EXCEPT for when it bugs out and you do all that ground work, only for the NPC Iconian groups you're meant to rescue, fail to materialise. Gahhhh. One to beam up. One to beam down. And take two.
With you there. Nothing since the end of the Iconian war in STO in "Official" Trek content is canon to me. I feel the same way about the Sequels and MOST (yes MOST) Disney Star Wars content. It just doesn't exist to me.
If Sela wasn’t so focused on revenge, then none of the events of the present of Star Trek Online (from the Klingon War to the Temporal War) would have ever happened and the Kelvin timeline and the destruction of Romulus wouldn’t have happened. Heck, the Elachi, Bluegill and Solenae episodes of ENT and TNG would also probably never have happened.
At the same time, if T’Ket hadn’t been so focused on revenge, she wouldn’t have engineered the destruction of Romulus, preventing Stela’s quest for vengeance entirely. Edit: If either hadn’t pursued vengeance, the reason for said vengeance never would have happened.
I'd say the Iconian War is far and away the best story arc in STO. This war is hinted at from the earliest moments in the game (more or less) and the Heralds were fearsome enemies! Not to mention first setting foot on the Iconian homeworld, seeing how beautiful it was, how beautiful THEY were, before the fall. Can't stand Tom Paris though so I exclude him and that awful Delta Flight mission. Bleh.
With the Temporal Cold War Arc coming up next. Mark Hale being a 2260s Starfleet Officer will have some exclusive character moments in comparison to the other playable factions. Can't wait to see how Rick adds his own spin to it.
That would really be interesting since he's a temporal agent himself. I wonder what his specialization is. My TOS toon is a temporal operative with a Kein Class Temporal Destroyer, since she's a temporal operative herself.
@@GUMMRUCHK true but she in a UFP prison now. And from some cutscenes she seems to try and be comfy there since even she said their prisons are no joke.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. God I'm glad you introduced me to this poem
@@daviddrake5991 it's not that easy. Temporal cold war from TOS perspective was/is going on due to the incompetence of the Federation-Klingon alliance; denying to restore Na'kuhl star, giving back Noye's family and deliberately trying to prevent time travel by banning the technology in future which will lead Na'kuhls to fight back by time travel and preventing Tholians from nuking their star used which they used Tox Uthat by doing a genocide in the past. You see, it's not that easy. It's just a fraction of what happened. On top of that, you'll have sphere builders to consider. You might think, you'll have to clean up Janeway's mess in the Delta Quadrant, while Archer had to clean up your/protagonists' mess from the past.
@@cmdrtianyilin8107 What are you talking about? I watched the Harry Potter movie, and it was a total mess until 5th viewing. Or was it the 16th viewing I do not recall now L O L.
I really hope they bring the species into Star Trek Disco. I mean, its pretty obvious they have gateway tech and STO is never if at all acknowledged in the shows... it would be nice to see an Iconian maybe who escaped via time travel and lost its memory or a little nod to them being there. I guess it would break the whole burn plot but lets be honest here the burn plot wasnt that strong to begin with anyways.
@@velnz5475 Well, if the Iconians are still around somewhere, the search for an alternate form of travel beyond dilithium powered drive systems will definitely attract their attention. (And yes, at this point they have dilithium...but on one planet...giving them a breather, not a final answer).
Very detailed explanation making the events of the Iconian War easier to understand. Amazing too how Sela just kept escaping until she was placed in a Federation prison facility.
@ValorJ Omega I enjoyed mostly every character. Kira was good written but not really one of my favourites. It was great that Worf can finally have some good character moments and the development of his character :)
@ValorJ Omega My first character was a Ferengi science officer. And Ferengi characters have a special dialogue for when they first meet Nog, talking about how he was an inspiration for joining Starfleet. One little moment that has always stuck with me to this day.
I mean, it is unclear. Similar event definitely did happen. It was strongly implied that Sphere Builders/Ancient Humanoids/Preservers (they look identical) were Iconians. My personal explanation is that Iconians from STO could be branch what augmented itself to survive subspace. BTW T'Kon and Icon read almost the same.
Up until he passes through the time portal, Kagran is as Klingon as they come. Due to the nature of the temporal displacement, he enters the time portal only moments before the player, but arrives in ancient Iconia weeks before us. In this time, he becomes a changed man: He is calm, almost pacifistic, and very willing to give the Iconians every benefit of the doubt in regards to their nature. He is, to put it bluntly, chill. And everyone on the internet knows what causes this kind of personality shift in a man. If one also considers the fact that there is only one "warrior woman" to be found in the entirety of Iconian society (and it is implied that her attitude alienates her peers, making her probably somewhat socially isolated), there is only one possible conclusion that can be drawn from the events of "Midnight": Kagran hooked up with T'Ket.
Thank you for playing and sharing this Storyline. I skipped STO completely because i don't like online games but do to your series i realized that i missed a good story line which is at least as "true to trek" as it is possoble for beta canon. I habe to give that gme a try sometime inthe future.
It will either be the tenporal cold war or another dominion war note: we don't know what kind of deal sela made with the dominion, every power in the alpha quadrant is in shambles and let's point out that Daniel's didn't appear in this arc indicating that this event is what made time manipulation acceptable by the federation.
We have some idea: It likely amounted to "Help us fight off the Iconians because sooner or later they'll come for you too." Plus you can just scan through the episode list to get an idea on how things are gonna play out.
