Rom Rom was a male Ferengi engineer of the 24th century Ferengi Alliance and became its Grand Nagus . A failure as a businessman but a mechanical and engineering genius , he worked as a waiter for several years at Quark ' s Bar , Grill , Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade on Deep Space 9 before becoming an engineer in the Bajoran Militia . He was known for being a kinder , gentler Ferengi and kept that reputation as Nagus . He was the son of Keldar and Ishka , younger brother of Quark , and father of Nog . He was married twice , to Prinadora and then Leeta . Childhood . Rom grew up on Ferenginar with his family . As a child , Rom was always teased for having smaller - than - average lobe s than the rest of the boys . Quark was the worst , telling everyone that Rom was adopted . On Rom ' s Naming Day , Quark substituted his brother ' s presents with old vegetable s , and sold the presents for more than their father had paid for them , which actually earned him the praise of his parents . ( ) When Rom was a child he had a latinum tooth sharpener . Quark resented this , as his tooth sharpener was a wooden chew stick . Family . After Quark left Ferenginar in 2351 , upon reaching his Age of Ascension , Rom lived at home for a further decade . During this time he realized that Keldar was a poor businessman , going from one bad deal to the next . Rom finally left Ferenginar in 2361 . ( ) Prinadora . In the early 2350s , Rom met his first wife , Prinadora . He signed a standard five - year marriage contract with her father in order to have a child . In 2353 , they had their son , Nog . Rom , however , then fell in love with Prinadora and wanted to extend the contract . Unfortunately , he was so in love that he never bothered to read the extension before signing it . In the end , her father swindled Rom out of all of his money , and Prinadora left Rom ( and Nog ) for a richer man . ( ) Quark . Quark exploited and belittled Rom all of his life . Growing up , Quark often teased Rom about his smaller lobes and about supposedly being adopted . He worked in Quark ' s Bar for low wages , and was cheated out of his share of the profits . When Grand Nagus Zek visited Deep Space 9 , Quark made Rom give up his quarters for the Nagus . When Zek appointed Quark to be the new Grand Nagus , Rom conspired to kill Quark , and might have succeeded if Zek and Odo hadn ' t arrived at the last minute . Quark later praised Rom for his treachery . ( ) At first Rom did whatever Quark demanded . But as time went on , Rom began to resist his brother ' s demands . Rom became less afraid of Quark and confronted him over many issues . When Quark dropped Rom ' s share of the profits from 14 . 3 % to 12 . 5 % ( from one - seventh to one - eighth share of profit ) , Rom left and joined Martus Mazur in opening a rival bar . When Martus began treating Rom even worse , he returned to Quark ' s where he could at least " be cheated by family . " ( ) He opposed Quark over his treatment of their mother , who — against Ferengi law — earned profit . When Quark tried to forbid Nog ' s admission to Starfleet Academy in late 2371 , Rom reminded him that he was Nog ' s father and Quark had no say in the matter . ( ) The following year , he single - handedly organized a union of Quark ' s employees after Quark had cut their wages . He defied both his brother and Liquidator Brunt , whom the Ferengi Commerce Authority had sent to resolve the situation . After the wages had been restored , Rom made the final break with his brother . Rom joined the maintenance crew on Deep Space 9 . ( ) But , throughout all the conflicts with his brother , he and Quark loved each other very much . This was evident when he became jealous of Quark ' s relationship with Pel . Rom exposed Pel as a female during a visit by Grand Nagus Zek in 2370 . ( ) For his part , Quark always took care of Rom if he was in need . Quark had always remained neutral in conflicts from the Cardassian occupation of Bajor to the retaking of Deep Space 9 by the Cardassians . When Rom was arrested for sabotage and sentenced to death , Quark risked his life and saved Rom . They had many adventures together , and many opportunities for profit . Ishka . Rom ' s mother , Ishka , loved Rom very much and protected him . She saw that he was a good man , unsuccessful in commercial ventures , but with a good heart . Ironically , she saw Rom as being more similar to his father Keldar , whom Quark mistakenly idolized , although he too was a terrible businessman . Quark , conversely , was more like her . Rom and Ishka were very close when he was a child , and they remained close when Rom moved away from Ferenginar . Rom never quarreled with her over her lifestyle , nor resented her for earning more profit than him . Ishka was his " Moogie . " He supported her against both Quark and the Ferengi Commerce Authority . When he admitted to being somewhat uncomfortable with being in Ishka ' s newly clothed presence in a private discussion between them , she disrobed , but " only for him " . ( ) Rom was part of the team that rescued Ishka from the Dominion . The Dominion agreed to a prisoner exchange , Ishka for the Vorta Keevan . Empok Nor was the site for the prisoner