Groups

Description

Personality

Garak is optimistic and polite, traits that he uses to obscure people's knowledge, or suspicion, of his work as a spy. Despite his image of an optimistic and well-mannered being, he is widely known to be deceitful, even to those whom he considers to be "friends," e.g. Doctor Julian Bashir. Garak is secretive, often creating elaborate stories about himself to avoid scrutiny about his exile. On several occasions, Garak discussed a friend named Elim, who was later revealed to be fictional. As his father Tain once said of him, Garak never told the truth when a lie would do. At one point, Doctor Bashir told him the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and upon hearing the moral that "no one believes a liar when he is telling the truth", Garak insisted that the true moral was "you should never tell the same lie twice".

Garak on numerous occasions is seen to have internal conflicts between his morals and his obligations to the Cardassian central command. Despite substantial evidence to suggest that he was an operative of the Obsidian Order, Garak on several occasions denies having ever been involved with the group, claiming he is just "plain, simple Garak, a tailor on the Promenade" and that his difficulties with the Cardassian government stem from tax evasion. He repeats this story frequently, even to people that he knows are aware of the truth about his past.

History

Garak was exiled from Cardassia due to the mercy that he took on five Bajoran children during the Cardassian occupation of planet Bajor. At the same time Garak had an antagonistic relationship with the prefect of Bajor, Gul Dukat, most likely because he was responsible for the execution of Dukat's father. As a result, he was sent to the Cardassian space station "Terok Nor", which later became known as "Deep Space Nine" when the Cardassians withdrew from the station, leaving it for the Federation and Bajorans. Garak remains there in exile, running his tailoring business, that is until 15 years after the Dominion War, where he subsequently left the station, and settled on a planet in the Alpha Quadrant in a province known to the inhabitants as "Wing City".

Garak, whose father was the head of the Obsidian Order Enabran Tain, is seen to have an acute form of claustrophobia as an adult. His claustrophobia is strongly suggested to have resulted from his father locking him in a closet as punishment for him not doing his chores, often for hours at a time. Garak followed his father's footsteps and joined the Obsidian Order; at one point he was stationed on Romulus (and was likely involved in the deaths of several Romulan officials), until the Cardassians stationed him on occupied Bajor.

During the Dominion War, after learning of Gul Dukat's allegiance with the Dominion, Garak shows an allegiance to the Federation, helping them to do many things, from deciphering codes, to leading the Romulans into war against the Dominion under false pretenses.

Elim Garak's Story