#te-dom

Once at the Academy, Nog sets his sights on Red Squad, an elite cadet group that only the best get to join. He ends up among their ranks when he and Jake are rescued in a battle zone, and he’s thrilled to receive a field promotion and the position of Chief Engineer. Unfortunately, Nog is so eager to be part of this team of high-achievers that he ignores the warning signs of their dysfunction.

Nog takes naturally to the disciplined life of a Starfleet officer. He even intimidates his dad when he returns from the Academy, and he bosses Jake around when they room together. He takes responsibility for training a rambunctious group of Ferengi to be a fighting force capable of rescuing his grandmother, a task that does not come without great frustration. Even when he’s hiding out in a holosuite world, he helps the lounge singer Vic turn his establishment into a bigger and better business.

When Klingon forces begin posting to DS9, Nog makes it his personal mission to gain their respect by confronting them on their unruly behavior, despite being literally half their size.

Thanks to his hard work and the attrition from the war, Nog goes from cadet to Lieutenant (j.g.) in just three years.

Auxiliary Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”

Even though Nog breaks from his people’s tradition by joining Starfleet, he’s still a Ferengi at heart. He recognizes the positive traits he’s inherited from his culture, his father, and his uncle that will help him succeed in Starfleet. He does take a long time to overcome some of his ideas about how to treat women, and he brings a bribe to Captain Sisko when asking for his recommendation—the requisite Ferengi gesture when choosing a mentor. He still holds on to his money, too, even when Jake tries to persuade him to use it to buy the Captain a baseball card (when Jake explains that he doesn’t need money as a Federation citizen, Nog replies, “Then you certainly don’t need mine.”).

Nog also retains his spiritual roots. The Ferengi believe in something called The Great Material Continuum—like the Force, but for money and material goods. It’s this belief that sustains him when he borrows and trades for the spare parts Chief O’Brien needs, always trusting that the Great River will provide. And of course, he never forgets the Rules of Acquisition.

Nog values healthy routine, and tries to encourage Jake to join him in an exercise regimen when they move in together. His appreciation for the establishments of Ferengi culture gives way over time to his respect for the institution of Starfleet. His head for thoroughness and details gets him the recommendation from Sisko after he turns in an inventory with items even the station crew missed. His good ears help Kira solve a series of murders.

Nog’s development as an officer stumbles a bit when he loses a leg in combat and can’t get over the trauma. He keeps reliving the moment, and claims he feels pain in the leg that isn’t there anymore. He retreats into a comforting holosuite world for a while, only coming back to reality in careful steps, supported by his family.

Tertiary Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

Nog wants something better for his life than spending his years working for his uncle in a bar. He recognizes his father’s untapped potential and is terrified of going the same direction. Sensing greater opportunity in Starfleet than Ferenginar, he becomes the first Ferengi to join the Academy.

Nog has to learn a whole new way of life once he’s part of Starfleet, but he has a head start thanks to his boyhood friendship with Jake Sisko. They both challenge each other over the years with new ideas and new perceptions of the world. With that and his father’s gift for creative problem-solving, Nog excels quickly on his new career path.

Inferior Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”

When a Bajoran coup forces everyone to evacuate the station, Jake and Nog are separated only a year into their friendship. Jake’s anxious, but Nog believes in their bond. No Human and Ferengi has ever been better friends than they are, he says, so they won’t be kept apart for long.

She’s skeptical of the whole “Emissary” thing, and all of Ben’s talk about his destiny. When they decide to marry, she doesn’t want to have a gigantic, ridiculous wedding ceremony just to make the Bajoran people happy (though she’s an Extravert, she’s an Extraverted Thinker, and large social occasions based on nothing but group feelings can drain Te-doms as much as any Introvert). She always tries to get her Fi-dom boyfriend/fiancé to speak his mind to her, especially when he just wants to brood.

Auxiliary Function: (Ni) Introverted Intuition, “The Labyrinth”

Kasidy is career-focused, and will take an opportunity from the Bajorans even if Ben isn’t sure yet about the arrangement. While Ben doesn’t like the historic inaccuracies of Vic’s, Kasidy encourages him to see the re-creation as the way things should have been, rather than the way things actually were—personally, it inspires her to remember that she is no longer bound by limitations. Even the 50s fantasy version of Kasidy is focused on achieving a better life for herself and Ben.

Kasidy senses there’s something more to Ben’s mission to beat the Vulcan captain at baseball, and eventually digs the secret out of him. She then reveals the vendetta to the rest of the crew, because she knows it will inspire them to train harder. She loves Ben’s dreams of a future life together in a home on Bajor, and jokes about the crusty old man she sees him turning into. When Ben ends up vanishing with the Prophets, she holds on to the hope that he will return one day.

