Over two thousand years ago, before the coming of logic to Vulcan and the sundering of the Romulans, the people of Vulcan were looking to the stars. They had already left their home planet and reached the few other worlds within their own solar system and were eagerly anticipating the meeting and eventual peaceful relations with extraterrestrial life. When contact was finally made, excitement spread across the planet like wildfire. Even declarations of war were dropped ion anticipation. It was decided they would meet these visitors on a united front; this way no one faction would get a jump over the others.

Never before in their entire history had the Vulcan people been so united. The Orions, for that is what the aliens called themselves, were all the Vulcans had hoped for. Once subspace dialogues were opened, opportunities for peaceful trade and cultural exchange were offered. The Vulcans were ecstatic but not unwary. For several months they debated among themselves but eventually a date was set for the first physical meeting. What the Vulcans did not know was that these Orions were pirates and their intentions were far from peaceful. For months they had been studying Vulcan, monitoring communications, learning their languages, and assessing the market values of natural resources. This was not the first time they had taken advantage of a less technologically advanced species nor would it be the last.

All of Vulcan's greatest minds were gathered for that fateful day, from priestesses to scientists to great political leaders. They went out of their way to welcome their guests in as hospitable and courteous a manner as possible. They were met with phasers set to stun. Those who were not captured and taken hostage where killed as they tried to flee. Ransom demands were made. The Vulcan people made ready to go to war. Surak, who had just started preaching, would face the greatest test to his philosophies of peace and logic.

Among those taken hostage was S'Task, one of Surak's best students. Initially upon capture S'Task is quoted to have said "I am a Vulcan, bred to peace." A line that is even today still quoted by countless Vulcans. A terrific irony considering S'Task would one day become the father of the Romulan people and how he would later deal with the pirates. Nearly every one of the slavers on the ship he was held lost their lives then S'Task organized an in-ship rebellion, broke into the ship's databanks, then after releasing all the hostages, crashed the small ship into the Orion's mothership.

Barely surviving his capture by the Orions S'Task began to teach a new philosophy. Peace, he now believed was not the way to deal with the universe. The only way to face the hostile barbaric alien peoples was with power, blatantly and if necessary violently exhibited. With the growing popularity of Surak's ideas of peace and logic, a direct result of the bloody war with the Orions that was eventually won though not without a great loss of life, S'Task and his followers found themselves in the minority but that did not stop them from expressing their opinions. Riots started breaking out and several cities were burned or wrecked.

What drove S'Task and his people to leave Vulcan was not hatred but love. For though S'Task hated Surak's reasoning he still loved his master. But more important then his love for his master he saw his people dividing, becoming vulnerable again to outside attack. If the Orions or any other hostile aliens were to attack they would be helpless. They were on the brink of civil war. For months S'Task lay in seclusion deliberating on what he should do. Finally he decided that he and his people would leave Vulcan and start over; a clean new beginning. His followers were not as quick to agree on this. It took almost fifty years of debate but finally they agreed to follow S'Task to a new world and a new start.

And thus S'Task and the Eighty Thousand left Vulcan in seventeen ships using technology taken from the very pirates that indirectly led to their flight. They called themselves the Rihannsu, "The Declared" and after a treacherous one hundred year voyage in space only four of the seventeen ships would arrive at the twin worlds that would one day become the center of a vast empire; Romulus and Remus or as the Romulans call them ch'Rihan - "Planet of the Declared" and ch'Havran - "Planet of the Travelers".

Long live the Romulan Star Empire.