Gul Dukat is probably the most well known and popular of the Cardassian characters. He is without a doubt, the chief antagonist on Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Dukat is a tall, lean Cardassian officer with the rank of Gul (roughly equivalent to the Starfleet rank of Captain). He has a long powerful neck, ice blue eyes and black hair. He carries himself with pride and arrogance as typified by his strutting gait.
His personality is very smooth and slick and apparently friendly. But don't let his ready smile fool you! He is still very much a Cardassian and his affable nature can switch instantly to one of cold, calculated brutality which he carefully justifies to himself and others who'll listen.
Most of Dukat's life and military service is shrouded in typical Cardassian secrecy. Only when a Starfleet presence moved into the Bajoran system has anything been learned about him and the world he serves. Dukat was the Prefect of Bajor during approximately the last ten yeas of the occupation, ruling from the ore processing station of Terok Nor. After the withdrawal from Bajor he returned to his position of Commander of the Second Order.
It was during the occupation that he developed is greatest weakness, a fondness for Bajoran women. He appeared to openly flaunt his mistresses, touring the his station with them on his arm. But then the unthinkable happened, he actually fell in love with one, Tora Naprem, and had a daughter with her, Ziyal. Rediscovering Ziyal many years later set in motion a series of events that eventually lead to Dukat's complete emotional breakdown.
According to Cardassian tradition Dukat was required to kill his bastard daughter upon her discovery. He was already married to a powerful Cardassian woman and had seven children with her. But knowing all this, Dukat still brought Ziyal back to Cardassia and effectively destroyed his career. His mother disowned him (his father had been executed many years earlier by Garak), his wife left him with their children and he was stripped of his Legate rank and put in command of a lowly freighter, the Groumal.
On this ship he had an eager and loyal officer named Glinn Damar and they struck a close working relationship and Damar would stay loyally at Dukat's side whether until on the Groumal, captured Klingon Bird of Prey, or the alliance Dukat struck with the Dominion. But ultimately it was Damar that struck the final blow to Dukat's fragile sanity.
While evacuating Terok Nor for a second time Damar killed Dukat's traitorous daughter Ziyal. Overcome by grief, Dukat was easily apprehended by Starfleet to stand trial for his crimes once he was well enough. Unfortunately the ship never made it to a Star Base.
But you can't keep a good Gul down and soon Dukat reappeared this time with a more sinister plan to retake Terok Nor. He would use the Pagh Wraiths to destroy the Prophets and their Bajoran followers. But he would need help. Disguised as a Bajoran, he forged an alliance with Kai Winn to gain access to the Kost Amogen book in order to free the Pagh Wraiths from the Fire Caves. The stage was set for a climatic showdown between the Emmisary Sisko and Dukat, good and evil. Good prevails and Dukat gets sealed in the caves with the Pagh Wraiths and the Kost Amogen. Never to be seen again? Don't count on it!
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