About 200,000 years before the 24th century, the Iconian civilisation, famed for gateways linking distant worlds, was destroyed by orbital bombardment from its enemies.
The Iconians were an ancient and technologically advanced people, remembered in legend as demons of air and darkness. Their gateways could transport a traveller instantly across vast distances, giving them the reach of a great interstellar power. About 200,000 years before the 24th century their homeworld was attacked from orbit and their civilisation fell.
In 2365 the USS Yamato and the Enterprise-D were crippled by an Iconian computer program spread by a probe from Iconia, in the Romulan Neutral Zone. Picard found a working gateway on the planet, destroyed it to keep it from the Romulans, and escaped through it.