The Jaaprana are an ancient alien species native to the Milky Way Galaxy.
Biology[]
The aliens must were vaguely humanoid at least two or three feet taller than human beings.
They had skin that was dark and leathery, and with large golden eyes were protected by clear lenses that appeared to be embedded in the sockets. Instead of hair, layers of large and curved dark multicolored scales covered the head and brow, whorled into structures on either side similar to ears. Segmented folds of skin formed a wide mouth.
Jaaprana appear to be more physically stronger than humans, as even being punched and pummeled by a adult human would give a single member no trouble to disarm. Even more impressive is humans who have been enhanced with meks or cybernetics seem to be of no threat to the Jaaprana who have superior strength.
History[]
The species had apparently become extinct long before humanity had begun their expansion outward from Earth. Their existence were first discovered through the evidence of scattered ruins on several worlds humans had themselves later colonized.
Based on the overview of their history, the race appeared after the earliest appearance of cities on their home world, before venturing into space, leading to the subsequent colonization over many decades of fourteen other worlds.
Not so different from early humans, the species experienced conflicts, wars, catastrophes natural and self-inflicted, as well great technological advancements and social achievements, scientific successes and failures.
Though as time went on the species be dying as a people. Despite the greatest of efforts, no new generations arose, and no understanding or solution was found and the danger of extinction loomed. Only Re-genesis became the only option. The species then willingly committed suicide, destroying their of our cities, entombing the last of their kind in the Graveyard of Saints.
Centuries would be needed for their re-genesis. So whilst their mind faded away from memory, on each of their former planets, a single member of the species would remain behind to caretake their legacy.
The initial waiting for these caretakers ended decades ago with arrival for humanity who came to colonize the former worlds of the aliens. The watchers secretly observed the human their settlements stop the ghost cities of the former inhabitants.
The watchers came to a conclusion that they could teach and learn from humanity. They sought to not just to ensure the revival of their species but forge a destiny where both races could coexist.
Using what they learned from humans, their ways, languages, they created manuscripts called the Rosetta Codexes. They were written by a number of different Jaaprana who stayed behind on each of their worlds. These books served as a tome of the aliens history but also a universal translator to translate their language into any human language. The codex came with instructions of the glorious future both species could benefit if they met and provided instructions of how to complete the re-genesis of the species. Having completed the manuscripts, the watchers peaceful expired entrusting humanity with the fate of their species content to being revenants that would watch over the planets as ghosts. The codexes were hidden and scattered in hopes that a human would carry out the prophesied work. And to ensure those who found the codex were not tempted by greed, blue gemstones were embedded in the cover of each codex that emitted a undetectable radiation that would kill a holder. This was presumably done so that the one who found a codex would know the value of the codex and not the riches attached.
On the planet of Conrad’s World, is one such sites. The planet’s only civilized city, Morningstar is actually built on top of the ruins of the city of Jaaprana which the humans associated as the name of the aliens.
A group known as the Resurrectionists were trying to unearth and restore the remains of the alien civilization that used to live on Conrad’s World, long before humans arrived. To this they sent up an underground community in the Underneath below Morningstar to further their research. Despite evidence found by the movement, many humans dismissed the findings as tall tales and questioned the existence of the Jaaprana.
They were not the only party interested in the Jaaprana. A human deviant civilization known as the Sarakheen took an interest in the archeological findings of the Jaaprana. The Sarakheen being a race of cyborgs had learned of the aliens from a new convert to their order. It was originally believed by many humans that the Sarakheen wanted the secrets of the Jaaprana, having amassed a large collections of their writings and artifacts in order to pursue the life long dream of their kind, as it was surmised that the aliens knew the secret of full and complete integration of man and machine. To this end the Sarakheen used whatever means to acquire Jaaprana, from blackmail, sabotage and even murder.
Over twenty years prior to the start of the book, Faulkner Alexandros, the patriarch of the Alexandros Family Consortium Family from the wealthy planet of Lagrima, sought to locate the Rosetta Codex in order to reverse the decline of his family's fortune. To this end he employed a horoscoper to divine the future of its location. From a reading it was told that Faulkner would find what he was seeking on Conrad's World, but as an added requirement it was necessary to bring his youngest son, a five year old Cale Alexandros. Together with a ship, Faulkner brought his son and his caretaker Sidonie in orbit around Conrad's World, where it was attacked presumably by mercenaries sent by rival families. Only Cale and Sidonie managed to escape, and survive a crash landing on Conrad's World where they were separated, as Cale was taken in as a slave whilst Sidonie was raped and left for dead by the criminals who lived on the lawless side of the Divide.
