Miki Boska Cultural Information

This is some extra things about the Boska that don’t really fit in the section on their history, it covers a great deal of their culture and would be a good idea to read if you are thinking about creating a Boska character. As they evolve as a group on the site, this post will be updated to reflect the changes. 


Garnudcha - War Guard

Basically, here’s how it goes.

The Boska require loyalty from families they bring into the fold. This is done by swearing to be a War Guard to another one. Basically, it means you’ll be there when you’re called, for battle or an op. It’s serious business, and not taken lightly by the Boska. This isn’t a symbolic thing, if you’re Garnudcha’d to a family, and they say jump, you say how high.

The seriousness of the matter is rooted in the ancient traditions of the Boska. Back in the pre-reform days, failing to honour a Garnudcha would result in the member of the family violating it being spaced. ( Airlocked ). Since the reforms, execution for ( most ) oathbreaking has been eliminated, however the punishments are still severe ( from a sentence in the brig for something minor, to abandonment, for something more major.). It should also be noted that if a Boska decides to leave the fleet during a Bola, they have to get leave to do so from their Garnudcha. In theory, they can say no, you have to stay, but in practice they (nearly) always let them go.

A final interesting tid-bit about the Garnudcha. The family accepting the oath is required to protect and ensure the survival of the family swearing the oath. In other words, the family who’s “higher up” accepts the responsibility for ensuring the family lower down has enough food, water, a place to sleep/live, etc etc. They’re responsible for their well being. Should they fail, that’s actually seen as a violation of the Garnudcha, and is taken extremely seriously. ( Why would you watch somebody’s back if they won’t watch yours?)

Generally, the reason for swearing War Guard to a family was to be trusted enough to get into the Boska. This is still the most common way that the Boska bring in strays, allowing them to keep their family name and swear Garnudcha to the family that brought them in. Generally, a family ( or individual’s ) importance can be determined by how close they are Garnudcha’d to a founding family. The further down “the chain” the less influence they actually have.

For instance, Doneeda’s Garnudcha is O’ta, a founding family. Therefore, even though Donnie’s family is actually pretty small, their voice carries a lot of weight ( her’s in particular as she’s it’s head ). Var’s Garnudcha is Oaknadaa, so even though she’s not technically a Boska, her voice carriers a great deal as well, though not quite as much as Donnie’s.


The tattoos of the Miki Boska Twi’leks are one of their most distinctive cultural features. The colors are not capricious either but carefully chosen according to traditions, folklore, and spiritual belief.

A Boska’s first tattoo is selected by the parents, and sets the first color for life. This color is visible and symbolizes the family’s chosen value they desire of their child. For those who come to the Boska as adults, the color is chosen by their benefactor.

Upon the coming of age, the Boska selects their second color. This is applied to their tattoos, and to their future tattoos, and only shows under UV light or blacklight. This color is personally chosen to signify a value the individual desires to embody.

These are the eleven traditional colors.

Black: Professionalism. Typically seen on mid-level families, popular as a parentally chosen colour for members of the 22. Not hard and fast, but it’s not commonly seen in the lower ranks of the Boska.

Brown: Humility. This is very common on families who are traditionally on the “support” side of things, and chosen by a lot of Medical personnel.

Red: Symbolizing compassion and charity, red is a choice that entails warmth. Those who have had red chosen by parents have a strong incentive to live up to what other Boska see, and many find it to be a badge of pride.

Orange: Lust for life/joy. Pretty self explanatory, and tends ( read, nearly always ) to be a “chosen by the person” colour, rarely being chosen by parents, most wanting their child to embody “higher” values. This is, however, very commonly seen on the children of the Tailacki family and their warguards.

Yellow: Knowledge/Learning. Pretty common on the support side of things for children who will be doing thinking as their primary function. Equal distribution “top to bottom” and is seen as a UV colour very commonly on Engineers and mechanics.

Green: Honesty, integrity, courage. Very often chosen by parents of children who are to become pilots/SF. If chosen by the Boska, it's to give them strength to overcome some kind of limitation or personal deficiency

Blue: Blue symbolizes loyalty. This as a parentally-selected color is more common among the families that participate in direct combat frequently.

Purple: This color symbolizes leadership, and is traditionally associated with only the oldest ruling families. For anyone but them to use it would seem remarkably arrogant and presumptuous.

Silver: Silver represents focus. The ability to maintain tight mental discipline and focus is vital for many Boska, and as such this one of the most universal colors.

Gold: Success. Isn’t as common as one might imagine, tends to be an “accent” colour added to small parts of tattoos to emphasize a Boska’s achievement of a particular goal. When chosen by a parent, it’s usually because they had difficulty conceiving the child it’s on.

White: Moral conviction. Nearly exclusively seen on religious officials, generally because they want their children to be convicted in their beliefs of the Boska’s purpose. Common on those who see a lot of direct combat as a UV colour.


The top families are the “founding 11”. They are The 11 oldest ( in theory...more on this later ) families in the Boska. Everybody swears Garnudcha to one of these 11. Though nobody’s at the top of the Boska government, these 11 families hold A LOT of sway, and can dictate actions if they need too.