exchange . After a battle with the Jem ' Hadar , Ishka was rescued . ( ) Ishka probably influenced Zek in naming Rom his successor as the new Nagus . ( ) Although Nog told his father several times he could do better , Rom always dreamed of taking over the bar from Quark . Nog . Rom had a good relationship with his son Nog , although there were times that they did not see eye - to - eye . Nog wanted to pursue career opportunities of a nontraditional Ferengi nature . Rom strongly disapproved and even attempted to prevent Nog from learning to read or attend Keiko O ' Brien ' s school on the station . But he changed his mind and allowed ( forcefully ) Nog to attend the school . ( ) Over the years , Rom ' s attitudes softened and he encouraged his son in his goals . His ambition for his son grew to the point where he felt directly invested . When Nog wished to apply to Starfleet , Rom encouraged him , saying that he would be proud to have a son in Starfleet . ( ) Quark , however , remained opposed to the idea . When Rom discovered that Quark had altered the settings of the holosuite to distort the results of one of the exams so that Nog would fail , he reported the incident to Commander Sisko ( who let Nog re - take the exam ) , and threatened to destroy Quark ' s Bar should he interfere again . ( ) When his son became a cadet , Rom was extremely proud , although he always worried about Nog and the dangers he faced . Nog joined Rom in rescuing Ishka from the Dominion . He later had to deal with Nog ' s depression after his son was wounded in a battle with the Dominion and lost a leg . Rom opposed the idea that Nog would recuperate in the Vic Fontaine holoprogram . ( ) Leeta . In 2373 , Rom fell in love with Leeta , a Bajoran woman who worked as one of the dabo girl s at Quark ' s . Leeta admitted to having a crush on him to her ex - boyfriend , Julian Bashir . ( ) Despite constantly planning to do so , Rom could never work up the courage to ask Leeta out . When Doctor Lewis Zimmerman visited the station to work with Doctor Bashir , he fell in love with Leeta . She was going to leave with him and they planned to live together , Zimmerman offering to let her open a restaurant on Jupiter Station . Just as she was boarding a ship , Rom stopped her and confessed his love for her . Leeta admitted that she was in love with Rom and remained . ( ) Rom learned about Bajoran customs to please Leeta , but demanded that Leeta sign the Ferengi equivalent of a pre - nuptial agreement , called the waiver of property and profit . Rom and Leeta broke up over the demand and that made Rom miserable . He decided to give his latinum to the Bajoran War Orphans Fund so that the pre - nuptial agreement was no longer necessary and he and Leeta made up . ( ) The two were married in late 2373 in a ceremony officiated by Benjamin Sisko . ( ) Deep Space 9 . Rom was employed at Quark ' s aboard Deep Space 9 , holding several positions such as server , pit boss , and assistant to Quark , before being " promoted " to Assistant Manager of Policy and Clientele . He and his brother Quark had an odd relationship . Quark at times treated him like a servant , many times swindling him out of latinum . Other times Quark took care of Rom , and provided him with whatever he needed . Rom was very loyal to Quark and would do anything Quark asked . ( ) When the Grand Nagus Zek visited the station , he admonished Rom for sending Nog to school and told him to stop it . Zek made Quark the new nagus so he could retire . Shortly after this , he died . Rom wanted Quark ' s Bar , but instead Quark appointed Rom as his bodyguard . Rom still wanted the bar , but Quark refused , and Rom along with Krax , Zek ' s son , decided to kill Quark . Rom escorted him to an airlock but instead of a ship waiting , there was empty space . Just before Quark would have been ejected into space , Zek appeared and stated that he faked his death to test his son ' s worthiness to be nagus – which he failed . Quark congratulated Rom on his treachery , since this made him a true Ferengi . ( ) After Quark was appointed to open trade negotiation with the Gamma Quadrant , Rom became jealous of a Ferengi named Pel who became Quark ' s right - hand man in the negotiations . Rom exposed her as a female which got Quark in trouble . ( ) After the attempted murder of his brother , Rom briefly became a suspect . When the murderer tried to kill Quark again in the hospital , Rom was able to save him . ( ) He opposed his brother during the crisis their mother caused when she earned profit . Quark wanted Ishka to return all the profits , or he would have to and be ruined . When they stopped talking to each other , Rom arranged a meeting , and they resolved the issue . Ishka signed a confession and returned the profits . But she hid two - thirds of the profits with Rom ' s help . ( ) Rom was made senior administrator of the Ferengi Benevolent Association , a short - lived organization established by Grand Nagus Zek during a period in which the Prophet s had replaced the Nagus ' greedy philosophical perspective with a more charitable one . Rom ' s greed was unaffected , however , and he embezzled money from the association until it was shut down , after Quark