A Tale of Two Kiras

by Paddy Tye, Dramatis Personae Lead Designer

5th June 2025

"Evil must be opposed."
- Vedek Yassim, "Rocks and Shoals"

Today's latest offering from Dramatis Personae features a familiar face, twice. During development we had tried to avoid using two of the same character. But hey, rules are meant to be broken...

Kira Nerys (who accounts for at least 20% of all 2E cards) features on two vastly different personnel cards in Dramatis Personae. One is Kira at her lowest. One isn't really Kira.

Down with the Brown

At the start of season six of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, the station is under Dominion control. Kira Nerys is still serving aboard, but both her and her Cardassian co-workers answer to The Dominion.

The fight has dimmed in the once fiery freedom fighter. She catches the turbolift to Ops alongside Cardassians and Jem'Hadar. Gets delivered her daily Raktajino by her colleague Mavek. She clarifies, explains, and justifies Dominion activities. And she is more concerned about protests against the Dominion "causing trouble" than in actually opposing this new occupation.

But the public suicide of Vedek Yassim on the Promenade shocks her back to her senses. The image on this card is the moment in Ops where she looks around at who she's working with and comes to a realization about herself.

"I keep going over it and over it in my mind, and I can't believe that I stood down there ready to use force to stop a protest against the Dominion. Me. When I was in the Resistance I despised people like me. I'm a collaborator."
- Kira Nerys, "Rocks and Shoals"

This new Kira Nerys card represents her walking that fine line between occupied and occupier. Her download of Treaty: Bajoran/Dominion perfectly sums this up, and also helps rejuvenate that rarely used decktype. Now with both Kira Nerys and Kai Winn able to download this Treaty, you have the possibility of downloading a backup if an opponent tries to use The Devil to destroy your treaty.

Her skills (OFFICER, SECURITY, Navigation, Computer Skill) are fairly standard for Kira, but there's a lack of Leadership or Resistance, as well as lower INTEGRITY - representing that she isn't acting like her normal passionate self. She adds Diplomacy though, as she's acting as a day-to-day voice for the Dominion.

She can be downloaded by either Defend Homeworld or directly to Ops (in a We Need You Here deck probably), and get that pivotal Treaty out on turn one. There's an example deck below using this new Kira, which I'll cover in more detail later.

Meanwhile, on an alternate Cardassia…

"You are an undercover operative of the Obsidian Order named Iliana Ghemor. Ten years ago, you volunteered for an undercover assignment on Bajor. We kidnapped a Bajoran terrorist, gave you her memories, her appearance, and placed you back on Bajor to infiltrate the Resistance."
- Entek, "Second Skin"

The mystery of what really happened to Iliana Ghemor and the attempt to replace Kira Nerys was never really resolved in the show. Whilst she might still be living undercover on Bajor somewhere, the attempt to replace Kira might actually have never happened. So how best to represent that on a card? How can we frame it to best match "what we know" with "what players would want to see"?

They would expect infiltration from a character like Iliana, but as far as we know, no infiltration ever successfully occurred. So what if we created our own "truth"? That plan might have failed in the main timeline, but no reason to believe it wasn't successful in every universe... there must be some alternate timeline where Iliana did successfully replace Kira Nerys.

So that's what we've included here: an alternate universe version of Iliana Ghemor. As an Obsidian Order personnel she makes a great addition to a Joint Operation deck. Diplomacy, SECURITY and Computer Skill are always useful too.

But if do come up against a Bajoran deck, that's where she really shines! Using that special skill to reduce the attributes of those opposing Resistance personnel could provide a great opportunity to decimate those guerilla forces!

The Second Occupation…

The attached deck is a simplified Bajoran / Dominion Treaty deck. It includes up to 5 potential free play engines, the ability to download personnel to your DS9, as well as draws from We All Serve, Primary Turbolift, Resistance Cell, Morn, and Strategic Base.

Turn one the card play is used to Ops download Kira Nerys (in Bajoran mode) and grab the treaty. Turn two you'll have hopefully drawn into one Resistance already, so you can then download a second. From there, grabbing Morn becomes your next objective. Don't forget to download sites to have locations to report Resistance personnel and We All Serve personnel.

The deck is also eligible for the Bajoran/Dominion Treaty Player achievement. While this deck does use The Squire's Rules, do remember that this is just an example starting point for your own deck designs! Feel free to customize as desired!

I look forward to seeing your Bajoran / Dominion Treaty decks, your Obsidian Order decks, and your other Dramatis Personae based decks in the coming weeks!

Discuss this article in this thread.

