Ferengi

Mike Rouse-Deane

Revision History
Revision 1 6 March 2002

Approved by Unknown


Table of Contents

Abstract
Overview
Society
Females
Government
Grand Nagus
History

Abstract

Homeworld

Ferenginar

Height (Average)

5' - 5' 4"

Weight (Average)

Unknown

Lifespan

Unknown

Entry Type

Custom

Source

"The Last Outpost" (TNG), "Emissary, The Nagus, Rules of Acquisition, Proft and Loss, The House of Quark, Family Business, Little Green Men, Bar Association, Business as Usual, Ferengi Love Songs, The Magnificent Ferengi, Profit and Lace, The Emperor's New Cloak" (DS9), "False Profits, Inside Man" (VOY)

Found in Starfleet

Never

Overview

The Ferengi are an Alpha Quadrant humanoid space-faring species. The Ferengi Alliance (name of the Ferengi government, overseen by a single appointed Ferengi with the title "Grand Nagus") is not a member of the Federation. The homeworld is called Ferenginar, an M-class planet with a wet climate. Ferengis are slight for humanoid races, rarely passing 5 feet in stature. Ferengi have ascending ribs and an upper and lower lung. Primary facial features are their ridged nose, razor-sharp fangs, and highly sensitive ears, but their main deviation from ordinary humanoid physiology is the four-lobed design of the brain, whose unusual patterns prevent telepaths such as the Betazoids from reading their mind. Dopterians, whose brains are structurally similar to those of the Ferengi, are similarly unreadable by Betazoids.

The other uniquely Ferengi characteristic is the large ears that are receptive to touch. Their homeworld of Ferenginar has a thin atmosphere, and in time the Ferengi ears grew larger to better receive sound waves. The lobes are receptive to touch, and fondling them, termed oo-mox, is pleasurable to most males. The ears also have fine hairs on them, which with age grows to be lengthy and even shaggy. Hearing is undoubtedly the finest tuned sense of a Ferengi, and the ears unmistakably symbolize their innate "Ferenginess". One who has the "lobes" for something is marked out as gifted. Female lobes are smaller than normal male Ferengi.

Eating habits- Ferengis delight in worms and various insects, preferably alive and squirming. The one caveat is, insects must come from Ferenginar, or it isn't food at all. Their small and sharp teeth make them efficient eaters. When young Ferengis need to sharpen dull teeth they use latinum tooth-sharpeners or chew-sticks.

Interestingly, Ferengi males often find human females very attractive. Ferengi consider pregnancy to be a rental, with the father being termed the lessee. When a young Ferengi reaches adulthood and prepares to leave home, he traditionally raises capital by auctioning his boyhood treasures.

Society

Up to the appointment of Grand Nagus Rom, their culture, which has existed for thousands of years, was founded upon capitalism but taken to such an extreme that every aspect of society, no matter how trivial, is based on money and the pursuit of profit.

Other races see Ferengi as ruthlessly exploitive, but while Ferengi exploit, embezzle, and double-cross people and often act without scruple in business deals they are in fact behaving according to set rules. It is assumed that Rom, a progressive in favour of humanising these principles, would make sweeping changes. But until then Ferengi rules and principles are enshrined in 285 rules together called The Rules of Acquisition. These rules were written by the first Nagus, Grint, who founded the Ferengi Alliance we know today.

The Ferengi have a strict code of honor. The Ferengi culture finds the concept of organised labor to be abhorrent, since such things can interfere with the exploitation of workers. A Ferengi labor contracts never provides sick leave, vacations, or paid overtime for employees. Ferengi consider the sanctity of a contract to be a cornerstone of their civilization. Breaking a contract in unthinkable, and will generally result in the offender having his Ferengi business license revoked and all of his assets seized, and him becoming a pariah in Ferengi society.

Ferengi's see death as another opportunity to get money and so the body, instead of having an autopsy, which is strictly prohibited, is cut into small pieces that are sealed into a disk-shaped souvenir contain, and then sold. These disks become valuable collector's items if the dead Ferengi was a personage of note. A Ferengi Certificate of Dismemberment accompanies the couvenir, stating the name of the person's remains. Ferengi believe that those who earned a profit during their mortal lives can enter the Divine Treasury after death. There, under the guidance of the Blessed Excheque, the Celestial Auctioneers allow them to bid on new lives. Those who haven't earned profit are thought to be doomed to the Vault of Eternal Destitution.

Females

Ferengi are a sexist society. The Ferengi male views his female as property not to be shared nor exposed to the public. Females are not allowed an article clothing, earning of profit, traveling, looking or speaking to strangers, or even quoting from the sacred Rules of Acquisition. Another demeaning practice females are subjected to is chewing food for the males. This inbred sexism is sanctioned in several Rules Of Aquisition. Even so, a Ferengi regards his mother with affection, often taking comfort in laying his head in her lap and defending her honor against the taunts of mean-spirited playmates.

Small nuclear families consisting of the father, mother, and children makes up the family structure of Ferengi society. Grandparents and cousins do not live within the same household. The father figure is the sole bread-earner, so his position is supreme in the house. Quark, Deep Space Nine's bartender has an exceptionally unique mother because of she believed that females should have rights like Ferengi males and so changed the Ferengi government near the end of Grand Nagus Zek's term to allow female Ferengi' to work. Ferengi marriages are male-oriented, with a string of Latinum Dances, Bridal Auctions, and of course the scantily clad bride to mark the event. The total enslavement of the female population seems to come quite natural to the males, and they even attribute their family harmony to such a culture. However, affirmative action seems to have come into vogue even in Ferenginar. Grand Nagus Zek revised the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities to include female Ferengis. Understandably, Ferengi culture is still adapting to the sweeping winds of change.