Tertiary Function: (Se) Extraverted Sensing, “The Kitchens”

Kasidy is quick to take action on what she wants and the opportunities she’s given—in just a day or two, she goes from accepting a new job to moving into her own quarters on the station. She could have gone into a career in Starfleet, but she doesn’t love the minutae of paperwork. She enjoys the campy fun of Vic’s lounge, throwing herself into the role of flirty gambler when the crew pulls off a heist, and she and Ben first bond over their love of the sport of baseball. She decides on the spur of the moment to try cooking for Ben to cheer him up, but ends up burning his homegrown peppers (he forgives her, but keeps her out of the kitchen from then on).

When Ben worries that her ship will be heading through Jem’Hadar territory, she says they’ll have to catch her first.

Inferior Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”

Kasidy and Ben sometimes miss each other on emotional communication, but they do try. He’s an Fi-dom who keeps things to himself unless pressed, and she’s an Fi-inferior who has to apply effort to work through any situation involving feelings. When she briefly joins the Defiant on a mission, she knows Ben is uncomfortable with her presence, but she can’t get him to admit it.

Kasidy won’t turn down the job offer from the Bajorans just because it upsets Ben. And once he apologizes, she makes him wait to kiss her again. She leaves him when he changes his mind about their marriage based on the Prophets’ influence, and only comes back once she makes him promise that he means it this time. She doesn’t relate to Ben’s moral objections to Vic’s, but tries to sympathize with his position. She’s unapologetic about her activities with the Maquis—it’s a personal conviction that she sticks by.

The Founder is supremely confident and implacable even in the face of setbacks. She always believes the Dominion will succeed, and repeatedly tells her enemies how doomed to failure their efforts are. She’s completely intolerant of failure and incompetence, and grows more demanding with her subordinates as the war drags on.

Auxiliary Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”

Millennia ago, Changelings were hunted down by solids who feared and distrusted them. The survivors formed the Dominion, and began conquering the solids in an effort to ensure that they were never persecuted again. The Founder sees all non-shapeshifters through the lens of this story, and won’t accept them as anything other than dangerous, small-minded brutes.

She finds existence as a humanoid limiting compared to the way she lives when she’s at home in the Great Link. Though she describes the Link to Odo in abstract terms, I don’t think this puts it outside the realm of sensory experience. Si, because it’s personal to the user, can feel abstract and hard to describe, like any other Introverted function.

Odo’s Si-experience is usually of being in one form, while The Founder has been many different shapes and beings over the centuries. She can replicate anything or anyone down to the last tactile detail, and shares the experience of all the other Changelings she’s with in the Link, who have also taken many forms. Thus her life experience is multi-faceted and expansive, and she very naturally feels that she is wiser and has more understanding of the universe than solids trapped in one form. That she refuses to consider their perspective until Odo links with her betrays the hidden rigidity of her thinking.

Tertiary Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

The Founder takes pride in being a shapeshifter, and gets bored and frustrated having to stay in the shape of a humanoid for too long. She pushes Odo to think outside the box (or bucket) of his bipedal existence, to experience the essence of different objects and lifeforms. She uses language that sounds mysterious and abstract to him as she describes life in the Great Link, hinting that she may be not so much an individual, but a “drop” of the Great Link that “becomes the ocean” when she returns.

On the other hand, the Founder’s ideas of humanoids have solidified, if you will, and she will not be moved in her perception. She tries love-making in the humanoid style, and is not impressed. When she’s infected with a wasting disease by Starfleet’s secretive Section 31, this only confirms her cynical view of humans. As her war efforts begin to fail, she begins to loop, ordering the swift execution and re-cloning of her Vorta scientists to provide a fresh perspective on their work to cure her.

Inferior Function: (Fi) Introverted Function, “The Deep Well”

The Founder pursues her mission to dominate the galaxy with an air of moral superiority. She believes that Changelings are a higher life-form than all non-changelings, giving the Founders the right and duty to conquer. She needs allies like the Breen and the Cardassians to build her forces, but she still views them with disdain, and will manipulate them to serve her purposes.

Her greater mission, beyond conquering the Alpha Quadrant, is to bring Odo home. She’s tender and patient with him, repeatedly inviting him to return to the Link. She and the other Founders feel forced to punish Odo for breaking their one rule—that no Changeling ever harms another Changeling—but once his time is served, she once again entreats him to join their ranks. Though he has chosen life with the solids, she assures him that he will always be a Changeling in the eyes of his people.

The Founder grows testy as the infection breaks her down, and the Alpha Quadrant refuses to surrender to her will. She denies her condition at first, not wishing to show weakness, but then she stops caring how anyone sees her. She bullies, criticizes, threatens, and abuses her subordinates. She orders mass executions of Cardassians to punish the insurgent movement, and then orders the whole planet wiped out when it looks like the Dominion has lost.

