Star Trek: Everything We NOW Know About The 25th Century
6. Romulans In Starfleet & The First Steps Toward Ni’Var
Star Trek: Picard, in being the show so closely set to the focus of this piece, has offered many of the answers we've sought for so long. The Romulan Star Empire, introduced in Balance of Terror, has been one of Star Trek's oldest adversarial forces, despite being nearly destroyed on multiple occasions.
The Neutral Zone reintroduced them after roughly 70 years of in-universe silence, though the plan had been to bring them back to kill them off. They would have been victims of the Borg at a time before anyone truly understood who or what the Borg were. Thankfully, they were spared, thus becoming one of the great enemies of the Federation in The Next Generation.
Unification brought the Romulans into the limelight again, this time in the context of a possible reunification with their Vulcan cousins. Despite Spock's initial work, by the early 2380s, this dream looked like just that - a dream. The Romulan supernova in the mid-2380s altered the landscape, reducing the Empire to a handful of fractured groups and gangs.
The Star Gazer, opening Picard's second season, depicted Elnor attending Starfleet Academy in 2401. Being the first fully Romulan cadet, he carried the weight of history on his shoulders, though he acquitted himself well and ended up serving aboard the USS Excelsior. Star Trek: Discovery, jumping forward to the 32nd Century, demonstrated the outcome of Spock's efforts. By the time of Unification III, the Romulans had returned to Vulcan, which was renamed Ni'Var to reflect both races.
It may have taken the long road, but the 25th Century was the dawn of a new age for the Romulan Star Empire, becoming a part of the Federation (eventually) and even serving in Starfleet itself.