Decklist

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Modern
• Open
• Warp Speed

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Bajoran/Dominion Treaty Player
• Temporal Mechanics Give Me a Headache
• Dogs of War Release

Hide Deck Stats

Draw Deck
Total Draw Deck		61
Equipment		2 (3%)
Event		5 (8%)
Interrupt		2 (3%)
Objective		1 (2%)
Personnel		46 (75%)
Ship		4 (7%)
Site		1 (2%)

Q-Tent Side Deck
Total Q-Tent Side Deck		13
Event		4 (31%)
Facility		1 (8%)
Incident		2 (15%)
Personnel		1 (8%)
Ship		1 (8%)
Site		4 (31%)

Seed Deck
Total Seed Deck		12
Doorway		1 (8%)
Facility		2 (17%)
Incident		7 (58%)
Objective		2 (17%)

Dilemma Side Deck
Total Dilemma Side Deck		18
Dilemma		18 (100%)

"Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads
Total "Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads		3
Event		1 (33%)
Facility		1 (33%)
Incident		1 (33%)

Skills
Acquisition		1
Anthropology		8
Archaeology		6
Astrophysics		7
Biology		8
CIVILIAN		7
Computer Skill		11
Cybernetics		0
Diplomacy		13
Empathy		0
ENGINEER		12
Exobiology		8
Geology		8
Greed		2
Honor		10
Law		1
Leadership		20
MEDICAL		9
Music		4
Navigation		8
OFFICER		10
Physics		11
SCIENCE		10
SECURITY		10
Smuggling		3
Stellar Cartography		4
Transporter Skill		5
Treachery		11
V.I.P.		9
Youth		3
Rare Skills
Barbering		0
Cantankerousness		0
Guramba		0
Mindmeld		0
Miracle Worker		0
Orion Syndicate		0
Resistance		10

Skill			On # Missions	Skill Dots	Classifications	Total
Acquisition				1		1
Anthropology			1	8		8
Archaeology				6		6
Astrophysics			1	7		7
Biology				8		8
CIVILIAN					7	7
Computer Skill			2	11		11
Cybernetics						0
Diplomacy			1	13		13
Empathy						0
ENGINEER			1	10	2	12
Exobiology				8		8
Geology				8		8
Greed				2		2
Honor			1	10		10
Law				1		1
Leadership			2	20		20
MEDICAL				3	6	9
Music				4		4
Navigation			2	8		8
OFFICER			1	1	9	10
Physics			2	11		11
SCIENCE			1	3	7	10
SECURITY			3	3	7	10
Smuggling				3		3
Stellar Cartography			1	4		4
Transporter Skill				5		5
Treachery			2	11		11
V.I.P.			1		9	9
Youth				3		3
Rare Skills
Barbering
Cantankerousness
Guramba
Mindmeld
Miracle Worker
Orion Syndicate
Resistance				10		10
Intelligence Skills
FCA
Intelligence
Klingon Intelligence
Memory Omega
Obsidian Order			1
Section 31
Tal Shiar
V'Shar
any Intelligence			1

Traits
Card group
Bajoran espionage		2
Bajoran treaty		2
Captains Order		1
Capturing-related card		1
Dominion treaty		2
Harvester Virus-related card		1
Dilemma group
Empok Nor-related dilemma		1
female-related dilemma		1
MEDICAL-related dilemma		1
SCIENCE-related dilemma		1
Virus-related dilemma		1
Equipment group
disruptor		1
hand weapon		1
MEDICAL-related equipment		1
Mission region
Argolis Cluster Region		1
Bajor Region		2
Cardassia Region		1
Mission trait
23rd century-related mission		1
Array mission		1
Homeworld		2
Personnel gender
Female		11
Male		36
Personnel group
Deep Space 9-related personnel		5
Terok Nor-related personnel		1
The Circle-related personnel		2
Personnel trait
Alpha		8
Captain		1
Colonel		1
Dabo Girl		1
Founder		1
General		2
Jem'Hadar First		3
Kai		2
Legate		1
Minister		3
Prylar		1
Shakaar Resistance Cell		3
Shape-shifter		2
Support Personnel		1
Thot		2
Trill with Symbiont		1
Vedek		4
Ship equipment
Cloaking Device		1
Energy Dampener		2
Tractor Beam		5
Ship trait
Bajoran ship		2
Breen ship		2
Dominion ship		3
Federation ship		1
Interceptor		1
ship trait
No staffing requirement		1
Ship trait
Warship		2

Icons
Expansion
		1
Faction
		1
Quadrant
		1
Special
		1
		1
		2
		10
		3
Staffing
		15
		25