User:R'Tor/Sandbox

Looks like this war is going to take longer than expected. This article or user page is a work in progress. It is not finished and may undergo critical changes while this message remains in place. As a courtesy, please avoid making minor edits to this page while this message is displayed, in order to avoid edit conflicts.

Ferengi Alliance
Basic Information
Major Species	Ferengi
Homeworld(s)	Ferenginar
Founded	~10,000 BCE
Warp Capable	Unknown
Official Language	Ferengi standard
Official Currency	Gold pressed latinum
Political Information
Governance Type	Plutocratic Oligarchy
Leader	Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance (Grand Nagus Rom) Congress of Economic Advisors Board of Liquidators
Military Branches	Ferengi Marauder fleet
Template:Government

NON-FEDERATION SHIP

Ferengi

Ferengi are known across the galaxy as profit merchants, traders and information brokers. They are dedicated to earning profit and accumulation of wealth, they also are notorious for greed. While they have little military might, their ship technology was designed to support their wealth gathering activities, be it trading or stealing.

Most Ferengi starships are privately owned and operate. DaiMon, technically translated as "captain", is the individual officially designated as the leader and responsible for making business deals and seeking out new opportunities. Like privateers of Earth, DaiMon are required to follow specific government rules.

• Bulleted list item

D'Kora-class Marauder

While Starfleet has little technical information, observations in various encounters were built with thick hulls and strong shields to support their wealth gathering activities, be it trading or stealing.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/D%27Kora_class#Technical_data D'kora class at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

D'Kora

The Ferengi Marauder is a combination of a freighter and a warship. As the latter, it is nearly a match to a Federation Galaxy class.

D'Kora-class Marauder

Each ship is captained by a DaiMon, who has purchased a contract to operate the vessel on behalf of the FCA in exchange. This gives the DaiMon prime opportunities to take assignments that will bring profit to the Ferengi Alliance, including being given authorisation to conduct trade negotiations on behalf of the Alliance, and in return they keep a comfortable percentage. So long as a DaiMon follows the regulations on how a Ferengi ship must be run and brings back a profit, he enjoys a vast freedom in selecting his assignments and how he operates a powerful warship with the backing of the Alliance. This has led to the Ferengi military becoming a complicated network where a DaiMon's relationship with others are key to securing the biggest successes with the greatest cooperation, but each inevitably compete on some level for a bigger share of the profit.

Political Structure

Ferenginar, Capitol of the Ferengi Alliance

Society

The Ferengi Alliance is a capitalistic body dominated by wealthy, well-connected Ferengi males. Successful Ferengi bring profit to themselves, their families and their business partners. Advancement in the Alliance relies on who you know and how much you are willing to bribe or pay royalties to for their assistance. The Alliance is best thought of as a major mega-corporation. Greed and profit are the primary goals of the society and its members follow a social doctrine for success called the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.

Social Hierarchy

The Ferengi Alliance, while dominated by Ferengi, employs numerous allied and non-aligned species. Ferengi maintain a de facto preferred status. Hierarchies within the Alliance can be both rigid and fluid: Ferengi have potential social mobility based on their personal skill at negotiation and accumulating wealth, a trait known as, "Having the lobes for business." Ferengi advance within the Alliance through bribes, cronyism and graft.

Observers have suggested that attributing Ferengi motivation solely to latinum and profit may be an over-simplification of their society. Those who have worked alongside Ferengi report them to often be very hard-working and target-focused, identifying their goals and stopping at nothing to achieve them, even if these motivations happen to have nothing to do with profit. Ferengi certainly prize the acquisition of wealth, and it has been theorised this acts as a literal measure of success, a way their work ethic can be observed and quantified. Profit is not, these sociologists theorise, the goal itself - it is a means of measuring and publicly demonstrating meeting these goals, and Ferengi society has normalised and codified this.

Diplomatic Relations

Officially, the Ferengi Alliance declares neutrality in virtually every galactic conflict that may exist at any one time. In the realms of galactic politics, the Ferengi Alliance is solely interested in gaining profit- making enemies reduces that end-goal considerably. The Ferengi recognize that their military prowess is inferior to virtually all nearby major powers; their strength remains their economic clout.

Military

The D'Kora Class, a Ferengi Alliance workhorse.

The Alliance maintains a military which consisted mostly of D'Kora Class vessels; heavily armed and armoured trade vessels. These are better known as 'Marauders' by those outside the Alliance, as while they are most often engaged to aggressively protect business interests, pre-emptive strikes and jealous guarding of shipments in the most dangerous regions of space has been easily misconstrued. However, where Ferengi have conducted outright raids and actions other governments would deem piracy, the D'Kora class are indeed the most often-used ships.

Formally, the DaiMons answer to the Grand Nagus himself. In practice, multiple wealthy and powerful DaiMons conduct their assignments as they see fit, justifying their actions either by bringing back enormous wealth for the Alliance or pursuing the interests of a member of the FCA who will cover their backs. With Grand Nagus Rom struggling to assert personal control over the military and the recent uprising of the galactic powers, many Ferengi ships have been designed, constructed, refitted and retrofitted with more combat-based technologies to pursue the agendas of these powerful DaiMons.

The management of the military is likely responsible for many of Starfleet's early misconceptions of the nature of the Ferengi. The Alliance early on identified the Federation's moneyless economy, finding it unfathomable. The Grand Nagus of the time sought to exploit this incomprehensible enemy by conducting a disinformation campaign as to be equally incomprehensible. This took the form of a large military buildup and the sanctioning of the spread of malicious rumours, so as when formal contact was established, it happened from a position of strength. While the Federation has largely corrected its view of Ferengi over decades of interactions, elements of this misunderstanding remains, such as the continued use of the 'Marauders' colloquialism to refer to their ships.

The Ferengi Alliance in Play

• The Ferengi Alliance has no interest in military conquest. If they claim a system, it is for the purposes of resource exploitation or salvage operations.
• The Ferengi Alliance maintains its neutrality in all armed conflicts, though it will engage in economic warfare to leverage better negotiating positions. Individual Ferengi may take sides and sell products for profit.
• The Ferengi have a robust interest in opening negotiations with Delta Quadrant species and have been petitioning the Federation for more access to the Barzan wormhole.
• Sale of Borg technology has become a thorny issue among Ferengi businessmen and the other galactic powers. The Alliance continues to maintain its neutrality and disavows any transactions where the parts seem illicit. However, the Alliance continues to support salvage rights for any technology that they may encounter- including Borg technology.
• The Ferengi have only had limited success in infiltrating the Romulan Factions, particularly the Romulan Free State. Much of their success has been among resource-starved colony worlds which need the assistance.
• Increased Starfleet presence in proximity to Alliance space has caused a change in the immediate relationship. While formal relations with the Federation thus remain friendly, individual encounters with Ferengi on the border can be unpredictable as the Ferengi will do whatever is most profitable for them: help Starfleet for the right price, or undermine them as competitors.

The Marauder of the D'Kora class, designed by Andrew Probert, first appeared in TNG: "The Last Outpost". Probert intended the vessel to have an extendable neck and weapon platforms. The ship actually changed into this this configuration in "The Last Outpost". The model was not only tilted to suggest that the neck was extended. The weapon platforms are definitely visible on the last of the three screen caps (left picture), and they match the configuration as it can be seen on the studio miniature. In all other appearances the D'Kora remained in the standard configuration. Probert explains the extended configuration as a posture of surrender.

External Information

• Ferengi Alliance at Memory Alpha
• Ferengi at Memory Alpha
• Ferenginar at Memory Alpha

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/dkora.jpg