The Romulans

The Romulans were both badly hurt and lucky at the same time because of this event.

On the one hand, millions of Romulans and Remans died when the twin planets were destroyed. The heart of the Romulan Star Empire was ripped out, basically causing chaos and political destabilization in that sector for decades afterwards. Even worse, what was left of the Tal Shiar, including that bitch, Sela, were able to get away from Romulus before the shockwave hit. According to the storyline on "Star Trek Online," a new capital planet called Rator III was chosen to be the center of the new Romulan Star Empire, but it wasn't the same as before.

On the other hand, the Romulan Star Empire wasn't exactly a nice or friendly entity. The rulers were cruel, brutal, and oppressive to everyone, even their own citizens. Their culture was one that was paranoid and sowed mistrust among themselves. They had some of the best spies in the galaxy, save for the Obsidian Order (Cardassians). Having the Romulan Star Empire hollowed out like that was a good thing for many Romulans who didn't want to live with their cruel rulers' boots on their necks.

In some ways, space colonization saved over a million Romulans because many were not living in the actual star system that was affected by the supernova. Many Romulans were living elsewhere, which played out pretty well, if you go along with the story "Star Trek Online's" developers came up with. According to what you get to see, a number of Romulan civilians got a chance to start their own colonies that were independent of the fragmented empire....for a while. It turns out the regular citizens, if allowed to live away from the nasty influence of the Tal Shiar, are not much different from humans in personality and behavior.

One of the expansions that came with "Star Trek Online" in the later 2010s was all about the new Romulan Republic that formed. Romulans not associated with the old empire struck out on their own and found a beautiful planet to settle and call home. You get the chance to play as a Romulan, and choose whether to ally with the Federation of the Klingons.

The relationship between the Romulans and the Borg is an interesting one. More than once, in a desperate bid to get one over on their enemies (such as the Federation, the Klingons, and the Dominion), the Tal Shiar did secret research on Borg technology to try and develop new weapons. There's a well-known mission on STO called "Where Angels Fear to Tread," where you, as a starship captain, have to rescue a Romulan ship that has been overtaken by the Borg. You then discover, after clearing out the Borg drones, that the crew was doing research on Borg tech, and some idiot activated a homing beacon on a piece of equipment by mistake. That's how the Borg homed in on the Romulan ship and attacked it. You have to decide whether to let them keep the Borg tech and continue their research, possibly gaining more of an advantage over the Federation, or taking the tech, pissing off the captain, and fighting off the larger Romulan ship that's called in for reinforcement. You can guess which path I chose :D.

That's the biggest risk of researching Borg technology. Up close study is only possible when the tech is turned off, because otherwise, it will either infect some unsuspecting person with tubules, or all Borg technology has beacons built into them, where if they are disconnected from whatever ship they are a part of, they give off a signal to tell any Borg in the area to come retrieve them. It was a built-in safety measure the Borg specifically made so their technology wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. More than once, humanoid researchers who attempted the lunacy the Romulans did, ended up either dead or Assimilated.

I expect this week's episode will reveal more about this.