Through luck or chance, Cale managed to escape his enslavement and after a decade of being lost made his way to cross the Divide. On the journey, he met the odd brothers of Harlock and Aliazar, the former giving Cale a strange prophecy through his vision, of his future. Later he met traveler named Sproul who led him to a treasure, which happened to one of the Rosetta Codexes that were hidden by the Jaaprana. Although Sproul was only interested in the gems embedded in the manuscript and hoped to make fortune, he sadly died due to the gems being radioactive. Cale buried his friend and his treasure in an unmarked grave. While continuing on he met an old acquaintance from his slave days, Blackburn surveying the slaughter of a exiled group of Resurrectionists. Cale avoided the same fate by the human criminals it it were not for Blackburn who then took Cale across the Divide. But not trusting the man, sensing he was not a good character, Cale left him behind to go to Morningstar, the planet's only city. There Cale lived as a dockworker until he met up with the local Resurrectionists, falling in love with one of its members. As it so happened he was reunited with Sidonie who had been searching for him since their crash on Conrad's World, insistent he return back to Lagrima to reclaim his inheritance. However Cale having no wish to leave as he made a life for himself on Conrad's World wanted to stay. His happy left came to an end after the Sarakheen sabotaged the tunnels where the Jaaprana artifacts were being uncovered, flooding them and killing many of Resurrectionists, including Cale's lover.
Having lost his ties to Conrads World, Cale agreed with Sidonie to return to Lagrima in the future years to come, though before doing so, the two made a journey across the divide to retrieve the Rosetta Codex. After locating the hidden settlement where Cale and Sproul found it, they were ambushed by Blackburn who also was seeking the artifact. Sadly he left emptyhanded as the place where the artifact was originally found was empty and he had assumed it was stole after Cale hid it away. After he left, Cale then retrieved the book from Sproul's grave.
Upon return to Lagrima, Cale set about to restoring his family's business so he could have enough money and influence to carry out his own side project of following out the prophecy of the Jaaprana. His actions did not go unnoticed by Blackburn who was revealed to be an agent of the Sarakheen, lead by Justinian. They approached the scion on Lagrima, subtly threatening him to sell them the codex, appealing to him that giving the artifact to the Sarakheen would be vital to their work in making humanity embrace the destiny of the Sarakheen and take the next step in human evolution. Though their offers were declined by Cale who feigned ignorance of what they were asking for.
When preparations for his journey were near complete, Cale extended invitations to his old mentor Cicero a leader in the Resurrectionists movement as well as Harlock and Aliazar. For the latter two Cale sensed that the brothers would play a role in the endeavor. Through the aid of a navigator named Myrok and his captain Bol-Terra, Cale and his friends located the gate which would take then to the Graveyard of Saints where the Jaaprana waited to be awoken. Cale and his friends then crossed the gate where it teleported them inside a space station where upon finding the shrine, awoke the Emissary to begin the re-genesis.
Thanks to the Night Traveler’s captain leaking the location to the portal to the Sarakheen using fear of the aliens and bribes to secure his betrayal of his employer. The Sarakheen’s and their human servant Blackburn arrived in the interior of a great space station that served as a vault for the re-Genesis of the Jaaprana. Due to lacking the codex, they crash landed on the station, but managed to make it to the shrine where the Emissary of the Jaaprana was about to be given the codex to complete the re-Genesis. The armed with weapons threatened Cale’s group to give them the codex claiming it was to protect humanity. None in Cale’s group bought their lies as it was on apparent that the cyborgs have no regard for the human race and that the Jaaprana were not a threat to humanity, but a threat to the Sarakheen’s superiority, and their plans to dominate all non-Sarakheen humans.
In the commotion Blackburn was killed by his own masters, who had no use for him and to prevent him from damaging the codex. The cyborgs though were easily incapacitated by the Emissary rendering them harmless whilst Cale and the alien proceeded to awaken the Jaaprana so they could finally meet humanity for their first time. Harlock was given a helmet to act as their representative to humanity. Upon thousands upon thousands of Jaaprana being revived, ships were sent out for the species to return to their former worlds where they would finally meet humanity for the first time.
The return of the Jaaprana was not welcomed by many humans, who typically reacted in fear and violence. However to the credit of the aliens, the Jaaprana exhibited great restraint in retaliating, beginning the hard work of unifying the two species to a bright future.
Culture[]
The species name is said to be untranslatable into any of humanity's language without confusion or understanding, hence the name Jaaprana is one given to the species by humans who discovered the ruins on Conrad's World.
The Jaaprana were a highly advance culture, capable for technological feats of creating great gates that could transport ships from one part of the galaxy to a space that existed out of time. The Graveyard of Saints was a vast space station that was built on a planetary scale to house their vessels, dwarfing anything humanity could build. Their re-genesis process was a method of reviving the species through advanced hibernation techniques to restore their bodies through centuries of work.
Source[]
- The Rosetta Codex by Richard Paul Russo