Ishka wants to break through the barriers holding Ferengi women down, but she doesn’t necessarily want to dismantle the whole system. She wants the chance to succeed in that system, to profit and make business deals and generally show she’s as good at it as any man. She even teaches her sons the Rules of Acquisition, recognizing their value. She makes the system work for her, all while that system tries to punish her for it.

Because Ishka does it anyway.

Auxiliary Function: (Ni) Introverted Intuition, “The Labyrinth”

Ishka has a keen eye for what will be profitable. She criticizes Quark for playing with his childhood action figures instead of keeping them in their original packaging to be worth more later. She’s able to quietly amass an incredible fortune, and when the FCA demands she give it back, she discreetly hides most of it under dummy corporations and false names.

Ishka sees a better future for Ferenginar, believing that their people will be even more successful if half the population is allowed to do business. She believes that one day, a woman will take her rightful place as Grand Nagus. She refuses to do things the orthodox way—no pre-chewing the food for her boys—and encourages Zek to pass many helpful reforms, like protecting their world’s natural resources. When he’s deposed, she orchestrates his re-instatement. When it’s time to retire, she convinces Zek to name Rom as his successor, trusting that her good-hearted son will carry her revolutionary legacy forward.

Tertiary Function: (Se) Extraverted Sensing, “The Kitchens”

Ishka likes her show off her wealth. She breaks Ferengi taboos by wearing not just clothing, but fabulous clothing. She not only gets out of the house, but off the planet, to travel and see what’s out there—and to get a lobe lift. She invests in skin cream to keep her youthful complexion. She knows an opportunity when she sees one, and won’t let a chance for profit pass her by, even when she’s confined to her home.

Inferior Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”

Ishka’s not held back by fear, insecurity, or concerns about being polite. She knows she wasn’t the traditional mother Quark and Rom might have wanted, but she loves her sons dearly and doesn’t mind taking care of them or comforting them when needed. She and Quark are equally headstrong, and can make each other furious. One of their fights even gives her a heart-attack.

Ishka finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the Grand Nagus himself, but rather than being distracted by this development, she enjoys the added dimension it gives to her life. Their relationship is so strong she’s able to win Zek over to her side of things, passing reforms to strengthen Ferengi society and emancipate females. Ishka believes in her own value, and the value of Ferengi women, and she brings an activist’s energy to her financial pursuits.

Auxiliary Function: (Ni) Introverted Intuition, “The Labyrinth”

Zek plans long-term, always negotiating with an end game in mind. He sees significance in Quark, not necessarily as a person, but as a useful conduit of information from the Gamma Quadrant that could lead to profitable ventures. When he passes his position to Quark and fakes his death, it’s to see if his son Krax has the lobes to seize power correctly (he does not, and we never hear from him again).

As he explains to his clumsy failure of a son: “You don’t grab power, you accumulate it, quietly, without anyone noticing.”

Zek sends Quark into the Gamma Quadrant to open negotiations for tulaberry wine, proclaiming that the untapped resources on the other side of the wormhole are destined to be Ferenginar’s next great frontier. He’s really not interested in wine, though. What he’s really hoping for is to catch the attention of the Dominion, the real power in the Gamma Quadrant. Thus the Ferengi end up making contact—and forging relationships—with the Dominion before anyone else from the Gamma Quadrant even hears about them.

Zek is so keen on sniffing out potential business opportunities that he tries to use the Orb he’s found to see into the future. This does not go well for him, as the Prophets temporarily turn him into a philanthropist (my best guess is that he becomes an ENFJ for a while, but I don’t want to knock the idea of an honest-to-goodness ENTJ Good Samaritan; I just think it would look different than this version of Zek).

While Zek is as shocked as any Ferengi male to discover a Ferengi female making profit, it turns out he’s not as bound to tradition as others. He doesn’t care much if females wear clothing, as long as they keep it inside the home. Once he’s in a relationship with the radical Ishka, he adopts many of her far-sighted reforms, pushing Ferenginar in a new direction.

Tertiary Function: (Se) Extraverted Sensing, “The Kitchens”

Zek loves life’s pleasures—beautiful females, good beetle snuff, succulent tube grubs, steamy holosuite adventures, rousing games of Tongo and Dabo. His throneroom is opulent, and his robes the finest. He knows he has no shot with Kira, but tries anyway because it can’t hurt to ask.

Zek’s an opportunist at heart, which has helped him succeed, but when he starts to lose his mental faculties, he ends up making rash choices like traveling to the Mirror Universe in an ultimately pointless and dangerous bid to find new sources of profit.

Inferior Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”