Government

In government, the Ferengis are as openly corrupt as they are in daily life. The Tower of Commerce on Ferenginar, the tallest building within the Ferengi Alliance, is the bastion of profit-taking and scheming. Going up the tower in an elevator will cost seven slips of latinum. Talking to the front desk will mean another slip. Standing, sitting, coming, going, the Tower absolutely swallows latinum with unparalleled voracity. Housed within the Tower of Commerce is the headquarters of the Ferengi Commerce Association (FCA), the most powerful single organization within the Alliance. It is the terror of the land, as is has jurisdiction over every aspect of a Ferengi's profit and property. Every Ferengi must submit a yearly statement listing all the profits earned that year. Most Ferengis conveniently "forget" to put a few items on the list, and that is where the Ferengi IRS personnel come in. Registered Liquidators are sent in to investigate charges of misreported profits, and if evidence is found, or the bribe insufficient, all the property and holdings will be summarily liquidated.

Ferengi's have a salvage code which states that anything found abandoned is open to claim by those who find it. The Ferengi who took over the Enterprise-D in 2369 tried to claim the ship under this very same code. The Ferengi have two main types of vessel, the Ferengi Marauder (D'Kora class) which is quoted to have a weapon that is able to destroy a Federation Galaxy class vessel. These ships also have smaller vessels which are classed as Ferengi Pods. The Marauder were designed to allow 450 Ferengi's aboard. A Ferengi shuttle is a two person transport, also known as the Ferengi pod. These shuttles are carried aboard Ferengi Marauders.

Grand Nagus

The Grand Nagus is the Ferengi master of commerce. The Grand Nagus has enormous power over Ferengi business, controlling the allocation of trade territories and other commercial opportunities. When a Nagus dies, his body is immediately vacuum-desiccated and pieces are sold as collectors items at handsome prices. The Grand Nagus carries an ornate cane symbolizing his high rank. The cane features a sculpted Ferengi head made of gold at its top. It is customary to honor the Nagus by kissing the head of the cane. The first Grand Nagus was Gint, the ancient entrepreneur who first devised the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition that guide Ferengi commerce. Grand Nagus Zek being tired of the affairs of state chose Rom as his successor, a decision which reflected his goal of remaking Ferengis into a kinder, gentler race. With a person as decent and nice as Rom as Grand Nagus, the Alliance would see sweeping changes to curb the greed and bad reputation of Ferengis. With the end of the Dominion War accompanying Rom's ascension to the post of Grand Nagus, a new day truly has dawned on Ferenginar.

History

The Ferengi originate from the planet Ferenginar. 10,000 years passed before the squabbling Ferengi-populated planets finally united to form the Ferengi Alliance, their present governing system. By the 2300's, Ferengi acquired warp drive technology and could engage in interstellar travels. The Alliance is ruled by the Grand Nagus, recognized as the greatest merchant and slyest manipulator in the Quadrant. The Grand Nagus possess the power to rewrite the Rules of Acquisition, which sets in print many useful and ruthless principles of capitalism to be employed by all Ferengi. These rules, of which there are currently 285, are memorized and taken to heart by every Ferengi boy at a young age.

The Federation knew very little of the Ferengi Alliance until first contact was made in 2364 at the planet Delphi Ardu. The Ferengi encountered by the away-team of the Enterprise-D wielded stunning whips, snarled viciously, hissed incomprehensible remarks, and was quite unsociable. However, though hostile at first, Ferengi soon realized the market potential the Federation had to offer and many have established businesses on Federation planets and starbases.

Shortly after first contact with the Federation, Ferengi entrepreneurs saw new opportunities and quickly assimilated themselves into Federation commerce, such as Quark, a Ferengi who established a bar at Deep Space 9. The Ferengi are not members of the Federation. Ferengi entrepreneurs served as intermediaries for the Karemma in commerce with the Federation. The Karemma sought this arrangement because the Dominion would not have tolerated direct trade with the Federation. One Ferengi quotation says, "Never ask when you can take." Another Ferengi saying is, "Good things come in small packages". A terrible financial decline struck in the mid 24th century, causing rampant inflation and currency devaluation. This catastrophe became known as the Great Monetary Collapse. During the Dominion war, when most of the Alpha Quadrant powers were battling the Dominion threat pouring in from the Gamma Quadrant, the Ferengi Alliance blissfully stayed neutral, content to rake their profit even when chaos abounds just by the side. War for other worlds is expensive, long, and detrimental to internal economy, so why engage in war?

In 2374, at one time there were two Naguses in power: Zek and Brunt. Zek had lost his power when his amendment of the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities to give females the right to wear clothing resulted in planetary chaos on Ferenginar and he was removed from office. Brunt became now Acting Grand Nagus, a temporary position which could have been made permanent if the FCA followed through and gave him the title of full Nagus. Zek succeeded in getting the FCA to reinstate him, through the allure and intelligence of "Lumba". Zek successfully regained his position, and he carried out a series of amendments to the Bill of Rights, such as taxation to fund social welfare programs and environmental protection. Ishka is heavily suspected to have been the driving force behind these unprecedented legislation, and great upheaval accompanied each amendment. As Quark puts it: Ferenginar will soon be like the Federation.