The only head of the Obsidian Order who lived long enough to retire, Tain was a stubborn, wily survivor who epitomized the efficiently ruthless agency and thrived on the labyrinthine intrigue of his people -- a man the regular military's Central Command dared not challenge. Hoping for a comeback from his retirement in 2368 to the Arawath colony and Unefra III, Tain engineered a disastrous joint attack on the Dominion Founders homeworld three years later with the Romulan Tal Shiar, a plot doomed early on by shapeshifter infiltrators. He was thought dead until discovered ailing at Dominion Internment Camp 371 in 2373 by his son Garak, who asked but did not get his father's deathbed forgiveness. Tain had groomed Garak as his successor until the events that led to Garak's banishment, which left Tain feeling betrayed; he retired soon after, but on the eve of the Dominion debacle he had even tried to arrange the murders of Garak and six others who had information on him. In typical Cardassian irony and obfuscation, both Tain and Garak had been ready to trust each other anew in their later years, and Tain aided Bashir's treatment of his son's fatal degenerative bio-implant. His housekeeper and confidant of over 30 years was Mila, who oversaw him as an older man until the Dominion invasion.