You mean the Kelvan Empire? They are the ruling power in the Andromeda Galaxy and some imply they may be allied in some with either the Iconians, or their servitor races (Elachi, Bluegill, Solinae) and either have a truce, or are simply "live and let live". Also it is said in the 29th Century, the Federation does go to war with the Kelvans as they arrive in the Milky Way. So they fight a race from Andromeda, but it could be a story where a slipstream accident hurls them to the Kelvan Homeworld where they find there many Kelvans do not agree with the stance of conquest and simply want to share their resources and tech to live in peace. So the rebels ally with the Federation to save their race and the Empire crumbles as ships try to flee with the Federation ship trying to reproduce the speeds needed to get them all home and to a new galaxy where they can survive. Perhaps Rojan's world? He was a Kelvan and seems to enjoy living in peace.
I wonder where the Iconian War ranks in comparison to other wars Starfleet has been in, both in terms of importance and total amount of casualties, deaths, and overall devastation. For reference the other major wars Starfleet has been in are: The Earth-Romulan War, The 1st Federation-Klingon War, The Kzinti Wars, The Cardassian Border Wars, The 2nd Fed-Klingon War, The Dominion War, and The 3rd Fed-Klingon War.
I'd say the most. The Iconian War involved every faction we know of in Star Trek, more than likely, the casualties were from the millions to perhaps more
1:10 ; With the Iconian War lasting between 6 to 8 months. I wonder if the gameplay mechanic that allows for the player-character's ship to travel as cruising speeds of Transwarp 20 and max speeds as fast as near Transwarp 50 to be a canon technological development in the ingame lore?
You can get Transwarp 14 with assimilated subtranswarp engine or temporal initiative Warp engine. They are really good for grinding up EC with tour the galaxy.
Around that point the Quantum Slipstream Drive became standard issue on starships; not as fast as the one on Voyager but much more reliable. That along with the Iconian Gateway Network being reactivated significantly cut down on travel time, but they never really elaborate on it. Presumably this is how everyone's able to zip back and forth across the explored Delta Quadrant in such a short timeframe. The sector map compresses things to an absurd degree. (Side note: The Gamma Quadrant's similarly, but less egregiously not to scale, one "sector" actually being 100 ly instead of 20.) The Federation's also set up a rudimentary transwarp gate system, based on the Borg's transwarp hub, but that might've been retconned. There's a transwarp gate over New Romulus though.
Didn't L'Miren tell the Federation to come back in one or two thousand years? After the memory of it has healed and Iconia is back to its former glory? I think they really want contact but after the war, they certainly wouldn't be welcomed. I wished it was different, Iconia seemed like a better choice for a Federation member than an enemy. It was said they had a prime directive too. But it was stricter and had more requirements.
I'm about 2 missions into the Iconian war now, and with the benefit of the summer event kit modules, it's quite the experience. Missions that Ric struggled with a few weeks back have been a breeze. Harold forces appear, and promptly die as lava erupts from the ground below them and ball lightning scatters all around. I used the Risian weather control ship on the Delta Flight mission last night, because it's a bit more maneuverable than my dreadnought. I wouldn't say that the Risian kits are OP, necessarily; The new House Mo'Kai missions were not freebees. But I don't think I'm intended to use them for these missions. I've so far been just walking through them.
@Jope Lamp I don't think the AI has a counter kit, no. The summer event kits are new, and the older chapters are somewhat static, and don't seem to get adjusted much. Some of the newer missions that I haven't gotten to yet might be more difficult. Like I said, the new stuff wasn't a cake walk. But once you hit the level cap, the early and mid chapters are fairly static, and the summer event kits make them a breeze. They have a significant cool-down to balance, though, so you can't just spam "The Floor is Lava". It's best to save it for a pinch or a boss fight. There are higher difficulty options, if you're into that sort of thing. Your ship can take critical damage, and you and your bridge officers can sustain serious injuries that you need to play through until you can apply a fix, or get to a starbase. But I'm mostly here for the story, so I play on 'Normal'.
I think it is new Iconia. Actual Iconia is Romulan space. Here it is worth to remind that that there is clear connection between T'Kon and Icon (it is most likely same word). Ancient Humanoids (Preservers and Sphere Builders) and Iconians are most likely same specie. But some number of Iconians survived in the subspace (they probably were augmented to do so, what explain different look) and now try reclaim they empire. The reason why they can't time travel (despite that being core of the conflict) is that they Machines cut them from that (in canon both Romulus and T'Kon were destroyed by supernova, caused by Iconian aka they own Machines).
@@TheRezro I don’t recall the exact context of my original comment, but if we’re talking about a Dyson sphere em passing the Iconia system, specifically the original Iconia system like it does in the game, then it would be the Beta Quadrant, since that’s where the Iconia system - and most of the Romulan Empire - is. Interesting theory crafting on your part, though.
Ah, yeah. It’s around minute 9:10. The Andromeda sphere jumped to the Iconia system. Rick, incorrectly, says that the Iconia system is in the Alpha Quadrant. It’s not. It’s in the Beta Quadrant.
@@AIConstantine Theory? It is in TNG episode. Where they discover Iconia in Romulan space. Picard telling legend state that Iconian capital was bombarded by "jealous neighbors" (in slave/machine rebellion), later also reveling that story is told from they point of view. In Beta canon sources Iconian diaspora survived escaping through gates prior to bombardment (possibly on previously terraformed planters). Andromedan iconians are they colony, what survived fall. Not the original iconians. BTW: Guardians of Forever also exist in Andromeda Galaxy. What is confirmed by Devils Heart. Another interesting coincidence.
One question I have regarding the destruction of the preserver archive. When we (the player) beamed out following the death of the preserver, did we bring the body? Or did we leave it lying there on the floor? Because if I remember correctly, the archive was encoded into their dna, and could be reconstituted from it. Much like the Iconian’s World Heart.
