Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 1, episode 8.
At last, Soji (Isa Briones), the synthetic daughter of the late Commander Data (Brent Spiner). All throughout Star Trek: Picard, the Zhat Vash have been attempting to find Soji's hidden homeworld - where more synthetics like her live - in order to stop another cataclysm in the galaxy identical to one that happened hundreds of millennia ago.
The banned synthetics and altered the fate of the Federation. However, the Zhat Vash's shroud of secrecy on Earth was lifted when they killed Dahj, Soji's twin sister, in full-view of Jean-Luc Picard, making their existence known to the Starfleet legend.
On the Artifact, the Bruce Maddox (John Ales) in motion. Star Trek: Picard episode 8, "Broken Pieces", filled in compelling new information about the Zhat Vash's origins and the Armageddon caused by synthetics hundreds of thousands of years ago that the Zhat Vash are trying to prevent, which includes the rise of the Destroyer, whom they believe is Soji herself.
What Was The Original Synthetic Armageddon?
Approximately 200-300,000 years ago, synthetics evolved to the point where they threatened all organic life in the galaxy. This may have happened in the Beta Quadrant since it was the Romulans who first learned of this ancient history. It's not clear what happened or who caused the original synthetic Armageddon, but the survivors left behind a warning. Somehow, they brought eight suns together and, at the center of this octonary star system, they left a machine behind on a planet named Aia, The Grief World. This storehouse of memories at the center of the eightfold stars was a warning to future civilizations about the "horrors and annihilation" would happen again if synthetic life is allowed to evolve.
The Zhat Vash's Origins Explained
Hundreds of years ago, a sect of Romulan women discovered the octonary star system and investigated it. These were the foremothers of what would become the Zhat Vash. When they arrived on Aia, The Grief World, the foremothers activated the machine and learned of the ancient devastation caused by synthetics. Most of the foremothers were driven insane by the knowledge but those were endured it called the machine the onition. The foremothers then founded the Zhat Vash with the mission to stop synthetic life at any cost.
The Zhat Vash wiped the octonary star system from all Romulan star charts to preserve its secrets but, over the centuries, future of the Zhat Vash ritually traveled to Aia and endure the onition. In 2385, Oh brought a group including Narissa and her aunt Ramdha (Rebecca Witsocky) to the onition. Most of the women, including Ramdha, were driven insane by the experience but Narissa survived it. Narissa then became Oh's lieutenant - literally, as Narissa later took on the role of Lieutenant Rizzo as a Romulan spy and kill Bruce Maddox.
It's worth noting that the founders of the Zhat Vash were all women and they are the opposite number of the Qowat Milat, their ancient enemies who are an order of Romulan warrior nuns. While the Zhat Vash practice extreme secrecy, the Qowat Milat embraced a philosophy of absolute candor and openness in all things - but it's likely that the Qowat Milat don't know the ancient secrets of the synthetic Armageddon the Zhat Vash built their belief system of fear around.
All Of The Zhat Vash's Plans To Stop Synthetics
As a sect that predated the Data, who then ed Starfleet and eventually became Operations Officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D.
To counteract Data, the Zhat Vash planted Oh in Starfleet, and over the years, she rose up the ranks to become a Commodore and the Head of Starfleet Security - an ideal post to carry out secret plans against synthetics. In 2365, Commander Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) of the Daystrom Institute attempted to have Data declared the property of Starfleet so that he could study the android and build a race of Datas. Whether or not Maddox was doing so under Oh's instructions isn't clear, but had he succeeded, Oh could have taken steps to have Data destroyed once he was removed from the Enterprise-D. Instead, Captain Picard won the trial that defined Data's rights as a free and sentient being - the opposite result of what the Zhat Vash wanted.
20 years later, in 2385, the Zhat Vash achieved their greatest successes after Narissa survived the onition. Despite the Romulan supernova set to destroy Romulus, Commodore Oh and Narissa caused synthetic workers on Mars to go rogue and destroy the Federation's rescue fleet, devastating the red planet. As Oh intended, the Federation's response was to ban all synthetic life in the Alpha Quadrant. The ramifications of this included Fenris Rangers, and Bruce Maddox vanishing to build a new race of synthetics even more advanced than Data from one of his positronic neurons using fractal neuronic cloning. Meanwhile, a Borg Cube assimilated the Zhat Vash scout ship Shaenor but suffered a submatrix collapse when it was infected by Ramdha's madness. The Romulans then took possession of the Borg Cube and turned it into a Reclamation Site they labeled the Artifact.
In 2390, the U.S.S. Ibn Majid encountered a starship containing two synthetics built by Maddox: an Ambassador calling himself Beautiful Flower and Jana, a forerunner of Soji and Dahj. Under Starfleet's orders, Captain Alonzo Vandermeer killed both synths and then committed suicide, which was covered up by his First Officer Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera). Finally, in 2396, Maddox sent the synthetic twins Dahj and Soji to find out the truth behind the Romulan/Starfleet conspiracy that caused the synthetics ban. However, the Zhat Vash murdered Dahj soon after she met Jean-Luc Picard on Earth, who then launched a mission to find Soji aboard the Artifact. Meanwhile, Narissa's brother Narek (Harry Treadaway) tortured Soji until she unwittingly revealed the location of her homeworld - where Maddox built more synthetics like her.
Is Soji Really The Destroyer - Or Is It Someone Else?
The onition also warned of the coming of the Destroyer who would lead the synthetics to destroy organic life. It is believed that when synthetic life is allowed to evolve, eventually they reach a threshold and once that's crossed, the synthetics will decide to eliminate and replace organics. Upon meeting Soji on the Artifact, Ramdha believed that she "knew [Soji] from tomorrow" and identified Data's daughter as the fabled Destroyer - but is she? Sohi does meet the prophecy of the "two sisters... one who died and one who lived." Ramdha especially fears an event called Ganmadan, which is The Day of Annihilation. Ganmadan is the moment "when the beasts break their shackles and answer the call of the Destroyer." Essentially, the prophecy contends that on the designated Day of Annihilation, the Destroyer will raise an army made up of imprisoned "beasts" and wage war on all life.
While Soji could be the Destroyer, there are also other options who could fit the bill, such as one of Soji's synthetic brothers and sisters who exist on their homeworld. Another possibility is that Borg Queen of her own micro-Collective of XBs aboard the Artifact - and these reassimilated Borg could be the prophecized "beasts" of Ganmadan. Ironically, Narissa is a possibility to become the Destroyer because the Zhat Vash agent was swarmed by the XBs at the conclusion of Star Trek: Picard episode 8. If Narissa was assimilated then perhaps, like her aunt Ramdha, her sheer hatred could overwhelm the Artifact and she could take it over to become the Destroyer she feared all along.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.