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Jeraptha are a species best described as "beetle-like", for which they are nicknamed. They are the client species of the Rindhalu, while their own government has taken on a number of clients, namely the Ruhar and the Torgalau. Jeraptha have an almost frantic urge to gamble on any outcome, even life-or-death and geopolitical matters. |
Biology[]Jeraptha are a sapient arthropodal-analogous species, however differ from arthropods most starkly by Jeraptha mouthes are compared directly to that of spiders on at least one occasion, particularly likening the Jeraptha analogue of a smile to a spider eating. Their mandibles have also been described by Humans as 'mouth pods'. Their two antennae are wildly articulate and expressive, conveying a wide range of body language and nonverbal communication. Handshakes, shock, high-fiving, bowing, suspicion, nervousness, and more are conveyed almost always or solely through antenna motions and interactions. They are additionally quite prehensile, in some cases serving as supplemental manipulators to their hands. One specific example is the concealing of order papers within a pocket with the push of an antenna[3].  |
Culture[]The Jeraptha have a heavy focus on gambling in their everyday lives; most notably this can been seen in bets placed on events of any measure of significance.[3] The gambling industry is nationalized within Jeraptha society, catalogued and run by their government. Buoys recording gambles were considered an appropriate method of dealing in when communication with wider Jeraptha society was not available, with the understanding such bets would be input into the government database when possible.[2] The Jeraptha government offered no safeguards from debt within its gambling system, and at least some civilians entered states of extreme financial hardship due to bad gambling choices. Civilian crew would generally abandon a Jeraptha ship whose captain was unable to pay their wages and accrued winnings. Jeraptha port authority could on at least some stations be persuaded to allow illicit activity if they had previously bet against such activity being caught soon.[2] Jeraptha are known to grow extremely productive and excited when they have placed a bet they believe they can win, especially if such behavior will improve their chances even marginally. The Jeraptha gambling system is based on a number ratio succeeded by a point with any value - sometimes zero. It is possible that these represent fractional odds and then money line odds in a compound system. This could function as a percent based return in addition to a flat return, e.g. 6-1, 500 points, might win a gambler 600 times their initial bet plus 500 units of currency. The Intelligence Community within the Jeraptha government makes use of a crowdsourced wagering system in order to convey the legitimacy of information. While gambling took place to establish this intel, it was considered a conflict of interest for a commanding officer to make bets based off of that information without informing their crew. When Skippy forged orders from the Jeraptha high command, his included 60-1 odds, no points, was considered shockingly confident. During a resulting battle, the Jeraptha Admiral leading the operation offered 7-4 odds on whether a Thuranin ship would escape from the battle.[3] Ernt Dahl refused a 5-1 odds, no points, offer extended by Emily Perkins, calling it too easy, instead proposing 7-1; they then spent several minutes finalizing the financial details.[1] An extremely low value is placed on pomp and circumstance within Jeraptha society. Informal and sometimes inflammatory clothing, remarks, and behavior are used by the Jeraptha particularly to antagonize their opponents. This includes but is not limited to: belching, pranking, damage to property, baiting, and vomiting. In spite of this, on several occasions they have shown due respect in presentation and body language to those that deserve or have earned it. Jeraptha are known to be notably less cold towards species less technologically advanced than themselves when compared to others in the same situation.[3] Jeraptha culture tolerates the taking of at least one intoxicating substance, Burgoze, which appears to be the Jeraptha analogue for alcohol. In at least one instance, a Jeraptha inspector at a peace talk pretended to be inebriated by burgoze in order to deceive and distract Kristang so that they could be subjected to a number of pranks for his very much sober amusement. The Jeraptha have at least one untranslated or untranslatable general-purpose expletive: 'Chuta'. |
Technology[]Jeraptha have a mastery over technological miniaturization. This is demonstrated by the deployment of pebble-sized spaceborne intelligence gathering platforms, disguised as space dust, which permitted the gathering of complete and actionable information on a hostile fleet group that remained entirely unaware of their presence[3]. This is again demonstrated by their ability to generate smoke bombs from nanites and embed itching powder within clothing for amusement. Jeraptha are fully self-sufficient with respect to interstellar travel, and the means have proliferated throughout their civilization such that civilian-led interstellar search parties are considered a viable means of locating missing ships.[1] |
Military[]Despite their cultural tendencies, Jeraptha military service members possess duty uniforms, or some analogue to them.[2] Jeraptha star carriers will assist Ruhar fleet groups in interstellar travel. The Jeraptha are aware the Ruhar are engaging in passive espionage to monitor and attempt to replicate the control systems of their star carriers, but do not care, and even bet over how successful iterations of these replicated controls will be.[2] Within Jeraptha military communication procedure, a message tagged with Flash Gold status was considered of the utmost urgency.[3] Ethics and Compliance Office (ECO)[]Is a branch of the Jeraptha Military which focused on ensuring established gambling law is obeyed, to observe the spirit of the law (in other words, it is the expressed intent to do what is profitable) and is responsible for overseeing compliance to established gambling practices, evaluate wagering contracts to make sure that a group(s) or individual is/are living up to all of their financial obligations. Regional Patrol[]The Regional Patrol is a military organization that was setup to allow remote colonies to defend themselves if the Home Fleet was busy deep within the Jeraptha territory. It received limited funding and obsolete ships and was expected to be funded by the colony worlds themselves. Over time, it became a mostly political organization and most of its officers were chosen by their political acumen and not their military proficiency. One group of the Regional Patrol, the 116th Shock Fleet, is stationed at Mardasta. Fifteen of their ships were acquired by the ECO Captain Uhtavio Scorandum to deliver to the Humans.[4] |
Beverages[]Burgoze[]Burgoze is an intoxicating beverage. Females generally consider the drink too sweet for their tastes so it was usually consumed by males.[5] Saksey took a squeeze bulb of burgoze with him when he went to inspect Admiral Jet-au-Bes Kekrando's flagship.[6] Admiral Gost-Ren Tashallo kept a bottle of 40 year old burgoze in his quarters on the The Beat-Down.[7]. After the Battle of Nurentia, he received a bottle of extremely rare 70 year old burgoze from a team of Inquisitors that was slightly consumed by them.[8] Tashallo and Uhtavio Scorandum drank a bottle of rare vintage while meeting with Joseph Bishop.[9] Scorandum brought a bottle of burgoze with him while meeting Gammeria after the theft of The Alibi and requested that she keep it in her desk for future meetings.[10] It was tradition for Regional Patrol inspection crews to leave a bottle of burgoze onboard ships for the next inspection crew to enjoy.[11] Scorandum received a case of five bottles of 40 year old Farah Three Reserve stock from Admiral Tashallo in appreciation for the EOC Captain scaring away a Bosphuraq joint task group that was stationed at Funandeng by pretending to be the 2nd Fleet of the UN Navy.[12] The Jeraptha males who were negotiating with Ambassador Takahashi's team drank a large amount of burgoze during their meetings.[13] Scorandum drank burgoze while brainstorming on a request from Home Fleet Intelligence to provide a guess on what the Humans would do to retaliate for a Bosphuraq strike on Earth.[14] Fatah[]Fatah is a mild stimulant beverage. Admiral Tashallo drank a mug while being briefed by Captain Scorandum.[9] Floon[]Floon is an intoxicating beverage. Gammeria prefers it over burgoze as it is much less sweet.[10] The Jeraptha females who were negotiating with Ambassador Takahashi's team drank a large amount of floon during their meetings.[13] |
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