I mean. Humans technically have similar DNA... what BTW is why Iconian Gates/Machine Federation (look V'Ger) show interest in Humanity (what also could be true reason for Romulan War). So we can assume that Federation has no access to that data and archive itself was only access terminal. BTW Preservers/T'Kon and Icon are most likely the same. My guess is that STO Iconians were augmented to survive in subspace.
Very entertaining. I wonder if STP will do anything with some of this. Ultimately, something is going to have to justify the Temporal Cold War and the Great Burn, as is now in cannon from Enterprise and STD.
Anyone remember when your ship goes down and shows the Omega logo ? As a long time fan of the shows and comics I was freaking out at the idea my ship sensors just picked up an Omega particle and was now making me follow the directive according to the lore.
STO lore is like fan canon run amok - Hey the Iconians were a cool concept, but let's bring in the Vadwauur, but WAIT! It was the parasitic aliens all along!
This is what Star Trek and CBS should be doing..the lead up, along with the entire Iconian war..you could def get 7 seasons. Jus don’t make it “OMEGA WOKE” and follow jus a basic formula from the game and BAM, we have a good Star Trek show again.
But that would involve "critical thinking" and "common-sense" something most of those movie producers lack thinking that by pandering to a loud mouth minority (who would never watch the show) they make more money
What CBS should have been done was make the events progressing in STOL into a TV series. Talk about brining all the story and characters of STNG, DS9, and VOY into another 5 year long run. Depth, complexity, and a solid ending that made sense. But no, we got STD, STP and Lower Decks. Thank you for this overview of a really good story. It's about the only reason I keep playing the game.
I like ST: Picard but Discovery is slow for me (albeit I heard it gets better by season 2 and especially season 3) and Lower Decks just plains sucks like ya said. The only part I liked from Lower Decks was when Riker appeared with the Titan and kicks some butt.
The entire Iconian arc is pretty much the best Star Trek that we've got in awhile. I mean building up the Iconian threat throughout all of the episode arcs, with the entire destabilization of the Alpha/Beta quadrants being an orchestrated plot for the return of the Ancient ones. THIS is canon to me, sorry ST: Picard fans.
5:30 WHOA, HOLD ON! Time out for a moment! Was all this how the online game was set up at the beginning, or did the game evolve through all this, initiated by the players, as the game progressed over several months, or even a few years, real world time? 😵
at Brian Johnson - also when he said that - " the Iconians cant operate there own time travel technology because they had evolved and become ascended beings " so they need Humans to operate there Iconian Time travel technology. I thought this was fascinating, i liked learning this little bit right here.
at Brian Johnson - it is hazy in the sense that he simply says that it happened over 6 months in the year 2410 so hes not really sure on the exact start and end date of the Iconian -Federation War of 2410. " My timeline of the Iconian war might be a little hazy " I think it was a Joke , a very clever joke
Ah STO's story. It's fun, but stripping it down to get the explanation into under a half hour really makes it feel like fan fiction, which it admittedly kind of is. Fun self-insert fan fiction. Looking forward to more of the story series though, no idea what comes next since most of the stuff I've seen on STO kind of goes silent after the Iconian War arc.
No one knows what happened to Admiral Taurat after the crew of Discovery left their timeline for the future. Except me. I am Taurat. I am the one responsible for the fall of Iconia, Herc and the Valduar. I am also the one who created section 31. I am also partially responsible for multiple timelines in which many variant outcomes that had caused chaos in the Universe. Yet even with all my attempts to preserve the timelines, change was inevitable and resulted a failure in my mission. However even with failing to preserve the correct timeline, Starfleet, the United Federation of Planets and many other species of the known galaxy still exist.
I like the part at the beginning where you keep mentioning an iconian and not explaining it all who the hell they are what they are what's going on or anything
Well Iconians dont necessarily need to be anywhere particular, just a few hubs and they're happy. I would be too if you could go anywhere by walking through a portal. As for the world heart... eh... theres probably a strict copying law in Iconia. They didnt bring up the fact it had been chronologically disturbed but hey... the power of the sun in the palm of my hand.
I really hope that the Alliance decide to help the Sphere Builders undo the damage to the timeline that the Alliance did using the time ship & causing the sphere builders to be temporally removed from the time line. Since it was the alliances fault for committing this genocide by erasing millions of people from the universe it is only fair that the help the Sphere Builders fix the timeline & bring back the millions of people from the Sphere Builder race called the Tuterians.
@@Ryo-sj8wn in canon they don't, and let's consider this, if they were saved the Temporal Wars would have been severely lessened if not completely destroyed, and that's an integral part of the timeline that actually gave the klingons cloaking devices for example.
@@isleapyhunter930 Yeah but we have to treat them as the bad guys even though they aren't the bad guys at all they are just trying to undo what the alliance did to them. They are just lucky they had time travel tech also or they would be wiped from existence all together, if the Temp War is over that then they are the victims not the baddies & what was done to them should be undone. The alliance never even used the Krenim time-ship after their initial failure so it would be simple to fix the time-line by just doing what they did in voyager & cause the ship to erase itself from history. They could temporally shield a Data node/pad with info on what had happened so that the people in the repaired time-line knew not to used the Krenim time-ship & so they would also know what to do to make the Iconian war turn out as it had before. The timeline wouldn't be altered very much as things would play out in the Iconian War the same way only the damage to the Sphere Builders/Tuterians would be undone & they would be part of the universe/time again.
@@Ryo-sj8wn as I mentioned before, the klingons wouldn't have aquired the cloaking device, and there is other stuff that is very important to the timeline that only happened because of the temporal war...it needed to happen, just like the time travel with Empress Sela.
