Physiology and Appearance

The Ferengi are markedly shorter and more lightly built than Humans. They have tannish- to pumpkin-colored skin with no head or facial hair. They keep their pointed teeth sharp with special grooming tools. The most notable Ferengi feature is their ears -- large, prominent ones whose upper edges merge with a distinctive brow ridge. Males have larger ears than females. Besides allowing Ferengi to hear extremely well, the ears are an erogenous zone and inspire many cultural metaphors and sayings. For example, a Ferengi with plenty of financial skill and savvy is said to "have the loves for business."

The Ferengi have four-lobed brains that render them immune to the psionic skills and psi-like abilities of races such as Betazoids. They cannot acquire the psionic trait themselves.

Homeworld

Ferenginar (Ventarus Idrilon IV) is a swampy, rainy world in the Bajor sector. In fact, the planet is so wet that the Ferengi language has 178 different synonyms for the word rain. It is coreword of both Bajor and Cardassia Prime. The Ferengi influence a number of worlds in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

History

Very little is known about Ferengi history before the 2350's. Prior to that time period they were fairly isolated, with a limited number of interactions with outside species. It took the Ferengi 10,000 years from the time they first started usin currency to establish the Ferengi Alliance. They quickly extended their culture on an interstellar scale by buying warp drive technology.

A terrible financial recession struck Ferenginar in the mid-24th century, causing rampant inflation and currency devaluation. This catastrophe is known as the Great Monetary Collapse, and many historians believe this collapse led to an agressive outward movement that brought about increased contact with other races.

The first major interaction with the Federation occured in 2354, when the USS Carver detected motion at the extreme limit of its sensor range. Pinpoint sensors followed the moving object for twelve seconds before it disappeared. Computer enhancement revealed a vessel of unknown configuration. However, analysis by Starfleet showed conclusively that the vessel was Ferengi.

Shortly there after in 2355 in the distant Maxia Zetar star system, a vessel later identified as Ferengi attacked the starship Stargazer without provocation. Captain Jean-Luc Picard used a strategy now known as the Picard Maneuver to destroy the Ferengi ship. However, the Stargazer was so badly damaged that she had to be abandoned.

In 2364, Starfleet officers met Ferengi officers for the first time on the planet Delphi Ardu.

In 2374, Grand Nagus Zek added a new amendment to the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities, recognizing the right of females to wear clothes. It was the beginning of a movement to change Ferengi society that not only gave equal rights to women, but also led to better work ethics and envrionments. Announcement of the amendment initially caused financial chaos throughout Ferengi society and nearly deposing Zek in the process. Stability and profitability return when it became evident that equal opportunity for females resultd in the opening of exciting new markets for consumer goods.

This period of reform continued into the Grand Naguship of Rom, Zek's son-in-law. Unfortunately, the reforms were too much for Ferengi society to accept. The changes were too drastic and the social revolution collapsed in 2386. Grand Nagus Tark reinstated the Rules of Acquisition as the basis for Ferengi society while women continued to keep their equal status.

Culture

Business, commerce, finance, and acquisition of profite dominate Ferngi culture the same way they occupy the Ferengi mind. A Ferengi's status in society depends almost entirely on how much profit he or she earns. Every Ferengi memorizes and lives by the Rules of Aquisition, 285 maxims describing good business practices and providing general advice for profitable existances.

Until the reforms of Grand Nagi Zek and Rom in the mid- to late-2370's, women were second-class citizens. Females could not wear clothes, conduct business, or participate in politics. They were expected to remain subserviant to men right down to chewing males' food to soften it before they ate it. Ferengi marriages were contractual affairs, with payment based on the duration of the contract, whether the couple had children, and similar factors. Equality rights for women were some of the few standards the survived a movement back toward Ferengi customs in the late 2780's. The addition of women to the workforce increased production significantly, effectively doubling the Ferengi economy.

Ferengi workers are not treated well. Even in the family business, employers exploit their workers, forcing them to labor long hours for low pay and no benefits whatsoever. Workers often have to provide kickbacks, favors, and the like to their employers. Every Ferengi worker fervently hopes to climb the "latinum stairway" and become and employer himself.

The leader of the Ferengi Alliance, a government organized along economic lines, holds the title Grand Nagus or Grand Nagesse. Below him or her, many other nagi, subnagi, and lesser officials fill the administrative ranks, each earning profit by extorting bribes from people who need their services. The Grand Nagus employs Grand Proxies and the Liquidators of the Ferengi Commerce Authority to keep lesser Ferengi in line and, if necessary, take a cut of their profits for himself. The Grand Nagus appoints his own successor prior to dying.

The dreaded Ferengi Commerce Authority is a regulatory body similar to a secret police. It's agents, called Liquidators, cultivate a reputation for ruthlessness, harshly punishing Alliance citizens who violate the Ferengi Coade. Liquidators persue with special vigilance those who violate contracts between Ferengi or negotiate less-than-onerous labor agreements with their employees. FCA officers have wide lattitude, and may use violence against suspects, or summarily strip them of their assets and the right to do business with other Ferengi.

Ferengi get what they want by being smarter and sneakier than everyone around them. When that fails, they wheedle. When wheedling fails, they emit a pieercing distress signal. Some are quick to use violence when they have the upper hand, but in general, force is not a Ferengi strong suit.

Ferengi believe in an afterlife; dead souls go to the Divine Treasury, where they compete at auction for a sharply limited number of new lives. Those who are prosperous in life win the auction and are reincarnated. Those who lose the auction are consigned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution. As this is going on, survivors slice up the dead Ferengi's mortal remains, vacuum-seal them in decorative containers, and sell them as collectibles.