Native intelligent species of planet Semtar III.  The Semtarians are a humanoid species whose civilization, by 2372, had reached a socio-technological equivalent to that of Earth during the late twentieth century, circa 1990.  Prior to the encounter with the Jem’Hadar and the Federation, the Semtarians generally believed that they were the only intelligent life-forms in the universe.  They knew of no other advanced technological civilizations existing on other worlds.  Their religious attitudes and beliefs also prevented the belief in the existence of offworld intelligence other than their own deities.

     There was no world government to speak of, and there was approximately one-hundred twenty individual nation-states covering the total habitable land masses, each employing distinctively different forms of government ranging from democracies to theocratic monarchies, very much like Earth did.

     Though the literature and entertainment of Semtar III indicate a general belief in that they are the only intelligent life in the universe, they have been suspecting  alien intelligence for at least the last one-hundred years.  There is a great deal of science fiction literature and motion picture entertainment based on space travel and encounters with other life-forms.

     The Semtarians have been developing a sophisticated computer network, which has been growing in complexity over the last thirty years.  Two of the major nation-states on Semtar III are locked in a bitter cold war.  Both sides are armed with nuclear warheads, enough firepower to destroy Semtar III thousands of times over.  There is an international organization which attempts to keep the peace as best as possible, and bears resemblance to Earth’s United Nations.