@@isleapyhunter930 So your saying that tech advances are more important than the lives of billions? I'm sure they could work out how to get the other stuff after undoing the damage the did to those people.
in another universe i'd might be critical if this, going out of my way to point out that this is "mass halo" and not star trek. problem is....it's way better than what we have seen on "TV" in the last years in terms of star trek.....it respects canon and is aware it subverts tone in favor of narrative structure dictated by the medium....
Imagine just being an ordinary Federation citizen and watching these events unfold daily on FNN “Federation News Network”
Wolf 359 was an inside job
"oh crap, oh crap... Oh nooooo..."
Might make one question the whole exploration priority of Starfleet. Like guys pack in weapons for the trip worth having.
Would you like to know more?
I'd just buy a phaser rifle and a couple power packs and prepare to go down swining lol. Maybe form a militia or something.
The final mission in the Iconian story arc is one of THE BEST Star Trek moments since the end of TNG.
EXCEPT for when it bugs out and you do all that ground work, only for the NPC Iconian groups you're meant to rescue, fail to materialise. Gahhhh. One to beam up. One to beam down. And take two.
With you there. Nothing since the end of the Iconian war in STO in "Official" Trek content is canon to me. I feel the same way about the Sequels and MOST (yes MOST) Disney Star Wars content. It just doesn't exist to me.
STO wasn't canon to begin with
Sela is a enigma, wrapped in a temporal paradox, inside a sassy Romulan. I’ve always loved her lol
I frankly hate her! She is a meddling egotistical pain! Though, my viewpoint is probably due to being a Romulan main
If Sela wasn’t so focused on revenge, then none of the events of the present of Star Trek Online (from the Klingon War to the Temporal War) would have ever happened and the Kelvin timeline and the destruction of Romulus wouldn’t have happened.
Heck, the Elachi, Bluegill and Solenae episodes of ENT and TNG would also probably never have happened.
Time travel. It's a bitch.
Or you can erase all Iconians from history. But as we know from Butterfly episode, something worse happens.
@@tomasr. Better that Romulus is lost,than assimilated by the Borg.
@@mikegallant811 Yeah. Cloaked Borg Cubes are too terrifying.
At the same time, if T’Ket hadn’t been so focused on revenge, she wouldn’t have engineered the destruction of Romulus, preventing Stela’s quest for vengeance entirely.
Edit: If either hadn’t pursued vengeance, the reason for said vengeance never would have happened.
cbs should make a "clone wars" style animated version of this storyline.
After they get ride of Kurtzman and Secret Door.
If it's going to be all about interpersonal BS and full of vulgarity and violence like everything else they did with Trek - I will pass.
@@realnub235 If he's looking for something like the Clone Wars tv series watching Lower Decks is a terrible recommendation.
Brockyman Why?
@@realnub235 oh, you mean the final space clone.... Except it's worse. Yeah, that *definitely* will hold up to Clone Wars.
The Iconian War is definitely my favourite storyline in STO. The war with the Hur'q is a close second.
What about the Klingon civil war it is also pretty good
I'd say the Iconian War is far and away the best story arc in STO. This war is hinted at from the earliest moments in the game (more or less) and the Heralds were fearsome enemies! Not to mention first setting foot on the Iconian homeworld, seeing how beautiful it was, how beautiful THEY were, before the fall.
Can't stand Tom Paris though so I exclude him and that awful Delta Flight mission. Bleh.
Personally, New Frontiers was my favorite. It was nice to do some actual exploring for once. Instead of battle after battle, war after war.
@@Tar-Numendil Agreed. STO should have a balance of both.
With the Temporal Cold War Arc coming up next. Mark Hale being a 2260s Starfleet Officer will have some exclusive character moments in comparison to the other playable factions. Can't wait to see how Rick adds his own spin to it.
That would really be interesting since he's a temporal agent himself.
I wonder what his specialization is. My TOS toon is a temporal operative with a Kein Class Temporal Destroyer, since she's a temporal operative herself.
I recognise that flag occultatum
FOR THE GLORY OF THE GTU
*T'ket teleports behind you*
"Nothing personal... wait, everything is personal"
I'm getting annoyed with how often the Empress keeps escaping it's just getting ridiculous. lmao
It's more to because she kept getting sent back to the Romulans. She said so in the dialogue that she can very easily escape Romulan prisons.
@@rightsideup6304 Which is why you put her up against a wall and put a phaser threw her instead of being nice.
@@GUMMRUCHK true but she in a UFP prison now. And from some cutscenes she seems to try and be comfy there since even she said their prisons are no joke.
Well STO needs some villains to work with.
@@plantguy9 I get that but having the villain constantly escape like that is something I expect from a Disney cartoon not Star Trek.
Story actually involves time travel and time line manipulation.
"I'm a little hazy on the order of the events...."
(picard_double_facepalm.gif)
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
God I'm glad you introduced me to this poem
Are we the "captains of our souls" after we die?
ST keeps returning characters after they die. What message are they sending to the fans who have never seen a human coe back after death.
@@DanielBrown-sn9op IDk I never died yet
Now, good luck explaining Temporal Cold war next.
Oh that is easy. On the order that you do the missions in.
@@daviddrake5991 it's not that easy. Temporal cold war from TOS perspective was/is going on due to the incompetence of the Federation-Klingon alliance; denying to restore Na'kuhl star, giving back Noye's family and deliberately trying to prevent time travel by banning the technology in future which will lead Na'kuhls to fight back by time travel and preventing Tholians from nuking their star used which they used Tox Uthat by doing a genocide in the past.
You see, it's not that easy. It's just a fraction of what happened. On top of that, you'll have sphere builders to consider.
