The Empty Crown, also known as the Order of the Empty Crown, were a faction within the Romulan Star Empire. They were considered to be a secret society consisting of Romulans that sought to be greater then their empire and become a galactic order. They believed that their people had grown too weak to combat enemies like the Federation and thus needed better as well as stronger leadership. The order thought that their way was the only way for the Romulan people and waited for the time they could reveal themselves.
By the year 2380, Commander Suldok of the Imperial Romulan Navy became one of the leaders of the Empty Crown. He discovered from the Ferengi Omag about the ancient Idryll and their creations, the Exomorphs. Thus, he sought to use the Master Control Facility to take control of the creatures and use them as instruments of the Empty Crown in their bid for dominance in the galaxy. They were entrenched enough within the empire to even gain access to a Tal Shiar Personal area cloaking device.
This Romulan involvement attracted the attention of the Starfleet vessel USS Enterprise who contacted an informant at a secret Romulan base across the Romulan Neutral Zone. However, this informant was actually a counter-agent who was a loyalist of the Empty Crown and attempted to stop Hazard team member Alexander Munro from rescuing his comrade who was betrayed by the double agent. Suldok later captured the Hazard team members and revealed that he allowed Munro to assault the base and kill numerous Romulans in order to justify an Exomorph buildup. He had hoped that the Hazard team attack on a Romulan facility would make the Senators scared of a Federation first strike to the point that they would fund the Empty Crown's plans on using the Exomorphs.
Arriving at the Master Control Facility, the Empty Crown's position came under attack by the USS Enterprise until the arrival of two D'Deridex class warbirds. Despite hostilities, Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard managed to convince the Romulan commander to investigate Suldok's loyalties. When the commander beamed a team to the planet to determine Suldok's intentions, they came under attack from the Empty Crown rebels. The Empty Crown's plans were defeated by the efforts of Alexander Munro and the crew of the USS Enterprise who destroyed the Master Control Facility. The defeat of the organization allowed the Federation to pursue new diplomatic ties with the Romulan government. (TNG video game: Elite Force II)
- The fate of the Empty Crown after the events of the Exomorph crisis are unknown; they may have been decimated or their organization may still exist within the Romulan Star Empire.