convinced the Prophets to restore the Nagus . ( ) In 2372 , a mishap on their ship sent Rom and Quark back to Earth in 1947 . This became known as the Roswell Incident . They were mistaken for invaders and were almost dissected by the military . They escaped with the help of Earth scientist s and returned to their own time . ( ) A new career . Rom became sick due to being overworked . He became angry at the working conditions in Quark ' s , and formed the Guild of Restaurant and Casino Employees . Brunt arrived at the station and threatened Rom , when this failed he had Quark beaten and threatened to kill him . Rom ended the strike when Quark secretly agreed to his demands . He followed this up with an application to join the station ' s Bajoran engineering crew and joined Chief O ' Brien ' s maintenance team , initially working in waste extraction as a Diagnostic and Repair Technician , Junior Grade . ( ) Rom re - calibrated the deflector beam at O ' Brien ' s request . O ' Brien was ordered to do this by a Pah - wraith who had taken over Keiko O ' Brien ' s body and had threatened to kill her . Rom informed O ' Brien that the recalibration would send the deflector beam into the wormhole and kill the aliens inside it . O ' Brien was able to rig the beam to hit the alien and save Keiko . As Rom kept O ' Brien ' s secret safe until Keiko was no longer in danger , this endeared Rom to O ' Brien , who promoted him to the day shift . ( ) . He was further promoted to Maintenance Engineer , First Class in mid - 2375 . ( ) Rom was invited to join Captain Sisko ' s baseball team that was going to play against a Vulcan team coached by , a rival of Sisko ' s since their Academy days . Rom couldn ' t hit a ball , and wasn ' t good at catching , either . Sisko cut him from the team . Later , Sisko felt bad and in the last inning with Nog on third , the team losing 10 to 0 , Sisko sent Rom to bat . Rom missed the first two pitches . On the third pitch , as Rom leaned forward to try to see what the coach wanted him to do , he accidentally hit the ball . It rolled down the first base line and Nog slid into home , scoring his team ' s only run . The team rushed the field and lifted Rom up as the hero of the game . ( ) Dominion War . Rom played an important role in the war against the Dominion , coming up with the idea of self - replicating mine s to block the Bajoran wormhole , stopping the Dominion from being reinforced from the Gamma Quadrant . When the Dominion captured Deep Space 9 , he remained on board as a " spy " for the Federation , and resumed his title of Assistant Manager of Policy and Clientele . ( ) During the Cardassian takeover of DS9 , he was part of Kira ' s resistance cell against the Dominion . He helped cause dissension between the Dominion and Cardassians . After learning that Gul Dukat was going to use the deflector array to disable the replicating mines , he tried to disable the deflector array , but was caught . He was sentenced to death by Dukat for his actions , but was rescued by Quark and Tora Ziyal . He failed to disable the deflector array , but disabled the station ' s weapons systems instead . The loss of the weapons systems left the Dominion - held station vulnerable after the loss of their reinforcements , allowing the Federation / Klingon task force to recapture the station easily . ( ) Several weeks later , when his mother was captured by the Dominion , Rom was part of the Ferengi group that traveled to Empok Nor to exchange her for Keevan . ( ) Becoming Nagus . A series of events through the years all contributed to Rom ' s elevation to nagus . In 2375 , Rom eventually became Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance . At first the Nagus Zek ignored Rom , believing him to be of poor business sense and not very intelligent . Zek disagreed strongly with many of Rom ' s choices concerning his son Nog . Zek did not like the idea of Nog attending a Human school , and was opposed to Nog entering Starfleet . But events and Ishka would influence the improvement of Zek ' s attitude toward Rom . ( ) Rom helped restore the nagus to the Ferengi ways after the nagus had been influenced by the wormhole aliens . He helped restore Zek as the Grand Nagus after Brunt had deposed him . ( ) He and Quark entered into the mirror universe and saved Zek from the Alliance . They helped the " " in capturing the , after disabling his weapon systems . They also killed who was going to kill them , although Rom was shocked at offering to " debrief " following her defection . in the mirror universe had been killed by the Alliance . ( ) When Ishka became Zek ' s companion , she influenced him in trying to turn the Ferengi society into a more tolerant one that allowed free commerce and woman ' s rights . Her influence over Zek led to social reform and a Ferenginar that instituted democratic changes . Rom became the perfect choice for Nagus because he himself had never been a traditional Ferengi . Zek believed that he would be an excellent successor for the newly reformed Ferenginar . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Rom was portrayed by Max Grodénchik . Grodénchik commented : " " When this series started , Rom had no prospects . He was under his brother ' s thumb , tie had no real sense of self , and he felt that he was a failure as a Ferengi . He was frightened , a scared little guy . But with the influence of all the different races that have come through the station — the Bajorans , the humans , the Klingons , and so on — he began to think about other ways of life and to reshape his own . He began to stick up for his son and then for himself , and to separate what was important to him in life , and what wasn ' t . And he developed to a point where he wanted to share his life with someone else . He fell in love and married Leeta and felt worthwhile . I think it began back in season one , when Rom returned a purse and Quark asked , ' Why did you do that ? The First Rule of Acquisition says once you have their money , you never give it back . ' He was trying to do a good thing , the right thing . And somehow that led him to the point where the guy who felt less like a Ferengi than any other Ferengi was suddenly head of the Ferengi Alliance ! It ' s just like an American kid wanting to grow up to be President . I ' m sure every Ferengi boy wants to grow up to be the Grand Nagus . If you ' re an American kid and somewhere along the line you start getting bad grades , you tell yourself , ' Well , maybe I ' ll just settle for being a fireman ' . Your dreams get whittled down over the years . So I ' m sure for Rom it ' s the last thing he ever expected . It ' s just been an amazing journey ! Over the years , I ' ve tried to outguess the writers . I ' ve tried to imagine what ' s next for Rom and think of what ' s best for Rom . But they always come up with something better than 1 could ever imagine . I certainly can ' t complain and I ' ve learned that maybe it ' s not my job to think about it . I should just leave it to the Blessed Exchequer ! " " ( " " ) Max Grodénchik sees as an important episode in the development of Rom as a character . Grodénchik commented : " " I do think that these characters are continuing to grow . In " Necessary Evil " , Odo says to me , ' You are a hero , Rom . You saved your brother ' s life ' . That feels good . I think Rom is torn between both sides of that - being a good brother and wanting the bar . He is very conflicted , and I think that is a good thing . We are all conflicted about something . It is more sophisticated and true to life than just saying Rom just wants the bar , because I think Rom also wants his brother ' s approval . He even says in [ " Necessary Evil " ] , ' I tried so hard to win my brother ' s trust , but now he is dead I can never earn it ' . He wants the bar to prove to his brother that he can make great profit . When Quark went away to the Gamma Quadrant with Pel ( in ] , he did great business " " . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p 66 ) According to Ronald D . Moore , Rom ( as of season 6 , and unlike his son ) probably was not a Federation citizen . Apocrypha . In the , Rom and Leeta went on to have a daughter , who they named Bena , both for the Bajoran word for " joy " , and after Benjamin Sisko for all he had done for them . Ironically , as Quark pointed out , the word " bena " , in Ferengi , meant " underflooring " , although Rom defended it by saying that it symbolized how children were always getting underfoot . At the time of Bena ' s birth Rom was being challenged for his role of Grand Nagus on the grounds that he had broken his original marriage contract with Prinadora , but Ro Laren was able to clear him by pointing out that , according to the Rules of Acquisition , " " A contract is a contract is a contract , but only between Ferengi " " , arguing that , since Rom ' s second marriage was to a Bajoran woman in a Bajoran ceremony overseen by the Bajoran Emissary , technically he didn ' t violate his original contract as the new one didn ' t " count " under Ferengi law . Rom also opened diplomatic relations between Ferenginar and Bajor when Bajor joined the Federation . At the same time , he arranged to have Quark ' s Bar named as the official Ferengi Embassy to Bajor , resulting in Quark becoming the Ferengi Ambassador to Bajor . With his bar now as the Ferengi Embassy , Quark could still continue to charge latinum for his services - as the Embassy , the bar became Ferengi " soil " and therefore subject to Ferengi law , whereas under Federation law ( and the Federation ' s post - scarcity , money - free economy ) , Quark would have been unable to charge . In the novel " A Singular Destiny " , Rom accepted an invitation for the Ferengi Alliance , and the Cardassian Union , to join the Federation and Klingon Empire in an expansion of the Khitomer Accords , in response to the Typhon Pact : an alliance of the Romulan Star Empire , the Tholian Assembly , the Breen Confederacy , the Gorn Hegemony , the Tzenkethi Coalition , and the Holy Order of the Kinshaya . In the video game " " , Rom made several non - speaking appearances on the Promenade between missions . He was also mentioned by name in the PC game " " in his capacity as Grand Nagus . In the video game " Star Trek Online " , Rom , as Grand Nagus , negotiated an agreement with the Cardassian Detapa Council to finance the rebuilding of Cardassia ' s cities and industry in 2391 .