You might think, you'll have to clean up Janeway's mess in the Delta Quadrant, while Archer had to clean up your/protagonists' mess from the past.
@@cmdrtianyilin8107 What are you talking about? I watched the Harry Potter movie, and it was a total mess until 5th viewing. Or was it the 16th viewing I do not recall now L O L.
@@daviddrake5991 what this has to do with Harry potter movies?
@@cmdrtianyilin8107 One of the movies has a tad of time travel. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
The Iconians make great Allies. If you play your diplomatic cards right.
Also, L'Miren is Best Girl of STO.
@@e.m.b.5090 10/10 would smash.
I really hope they bring the species into Star Trek Disco. I mean, its pretty obvious they have gateway tech and STO is never if at all acknowledged in the shows... it would be nice to see an Iconian maybe who escaped via time travel and lost its memory or a little nod to them being there. I guess it would break the whole burn plot but lets be honest here the burn plot wasnt that strong to begin with anyways.
@@velnz5475 Well, if the Iconians are still around somewhere, the search for an alternate form of travel beyond dilithium powered drive systems will definitely attract their attention. (And yes, at this point they have dilithium...but on one planet...giving them a breather, not a final answer).
My head is spinning!!!
This was actually MORE entertaining than any of the recent Star Trek movies!!!!
Very detailed explanation making the events of the Iconian War easier to understand. Amazing too how Sela just kept escaping until she was placed in a Federation prison facility.
I enjoyed the iconian war arc
Still one if not THE best arc in the game if you ask me :)
@ValorJ Omega I enjoyed mostly every character. Kira was good written but not really one of my favourites. It was great that Worf can finally have some good character moments and the development of his character :)
@ValorJ Omega My first character was a Ferengi science officer. And Ferengi characters have a special dialogue for when they first meet Nog, talking about how he was an inspiration for joining Starfleet. One little moment that has always stuck with me to this day.
It was built up so well.
Goes from romulan mystery to new Romulus, to solanae Dyson sphere to delta quadrant to finally the war.
I like the story but I hated playing through it because of how enemy level scaling works lol
The Iconian War arc was one of the most awesome storylines for STO, damned shame that this isn't considered canon.
I mean, it is unclear. Similar event definitely did happen. It was strongly implied that Sphere Builders/Ancient Humanoids/Preservers (they look identical) were Iconians. My personal explanation is that Iconians from STO could be branch what augmented itself to survive subspace. BTW T'Kon and Icon read almost the same.
Why does this interest me so much more than actual History...
Awesome storyline, in my opinion. SO much better than the stuff that was recently on TV.
Up until he passes through the time portal, Kagran is as Klingon as they come. Due to the nature of the temporal displacement, he enters the time portal only moments before the player, but arrives in ancient Iconia weeks before us. In this time, he becomes a changed man: He is calm, almost pacifistic, and very willing to give the Iconians every benefit of the doubt in regards to their nature. He is, to put it bluntly, chill. And everyone on the internet knows what causes this kind of personality shift in a man. If one also considers the fact that there is only one "warrior woman" to be found in the entirety of Iconian society (and it is implied that her attitude alienates her peers, making her probably somewhat socially isolated), there is only one possible conclusion that can be drawn from the events of "Midnight": Kagran hooked up with T'Ket.
Very nice way to tell the story while playing, really enjoy watching your STO videos. Please keep going, i am looking forward to the next one :-)
Thank you for playing and sharing this Storyline. I skipped STO completely because i don't like online games but do to your series i realized that i missed a good story line which is at least as "true to trek" as it is possoble for beta canon. I habe to give that gme a try sometime inthe future.
i agree
Same. I just don’t have time for games but love the lore.
Have you tried the game op, its been a year
If you're missing Star Trek, I invite Trekkers to enjoy a completely free novel, just Google Star Trek Lost Destiny.
It will either be the tenporal cold war or another dominion war note: we don't know what kind of deal sela made with the dominion, every power in the alpha quadrant is in shambles and let's point out that Daniel's didn't appear in this arc indicating that this event is what made time manipulation acceptable by the federation.
We have some idea: It likely amounted to "Help us fight off the Iconians because sooner or later they'll come for you too."
Plus you can just scan through the episode list to get an idea on how things are gonna play out.
I can't wait for more of your brilliant episodes.
The Iconian war was an amazing story line. They need to come up with another epic arc like this. I dont know, maybe against the Andromidans?
You mean the Kelvan Empire? They are the ruling power in the Andromeda Galaxy and some imply they may be allied in some with either the Iconians, or their servitor races (Elachi, Bluegill, Solinae) and either have a truce, or are simply "live and let live".
Also it is said in the 29th Century, the Federation does go to war with the Kelvans as they arrive in the Milky Way. So they fight a race from Andromeda, but it could be a story where a slipstream accident hurls them to the Kelvan Homeworld where they find there many Kelvans do not agree with the stance of conquest and simply want to share their resources and tech to live in peace. So the rebels ally with the Federation to save their race and the Empire crumbles as ships try to flee with the Federation ship trying to reproduce the speeds needed to get them all home and to a new galaxy where they can survive.
Perhaps Rojan's world? He was a Kelvan and seems to enjoy living in peace.
I wonder where the Iconian War ranks in comparison to other wars Starfleet has been in, both in terms of importance and total amount of casualties, deaths, and overall devastation.
For reference the other major wars Starfleet has been in are: The Earth-Romulan War, The 1st Federation-Klingon War, The Kzinti Wars, The Cardassian Border Wars, The 2nd Fed-Klingon War, The Dominion War, and The 3rd Fed-Klingon War.
