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Cardassians: The Obsidian Order is a copyright (c) 1995 by
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             Cardassians: The Obsidian Order



    The Obsidian Order was established over five-centuries ago,
the role of the Order was to gain information about an enemy and
to sabotage his operations. Over the centuries the Obsidian
perfected the art of covert entry, especially designed to
infiltrate enemy territory in during the unification of the
Cardassian Empire.
    Traditionally, the Obsidian Order's duty demands one, or all,
of three actions: espionage, sabotage, assassination. Their
strict code keep the agents of the Order cloaked in the shadows,
apart from other branches of the Empire. Nevertheless, the
Order's success produce great results, within short period of
time an agent can infiltrate and disassemble a governing body,
creating anarchy.
    The original teachings and principles of the Obsidian Order,
which is currently practiced, were developed through an
experimental knowledge of psychological patterning, mind-altering
techniques, and the workings of information extraction and
intelligence gathering. These methods produce superb results for
the greater good of the Cardassian Empire. The Obsidian Order
decrees that information is power, the lack of it breeds mistakes
of judgment, therefore, an Order agent is never absolved of
his/her failures. Their obligation is to offer oneself
"courageously to the Order," whose demands and welfare
transcended all individual rights and values. And as part of the
belief system of the Cardassian Empire, it was not restricted to
Order agents alone, but applied to all Cardassian citizens. From
this broad spectrum of considerations, the Obsidian Order science
of survival of the Empire and the Order under any circumstances
eventually took its shape. Growing in power, the Obsidian Order
has begun to saturate the government by creating a new central
power, one that refuse to tolerate any unanimity with an enemy.
One does not make a pact with an enemy, he eradicates him.
    The Obsidian Order believes the current political structures
and social patterns of thinking and acting that were interminably
dominant in the Empire centuries of Cardassian history will soon
solidify and institutionalize the Cardassian Empire. In addition,
they strongly deem the Central Command, the prevailing authority
over the government, is in gross error and will soon self-
destruct the State. At the pinnacle of their rule they have
instituted campaigns that nearly paralyzed the economy with
protracted campaigns.
    Given the pervasive attitude toward the Central Command, it
is apparent that civil war is inevitable. Such beliefs might be
written off as sheer and ignorant emotional bravado by the
Central Command, but there were a number of instances in which
the Obsidian Order matched such sentiments with their deeds. For
example, possessing military equipment and forming an alliance
with the Romulan Tal Shiar. Civil war is close and tangible.