t show any wrinkles. It was my
way of showing that they were civilians, but they were still Cardassian—very controlled.”
A Concept: Cardassians, but they have feathers. Only their faces (and maybe hands) are bare, like vultures. They would be beautiful.
Not sure if they would bother with clothes. Maybe very minimal?
Cardassian hybrids would have feathers in place of hair. Ziyal with a cascade of head feathers. Eyebrows made of tiny feathers.
They have neck feathers that fluff up when they’re angry or afraid. And their body feathers puff up in the cold so much that Garak is in perma-fluffball mode.
Probably their feathers are very soft and highly sought after and Quark is nearly always scheming to get some off of Garak.
I don’t think they would have wings, but their hands might be somewhat more claw-like, long rough fingers with very sharp nails. And they would still have the ridges just hidden under feathers. Their faces would look the same.
Part 1 of a new series in which I redesign Star Trek aliens as dragons!
First up: Cardassians
Who should I redesign next? The Ferengi or the Klingons?
———
Some design notes:
- Their scales are thick and rough like stone, and most Cardassians are grayish-yellow in color with no distinct patterns
- Their main defense is their scales, which are near impossible to get through; it’s very rare for a Cardassian to have scars. Most injuries severe enough to cause a Cardassian to scar is severe enough to kill.
- Their claws are curved and serrated and their main way of attacking in hand-to-hand combat
- They’re a sturdy race, proud and defensive, but are vulnerable to most posions and not particularly maneuverable in combat. They tend to rely more on their brute force to get what they want
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I just gotta let this out. You know how Cardassians are more susceptible to the cold then other “humanoids”, so they’d defiantly wanna conserve what warmth they do have. Then I started thinking about the “cuddle-for-warmth trope” and how cute it would be to see some Cardassians cuddling on a particularly chilly day. Then it hit me like a vision from the Prophets themselves; what if that’s a normal thing they did? Before easy artificial heating they’d only really get heat from the sun or a fire, so wouldn’t it make sense for them to lay with each other while they’re sleeping or just trying to get warm? I feel like it would also turn into a whole dang social gathering for close friends and family. So I thought, “this would become part of their culture.” I was also thinking there would even be a room dedicated to this in Cardassian homes. A nice cozy, warm room with a big bed where children, parents, siblings or close family-friends can all sleep together. There would be nice heated blankets and everyone would be all snug. As for “guest rooms” it depends on the household. One family might not get many guest or not even allow others to stay over so they don’t see the need for one. Another family may have one because they often have “acquaintances” over. Either way Cardassians that are neither CLOSE family friends nor part of the family would not sleep in the “family bedroom”.
Do tell me your thoughts on this or just any small addtions to this.
THIS IS SO CUTE I LOVE IT
I would imagine too that they wouldn’t use the same kinds of beds that other humanoids do, since “regular” beds are designed more for laying flat with your head on a pillow, and they would probably sleep curled up in a pile together!! my idea for that is that their beds would be kinda round, and have raised edges so that they wouldn’t roll off
okok hear me out: bed pit
I AM IN LOVE WITH THE CONCEPT OF A LIZARD (cardassian) SNUGGLE PIT OH MY GOD
- ominous, low-frequency humming noises overlaid with “work, bitch” anthems
- unlistenable industrial noisecore that repeats three times with subtle variations and you’re expected to get emotional catharsis from realizing that Metallurgist #3 is becoming faster and more efficient over time, indicating his ascent into adulthood
- love songs and diss tracks are the same genre
- a country music equivalent but instead of “mama, trains, trucks, prison or gettin’ drunk”, it’s “the state, the family, gettin’ demoted, hatin’ your neighbor, and gettin’ drunk”
- impenetrably eloquent monologues over techno beats
I decided to do something with all my ideas about what Cardassian genitalia looked like, and here we are. Below the cut are some anatomical sketches (of the kind you get in text-books, so they are mostly SFW, but it depends on where you work, I suppose) and a description of my take on the Cardassian reproductive systems.
Content warnings: anatomical sketches, anatomical descriptions, mentions of menstruation and pregnancy.
As this is about reproductive anatomy in broad terms, I have used the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ in an essentialist way. This is mainly to be as clear as possible. I think that we should move away from referring to, for instance, “external female genitalia” when we could just say “vulva”. However, when you discuss an alien species where writer and reader don’t have any common frame of reference, that can get very confusing. There are definitely Cardassians who are intersex, trans and non-binary, so what is described below are broad generalisations describing cis Cardassians.
![vermin-disciple:
“melanaegis:
“ “ LEFT Dukat’s [Marc Alaimo] Deep Space Nine costume.
[RIGHT] The station’s most prominent Cardassian civilian, Elim Garak, played by Andrew Robinson. Although viewers knew the character to be a skillful spy, he always...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/0064adf3c989f6fac1a896b7449971df/tumblr_ojl2bvtHPh1u1ja0ko1_1280.jpg)