I'd say the most. The Iconian War involved every faction we know of in Star Trek, more than likely, the casualties were from the millions to perhaps more
@@admiraljetro8783 you can easily make it up to trillions
I think Starfleet never dealt with that level of danger since the Xindi war.
Thanks again for the great content Rick. I love your stuff.
1:10 ; With the Iconian War lasting between 6 to 8 months. I wonder if the gameplay mechanic that allows for the player-character's ship to travel as cruising speeds of Transwarp 20 and max speeds as fast as near Transwarp 50 to be a canon technological development in the ingame lore?
You can get Transwarp 14 with assimilated subtranswarp engine or temporal initiative Warp engine. They are really good for grinding up EC with tour the galaxy.
Around that point the Quantum Slipstream Drive became standard issue on starships; not as fast as the one on Voyager but much more reliable. That along with the Iconian Gateway Network being reactivated significantly cut down on travel time, but they never really elaborate on it. Presumably this is how everyone's able to zip back and forth across the explored Delta Quadrant in such a short timeframe. The sector map compresses things to an absurd degree. (Side note: The Gamma Quadrant's similarly, but less egregiously not to scale, one "sector" actually being 100 ly instead of 20.)
The Federation's also set up a rudimentary transwarp gate system, based on the Borg's transwarp hub, but that might've been retconned. There's a transwarp gate over New Romulus though.
@@cmdrtianyilin8107 ; One can get, the adaptive M.A.C.O. Impulse Engines as well to acquire Transwarp 14.
@Jope Lamp meanwhile, someone from Section 31 was clapping while holding the similar device Taris used to blow up Romulan Star.
I got a ship with more standard cores to go warp 12.
Didn't L'Miren tell the Federation to come back in one or two thousand years? After the memory of it has healed and Iconia is back to its former glory? I think they really want contact but after the war, they certainly wouldn't be welcomed. I wished it was different, Iconia seemed like a better choice for a Federation member than an enemy. It was said they had a prime directive too. But it was stricter and had more requirements.
I always felt bad for the Iconians especially the very aggressive one (I forget her name)
@@vexile1239 T'ket is the name, consumed by hatred
@@starliner2498 thanks
Rick your videos are always amazing
love watching them
thanks for everything
i'll see you in the next one !
Well done summering the Iconian war.
I'm still suspecting that the next major Star Trek plotline after the Icoions is gonna be the Time Cold War.
Well, now you have the Year of the Klingon...which is probably going to take a year.
@@Corbomite_Meatballs jm'pok go brrrrrrrrr!
@@reservedsnow3224 More "Bleeeeehhhh" *thud*
Some of the best Trek stories of any era. Only the return of the DS9 crew againsrt the Hurq compare. STO is one of the best games ever IMHO.
I'm about 2 missions into the Iconian war now, and with the benefit of the summer event kit modules, it's quite the experience. Missions that Ric struggled with a few weeks back have been a breeze. Harold forces appear, and promptly die as lava erupts from the ground below them and ball lightning scatters all around. I used the Risian weather control ship on the Delta Flight mission last night, because it's a bit more maneuverable than my dreadnought.
I wouldn't say that the Risian kits are OP, necessarily; The new House Mo'Kai missions were not freebees. But I don't think I'm intended to use them for these missions. I've so far been just walking through them.
@Jope Lamp I don't think the AI has a counter kit, no. The summer event kits are new, and the older chapters are somewhat static, and don't seem to get adjusted much. Some of the newer missions that I haven't gotten to yet might be more difficult. Like I said, the new stuff wasn't a cake walk. But once you hit the level cap, the early and mid chapters are fairly static, and the summer event kits make them a breeze. They have a significant cool-down to balance, though, so you can't just spam "The Floor is Lava". It's best to save it for a pinch or a boss fight. There are higher difficulty options, if you're into that sort of thing. Your ship can take critical damage, and you and your bridge officers can sustain serious injuries that you need to play through until you can apply a fix, or get to a starbase. But I'm mostly here for the story, so I play on 'Normal'.
I wish I could get there. >< Not able to get a shuttle for 2 of my guys.
If the Dyson sphere encompasses the Iconia system, then it jumped to the beta quadrant, not the alpha quadrant.
I think it is new Iconia. Actual Iconia is Romulan space. Here it is worth to remind that that there is clear connection between T'Kon and Icon (it is most likely same word). Ancient Humanoids (Preservers and Sphere Builders) and Iconians are most likely same specie. But some number of Iconians survived in the subspace (they probably were augmented to do so, what explain different look) and now try reclaim they empire. The reason why they can't time travel (despite that being core of the conflict) is that they Machines cut them from that (in canon both Romulus and T'Kon were destroyed by supernova, caused by Iconian aka they own Machines).
@@TheRezro I don’t recall the exact context of my original comment, but if we’re talking about a Dyson sphere em passing the Iconia system, specifically the original Iconia system like it does in the game, then it would be the Beta Quadrant, since that’s where the Iconia system - and most of the Romulan Empire - is. Interesting theory crafting on your part, though.
Ah, yeah. It’s around minute 9:10. The Andromeda sphere jumped to the Iconia system. Rick, incorrectly, says that the Iconia system is in the Alpha Quadrant. It’s not. It’s in the Beta Quadrant.
@@AIConstantine Theory? It is in TNG episode. Where they discover Iconia in Romulan space. Picard telling legend state that Iconian capital was bombarded by "jealous neighbors" (in slave/machine rebellion), later also reveling that story is told from they point of view. In Beta canon sources Iconian diaspora survived escaping through gates prior to bombardment (possibly on previously terraformed planters). Andromedan iconians are they colony, what survived fall. Not the original iconians. BTW: Guardians of Forever also exist in Andromeda Galaxy. What is confirmed by Devils Heart. Another interesting coincidence.