The 11 tend to specialize in different areas. The A’ma and E’sa are the two warrior heavy families, tending to not produce pilots, for instance. The I’arou and O’ta tend to produce more pilots ( I’arou capital ship and freighter pilots, O’ta fighter and bomber ) than ground forces. The U’na and Y’ki tend to be very support-heavy, the U’na producing some of the finest weapons systems officers ( basically turret gunners ) in the galaxy, and the Y’ki extremely high grade combat medics. ( these are very generalized, but you get the picture ).

Directly below each of the 11 is a pair of families, both of equal level, and performing different functions.

One is the first spear. They are the military leaders of that Families military assets. They advise the elder on military and strategic matters, and the Council of 11 if asked. The 11 Military leaders often meet, called the Strategic Planning Council ( SPC ). Donnie is an example of one of these leaders.

The other is the Guardians of the Camp. These people, historically, represented the group that’d stay behind and protect the camp while the others went to fight. Now a-days they’re more administrative. They’re in charge of the logistics. Basically, the Boska require three things, “Bullets, Boots, and Bandages.”. On top of food and such. They are basically responsible for everything that’s not military, the Boska version of “police” included.

Below these are any number of families Garnudcha’d to them. The Families who are sworn to eachother tend to be of similar ilk. Families sworn to Oaknadaa tend to produce combat pilots or boarding party members, whereas families sworn to A’ma tend to produce soldiers used in larger actions against planets or capital ships en masse.

If one of the 11 is wiped out, the other 11 choose from the two below which one to promote to the Council of 11, thus bringing a new family into the fold. That family then assigns a new one to it’s old post, and life goes on.

The way the leadership of families passes on in Boska culture is a bit different than nearly any other. They practice a form of Female Primogeniture. Basically, the first female head is where the crown lands. So, in the case of the Oaknadaa family, Donnie is it’s current head. After her is Var, then Var’s daughter ( adopted by Donnie when Var became her mate ), Niri. After her would be Donnie’s Son, Enarin ( if she were to have another Daughter, she’d be ahead of Enarin, but after Niri ). After Enarin it’s her brother,Vax, then his kids. However, if Vax has a daughter, that daughter takes precedence and actually jumps ahead of Enarin.

It’s confusing, but the basic idea is simple. The leadership of the family passes to the next, closest related female before passing to ANY male.

All of this, however, does not mean that males are any less powerful in Boska society. This is a familial tradition, and anything to do with family is basically under the control of the women. It has nothing to do with the equality of the sexes by any means, and the leadership has a roughly equal distribution of males to females.


So, simply put, they don’t give a damn where you put what. Be Gay, straight, lesbian, bi, pansexual, whatever adjective you want to use to describe your character. All the Boska care about is whether or not you have BABIES. Do what you want with who you want, but do your duty and have a kid or three. To achieve this goal, surrogacy or in vitro are completely acceptable, the Boska understanding that it’s sometimes simply not possible to do certain things. They see it as something of a badge of honour to have a lot of kids and a big family, couples expected to at least raise a few. Donnie and Var are accepted even though they can’t have kids with each other, because they’ve both had a child with somebody else.

Something to note: Since 19bby, and the loss of, oh, 75% of their population, the Boska have instituted a hard “No abortions unless the mother’s life is threatened” policy.


Nobody likes to talk about it, but here it is. How the Boska handle death is fairly straightforward. Their beliefs basically outline that the body is a container for a spirit. That spirit needs to be in space to get to the afterlife. Basically, they put the corpse in an airlock, then let it go. Generally some close family and friends are there before hand to say their goodbyes. This is distinct from airlocking somebody who’s alive, as the person is dead. Airlocking somebody who’s alive is basically releasing them to the gods further judgement.

It’s traditional for family members of the deceased to keep a memento from them to remember them by. It doesn’t have to be something big, Donnie’s father kept a (non functional) lighter to remember his father by.

Something notable about the Boska is that once somebody’s gone, they’re gone. It’s not normal for them to dwell on it, and they’re expected to move on quickly by their peers. There are a few exceptions to this rule, where they’re not expected to move on. The death of a child before coming of age, or a dishonourable death ( ie, execution ).


Airlocking:

Exactly what it sounds like. Shove offender in airlock, close inner door, open outer door to space. This is the most dishonourable way to die for a Boska and is reserved for Oathbreakers of the highest degree, child molesters, and premeditated murderers.

Abandonment/Marooning/Podding:

This is nearly as bad as Airlocking, but is used when a particularly heinous act has been committed that requires the criminal to suffer. It’s done in one of two ways. One is by marooning the individual on a planet with a limited supply of water or air, and some kind of crude weapon. The intent is that the person will take their own life before they die of exposure/suffocation. If the crime was truly heinous, they’ll maroon them without a weapon, so they are ensured to die of exposure.

Podding has a few variations depending on where the fleet is and how much they want the individual to suffer. It’s not unknown for the boska to dump the pod into a gas giant and let it implode, strip it’s radiation shielding and drop it close to a star. If they want the individual to suffer forever, dump it into a black hole’s accretion disk. Podding is nearly exclusively reserved for traitors, those who sold the boska out to an enemy and lead to loss of life.