The Cardassian intelligence service and secret police, whose surveillance once reached into every Cardassian home.
The Obsidian Order is the intelligence agency and internal security police of the Cardassian Union, feared for its watch over ordinary citizens and its brutal interrogations. Its former head Enabran Tain and his protege Elim Garak, living in exile on Deep Space Nine, are its best-known members.
In Improbable Cause and The Die Is Cast, Tain leads the Order and the Romulan Tal Shiar in a secret strike on the Founders' homeworld in 2371. The fleet is ambushed and destroyed, and the Order never regains its former power.