@@AIConstantine And yes. Romulan Empire is in Beta Quadrant.
One question I have regarding the destruction of the preserver archive. When we (the player) beamed out following the death of the preserver, did we bring the body? Or did we leave it lying there on the floor? Because if I remember correctly, the archive was encoded into their dna, and could be reconstituted from it. Much like the Iconian’s World Heart.
I mean. Humans technically have similar DNA... what BTW is why Iconian Gates/Machine Federation (look V'Ger) show interest in Humanity (what also could be true reason for Romulan War). So we can assume that Federation has no access to that data and archive itself was only access terminal. BTW Preservers/T'Kon and Icon are most likely the same. My guess is that STO Iconians were augmented to survive in subspace.
No the T'Kon and Iconians are different. Their tech operates completely different.
Another great vid
Great series, well done, sir.
I haven't really played STO since the DS9 arc ended, just before Discovery I think. I have very fond memories of playing through the Iconian War arc.
I agree. Really wish they didn't remove the big Dominion section of that.
Very entertaining. I wonder if STP will do anything with some of this. Ultimately, something is going to have to justify the Temporal Cold War and the Great Burn, as is now in cannon from Enterprise and STD.
Anyone remember when your ship goes down and shows the Omega logo ?
As a long time fan of the shows and comics I was freaking out at the idea my ship sensors just picked up an Omega particle and was now making me follow the directive according to the lore.
STO lore is like fan canon run amok - Hey the Iconians were a cool concept, but let's bring in the Vadwauur, but WAIT! It was the parasitic aliens all along!
I'm still so confused... STO lore has gotten so intricate.
Why are you confused? I would like to explain. Well until STO get the shuttle missions unbugged.
@Ucallit 71 wot?
@Ucallit 71 well to be honest I haven't touched STO for a while now so I'm bit out of the loop
Thanks for this video!!! I had no idea it was the iconians that destroyed the Hobus star! It makes sense!
This is what Star Trek and CBS should be doing..the lead up, along with the entire Iconian war..you could def get 7 seasons. Jus don’t make it “OMEGA WOKE” and follow jus a basic formula from the game and BAM, we have a good Star Trek show again.
But that would involve "critical thinking" and "common-sense" something most of those movie producers lack thinking that by pandering to a loud mouth minority (who would never watch the show) they make more money
I really loved this, thank you! 🖖😊
I wish the Iconian War lasted longer, like the originally intended. It felt like after all the build-up they just came and went.
I was going to write exactly this. The end part felt rushed.
What CBS should have been done was make the events progressing in STOL into a TV series. Talk about brining all the story and characters of STNG, DS9, and VOY into another 5 year long run. Depth, complexity, and a solid ending that made sense. But no, we got STD, STP and Lower Decks. Thank you for this overview of a really good story. It's about the only reason I keep playing the game.
I like ST: Picard but Discovery is slow for me (albeit I heard it gets better by season 2 and especially season 3) and Lower Decks just plains sucks like ya said. The only part I liked from Lower Decks was when Riker appeared with the Titan and kicks some butt.
The entire Iconian arc is pretty much the best Star Trek that we've got in awhile.
I mean building up the Iconian threat throughout all of the episode arcs, with the entire destabilization of the Alpha/Beta quadrants being an orchestrated plot for the return of the Ancient ones.
THIS is canon to me, sorry ST: Picard fans.
The scariest and my favorite storyline.
Now I’m curious
How will the Terran empire fare against the iconians? How will the war play out?
They didn’t return the world heart and instead used to to mass produce tech that outclassed iconians
The Terran reputation tiers has what occurs during the Terran Iconian war
9:18 - That ship looks like an Excelsior class that had undergone several 'minor' refits.
Also there are mentions of Federation worlds being lost to the Iconians, but there are no details.
A new animated series, combining TNG DS9 & Voyager, might be interesting
5:30 WHOA, HOLD ON! Time out for a moment!
Was all this how the online game was set up at the beginning, or did the game evolve through all this, initiated by the players, as the game progressed over several months, or even a few years, real world time?
😵
The story so far took from release to 2015ish in real world time, coming out bit by bit.
It figures out of all the Delta Quadrant races to hold a grudge, the KAZON would be number one on the list XD.
Thats some story! would have been nice to see that as a movie or show. wow
Good Video. Very enjoyable.
Odyssey class is really a beautiful ship 😍
Long story short...
It's all Sela's fault. All of it.
As well as certain parts of the Temporal Cold War that are direct results of the Iconian War which was caused by her.
She shouldn't have pressed the time-travel button.
Tell me that they do get to just out right kill her?
@@daviddrake5991 if I remember correctly no.
@@daviddrake5991 You'll wish you could.
Man I wish this game wasn't an MMO so I could actually play it
Your timeline might be a little hazy?! Was that a joke? It's time travel and all missions are relative.
at Brian Johnson -
also when he said that - " the Iconians cant operate there own time travel technology because they had evolved and become ascended beings "
so they need Humans to operate there Iconian Time travel technology.
I thought this was fascinating, i liked learning this little bit right here.
@@TheNecropolis20swing and a miss as the time travel joke is completely missed.
at Brian Johnson -
it is hazy in the sense that he simply says that it happened over 6 months in the year 2410 so hes not really sure on the exact start and end date of the Iconian -Federation War of 2410.
" My timeline of the Iconian war might be a little hazy "
I think it was a Joke , a very clever joke
@@TheNecropolis20 again you missed the joke. All time travel missions are realitive a.k.a the theory of realitivity.
