Born into a common house, Martok was originally denied officer status by Kor. He gets a battlefield commission after helping drive a Romulan boarding party off. After being abducted and replaced by a shapeshifter, Martok escapes back to the alpha quadrant in 2372 and becomes the commander of the base Deep Space 9. At the end of the Dominion War, Chancellor Gowron comes to Deep Space 9 and assumes control of all the forces there, whereupon Worf kills him and passes the title of Chancellor on to Martok. As Chancellor, Martok leads the combined forces of the Klingons, Federation, Romulans and Cardassians against the Dominion to finally defeat it.