Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
I found this video amazingly helpful in drawing/painting Cardassians: makeup artist - Thomas E Surprenant with actor Tracee Lee Cocco who’s been loads and loads of different aliens, but never a Cardassian before this! - https://youtu.be/JH07ThT7Z_4
Let’s talk about conventions around Cardassian surnames. I’ve started pondering the question of whether Cardassians take their spouse’s surname (perhaps more specifically, whether women take their husband’s surname). There is nothing in alpha canon that gives us any clues (I looked through Memory Alpha’s ‘Cardassians’ category, and the only case we have of people with the same surname are fathers and their children - Kotan and Rugal Pa’Dar, Tekeny and Iliana Ghemor, etc.) On Memory Alpha there are a few examples of wives whose last names are listed as the same as their husbands (Athra Dukat, Niala Damar), but I don’t know if that actually means that they’re called that in the books, or if the Memory Beta editors are making the assumption that Skrain Dukat’s wife Athra must be Athra Dukat. While I’m not sure what my opinion actually is, I feel that automatically assuming that their system is just like the dominant one in our society is… bit dull?
Cross-culturally, the concept of taking your husband’s surname is not that common. Even in Northern Europe (because in Southern Europe it’s still not widely done), it is quite a new thing. Still in the late 18th century in Europe, women would still be known by the surname they were born with, or would swap between their family surname and their husband’s surname depending on the situation. Among the Etruscans of ancient Italy (where women had three names - praenomen (forename) nomen (family name) and cognomen (personal name, but sometimes associated with family branches) - unlike among the Romans, where women only had a nomen and sometimes cognomen), women kept their own family’s nomen even after getting married. The children would take the father’s nomen. This seems to be a more common model, occurring in much of modern Asia (though interestingly enough not in Japan). I believe that in some cultures (though I’m not sure where), newly-weds will take an entirely new surname, both changing to that name.
All this comes down to how marriage is conceptualised. Do Cardassians see the woman as ‘leaving’ the family she was born into and instead becoming part of the husband’s family? Does she ‘connect’ both families? Or is she half-outside her husband’s family - a conduit of the family but not quite part of it? I don’t think it’s a given that all Cardassians do the same thing - there might be class differences, where the upper classes do one thing and others do another. Maybe there are different types of marriage of different degrees (thinking something like the Roman concepts of marriage cum manu and sine manu, where legal control either passes to the husband or stays with the father (but maybe less ‘women don’t have rights’-y) or maybe like morganatic marriages). Perhaps surnames can sometimes be matrilineal, in some social contexts or some geographical areas.
This was a very rambly way of saying - I’d love to hear people’s thoughts and personal headcanons on Cardassian marriage and Cardassian name conventions.
My personal preference would be that both partners keep their family name and add on a new combined name when they marry.
Other than knowing that Cardassians value family, we know very little about how they view names in general. For instance, instead of a change in family name it is a change in personal name. A possible idea being that Cardassians idea of a first name is just that, the first name you are given, and after marriage that name will change to signify a change in the individual.
That’s a good point - maybe we shouldn’t just focus on the second name? My view of Cardassian first names is very coloured by @alphacygni-8‘s Proof, which says that they’re only really used by close family and romantic partners. (This is not the case in beta canon, and I’ve realised it really rubs me the wrong way when some random person calls Garak ‘Elim’. It feels so intimate.) Maybe a wedded couple take on new names that only they use, and that aren’t known to others.
My take on Cardassian naming conventions (which I’ve described elsewhere, primarily in the fic The Hatchling) is that first names aren’t given until the child is about eight months, when gender is assigned. Before that, the child is called by one of a few gender-neutral names (a family will have different sets, maybe three or so, but of course there’ll be overlap). The father chooses the ‘proper’ first name, while the baby name is picked by the mother. The set of baby names are passed down from mother to daughter, so you’re unlikely to have had the same baby name as your father, but might well have had the same as your mother.
i like to think that (on the mainland cardassia at least) the surname you take depends on which one of you has the more… impressive? higher up? caste
i have Many Thoughts of pre-fire caste systems and also favour currency (which i really should write down…) but, put simply, i can see a highly stratified social system where certain surnames denote particular occupation- and family-based castes - Dukat or Damar for military caste, Garak for service caste, for example
Most of these surnames stay within caste, but if you marry above/below your caste (frowned upon!), the person with the more impressive caste passes it onto their partner, to indicate they have moved up from their roots.
conversely, if a cardassian married down and were disowned by their family, they may “lose” their last name due to shame, and they may take the “lower” partners name in that case
in cases where the caste is the same but the surnames are different, you might look at whose family is more prominant - if you’re daddy is a general, you’re going to want to pass that name on as a sign of prestige
and in cases where a cardassian has worked their way up into a different caste on merit, they might change their surname to a name that matches their new rank - a Garak that is drafted would stick out like a sore thumb!
anyways i shpuld stop rambling here but yes. Thoughts.
it’s my firm belief that once upon a time the cardassian thought police were busting up a function (bc what fun is ur 1960 all-american cold war liztopia if they’re not deeply homophobic, right? right.) where one elim garak secret agent was trying 2 find a hookup & he just joined the raid like it was his plan all along…. some awful pimply skink cop was starstruck like “wow sir i had no idea the obsidian order was involved in our little operation 😮😮😮” that genocidal lil scamp was just like haha yeah. this goes deeper than u kno son guls bless the union
my new headcanon is that cardassian pop groups are REALLY popular all over the alpha quadrant except they are assembled kind of like kpop bands where they take performers really young and put them through super intense training and every other alpha quadrant power is putting an embarrassing amount of intelligence research into figuring out why their kids are suddenly stanning lizard boy bands and whether or not it’s just a propaganda campaign pushed by the cardassian state
DS9 had some really powerful women. But they weren’t all powerful in the same way. They weren’t the generic “independent woman” trope.
Lwaxana, who originated in TNG, had the chance to be independent from her child in DS9. We got to see a woman in her middle adulthood still have a romantic and sexual life without it being a joke. She was a renowned diplomat, a compassionate softie, and generally had the vibes of “I’m gorgeous, and so are you.” But we also got to see that she had insecurities!
Ishka was also more than just a mom, even if her sons didn’t want to admit that. She was changing shit, openly defying misogynistic tradition. Despite never having had formal education on how to, she earned hella profit!
Keiko was a kind, intelligent person who put her family and work first, and we got to see her be torn between work and family a lot. She also didn’t originally intend to be a teacher, but she ended up being so passionate about it by the time Kai Winn was arguing against her curriculum. Keiko went through the weirdest worst shit and just kept going.
Leeta, though!! Leeta was often assumed by other characters to be dumb or to be just a dabo girl, wasn’t taken seriously because of her job. But she was smart, hella kind, and a damn good step parent.
There are so many others (ofc Kira, Jadzia and Ezri), but I just wanted to highlight some that don’t often get as much attention. But ofc add onto this!
I just want to add, if I can, Mila.
I know she only shows up in Improbable Cause for two minutes and then right at the end of the series.
But listen. She gave Kira, Garak, and Damar shelter. She fed them. She encouraged them when they were feeling defeated and told them the Cardassian ppl hadn’t given up! They would have been hard pressed to survive without her much less accomplish the defeat of the Dominion. She gave her life for them.