Great overview.
Werent the iconians wiped out and only left their fancy transporters ?
I liked this arc a lot but I prefer smaller scale plots in general in Trek.
Lower stakes carry more emotional weight.
They should have made this arc into a series instead of Picard with the help from the people behind the game.
What's your end theme called?
Ikr?
@@sagesheahan6732 Do you know what it's called?
Fascinating story
3:24 Except the Kazon. They were still mad at Voyager.🤭😆🤣
How long does this all take ITRW playing on your PC?
Gotta hand it to Star Trek Online attempting to wrap up all those dangling plot threads.
Still better than Discovery and Picard 😉
Just only realising what an incredible Star Trek series or few series this would make. Would make STD even more flimsy canon wise though.
Is there ever any chance of a TFOs with Rick day?
Be cool if they did a show around the war .
What star trek game is that and is it only for pc
Hold up how is Neelix not an official Ambassador?
What about the evolution of the Ocampa?
13:10 hey look, its the khan mayker
The Alliance should have just sent in the modified, voracious tribbles. That would stop the Iconians cold. 😁
Ah STO's story. It's fun, but stripping it down to get the explanation into under a half hour really makes it feel like fan fiction, which it admittedly kind of is. Fun self-insert fan fiction.
Looking forward to more of the story series though, no idea what comes next since most of the stuff I've seen on STO kind of goes silent after the Iconian War arc.
No one knows what happened to Admiral Taurat after the crew of Discovery left their timeline for the future. Except me. I am Taurat. I am the one responsible for the fall of Iconia, Herc and the Valduar. I am also the one who created section 31. I am also partially responsible for multiple timelines in which many variant outcomes that had caused chaos in the Universe. Yet even with all my attempts to preserve the timelines, change was inevitable and resulted a failure in my mission. However even with failing to preserve the correct timeline, Starfleet, the United Federation of Planets and many other species of the known galaxy still exist.
Only six months? Damn, Iconians don't fuck around.
I wish the iconian weapons were stronger than what they are now, however the arc was really fun to play
Play on elite, than herald's transphasics spread in space or defiler's smash on ground can one-shot you.
I like the part at the beginning where you keep mentioning an iconian and not explaining it all who the hell they are what they are what's going on or anything
So if the krenim weapon was destroyed again the iconians would have stayed dead with the world heart in some bad guys posession?
That's insane that they brought back the parasites from Conspiracy
Were the Borg ever consulted in defeating the Iconians? And if not, did the Iconians ever engage the Borg?
as Seven of Nine said "even the borg couldn't defeat the Iconians...
I miss good Star Trek.
the whole of Iconia, inside the Sphere....
Its a Dyson sphere the theory is that inside the sphere its a self contained world and even solar system at times
@@808INFantry11X yah we are aware, thanks
Well Iconians dont necessarily need to be anywhere particular, just a few hubs and they're happy. I would be too if you could go anywhere by walking through a portal. As for the world heart... eh... theres probably a strict copying law in Iconia. They didnt bring up the fact it had been chronologically disturbed but hey... the power of the sun in the palm of my hand.
@@velnz5475the World heart doesn't operate like an Iconian mind. It's just data storage.
What game is all this off?
CAPTAIN Harry Kim!
That’s what I’m talking about!
Kim made Captain? HERESY!
Wish they would smooth out the animations characters act so stiff in the game still.
I really hope that the Alliance decide to help the Sphere Builders undo the damage to the timeline that the Alliance did using the time ship & causing the sphere builders to be temporally removed from the time line. Since it was the alliances fault for committing this genocide by erasing millions of people from the universe it is only fair that the help the Sphere Builders fix the timeline & bring back the millions of people from the Sphere Builder race called the Tuterians.
@Jope Lamp Huh??? What the frick are you talking about?? Do you even STO bro?
@@Ryo-sj8wn in canon they don't, and let's consider this, if they were saved the Temporal Wars would have been severely lessened if not completely destroyed, and that's an integral part of the timeline that actually gave the klingons cloaking devices for example.
@@isleapyhunter930 Yeah but we have to treat them as the bad guys even though they aren't the bad guys at all they are just trying to undo what the alliance did to them. They are just lucky they had time travel tech also or they would be wiped from existence all together, if the Temp War is over that then they are the victims not the baddies & what was done to them should be undone. The alliance never even used the Krenim time-ship after their initial failure so it would be simple to fix the time-line by just doing what they did in voyager & cause the ship to erase itself from history. They could temporally shield a Data node/pad with info on what had happened so that the people in the repaired time-line knew not to used the Krenim time-ship & so they would also know what to do to make the Iconian war turn out as it had before. The timeline wouldn't be altered very much as things would play out in the Iconian War the same way only the damage to the Sphere Builders/Tuterians would be undone & they would be part of the universe/time again.
@@Ryo-sj8wn as I mentioned before, the klingons wouldn't have aquired the cloaking device, and there is other stuff that is very important to the timeline that only happened because of the temporal war...it needed to happen, just like the time travel with Empress Sela.
@@isleapyhunter930 So your saying that tech advances are more important than the lives of billions? I'm sure they could work out how to get the other stuff after undoing the damage the did to those people.
0:12 wtf was that, these are the titans from an rts game known as sins of the empire
the ships? they are Iconian ships...
in another universe i'd might be critical if this, going out of my way to point out that this is "mass halo" and not star trek. problem is....it's way better than what we have seen on "TV" in the last years in terms of star trek.....it respects canon and is aware it subverts tone in favor of narrative structure dictated by the medium....
'Hectic' was putting it mildly.
Iconian War Series. Aka.
2020: The Arc