Jhereg has three meanings, all of which are linked to the fiction of Steven Brust:
Jhereg is the name of the first novel in the Vlad Taltos series, which was published in 1983. Steven Brust's JHEREG is a graphic novel adaptation published by Marvel Comics in 1987, and The Book of Jhereg is a slightly amended omnibus collection of the first three books in the series — Jhereg, Yendi, and Teckla — published in 1999.
A jhereg is an animal in the series' fictional world of Dragaera.
The House of the Jhereg is the Dragaeran Noble House to which Vlad Taltos belongs. Members of House Jhereg are referred to as Jhereg, not jhereg. The animal's name is not capitalized.
Jhereg are small (40 cm) flying reptiles with leathery wings, sinuous necks, sharp claws, and a venomous bite. While cover art for the Vlad books depicts jhereg as lizardlike quadrupeds, they are described as serpentlike, and have two legs, like wyverns. They mate for life, with the larger females playing the dominant role. Jhereg were originally simple animals, but the manipulations of the Jenoine have given them intelligence comparable to humans. Despite their intelligence, they continue to live as scavengers and predators in the wild. Dragaerans hold them no higher than common animals. Vlad's jhereg familiar, Loiosh, has learned to appreciate the subtleties of human behavior and society through his telepathic link to Vlad.
Jhereg is a fantasy novel by Steven Brust in his Vlad Taltos series, originally published in 1983 by Ace Books. Ace later republished it in 1999 as part of the three-book omnibus, The Book of Jhereg. Marvel Comics adapted the story into a graphic novel titled Steven Brust's JHEREG in 1987.
The novel is named after House Jhereg, the Great House to which Vlad Taltos belongs. The House in turn was named after jheregs, tiny dragon-like creatures native to Dragaera, one of which Vlad keeps as a familiar.
Vlad Taltos, a mobster and assassin in the magical metropolis of Adrilankha, is given the largest contract of his career, but the job is even more complicated than he expects.
The novel opens with a brief history of Vlad Taltos and a description of how he acquired his jhereg familiar, Loiosh. Despite being an Easterner in the Dragaeran city of Adrilankha, Vlad is a minor boss in the criminal activities of the Jhereg Organization. One day he is approached by an extremely powerful member of the Organization's ruling Council and offered an assassination job with a staggeringly large reward. The contract is to kill another Jhereg crime lord, Mellar, who has absconded with a fortune from the Jhereg treasury. Vlad accepts.
Yeah niggaz!
Who the fuck you thought it was?
It's ya nigga Jay muthafuckin Rock, top dog!
Before I get started, let me get a rest in peace to my nigga Pac
Gotta go in on this one
Yeah, let's go
Give me my money and stacks and lace my swishas with kush, nigga
Hard liquir fuck up my liver, guaranteed I pick up
The west coast like the phone is ringing, hello,
Anybody on this phone this evening? Guess not
Jay Rock, out the bottom of Watts,
Gangsta, ain't shit pop but the water in pots
We cookin the crack, distributin' to the block
Gettin' it back, I use the same formula for rap
I'm warnin' ya, leavin' more dead bodies for the coroner
Shootin any witness with a cornia
As far as rap, I'm best the rapper out of California
Warrior, in the 300 like a sparley,
Gladiator, blast a hater, put em in a coffin
For coughin', that thera-flu won't do
Gonna need more if you don't wanna see the lord
Tell me what ya livin' for like 2 times 2
I'm a sureshot like marksmen, you all dead
Cold red, money clippers if a nigga fold bread
That will feed four people for the next four years
I ain't just got ends, I end cold reds [?]
Cosigned by the allmighty pac when I drop science
Like? I'm not lyin'
Put a scar on your face like cymbels uncle
Dumb fuck, I was built to tussle
Gangbang, murder state, west side of the mississippi
Where you can die like a shirt from an old hippie
Peep the irony, the heater on me when it's nippy
Hit a nigga on Q like I'm from the fifties
Roll through the sixties just to fuck withNnippsey
Hussle to the death like interpreters I'm hurtin' ya
I could close curtain ya, but I'll let you bleed
I'm a top dog, nigga, like?
Got the game on lock, well I'm still in the ki's
Don't get it twisted, honey, I'm still with the bees
Like sean carter on the yacht, what you got, nothing, nigga
Give it up, circle round the block (BUCK-BUCK a nigga)
What the fuck, this is hip-hop to the third degree
Murder emcees, send 'em up, throw 'em in a burboun truck
Throw some gasoline on 'em, light a match, burn em' up
I don't think you heard enough, fuck it, let me turn it up
Grab ya bitch, turn her out, sell her for a couple buds
Put her on a stroll, bet she'll bring back a armored truck
Tell her I'm a city nigga, gritty nigga, grimy nigga
Even when you eyes closed, guaranteed you'll find me
In the Watts with a backroad, the hood made my heart cold
Put me in a loophole, now the nigga do shows
Kick flows like I knew martial arts
Raving at Peter Parker once a nigga climb the charts
All my real niggas follow, I don't fuck with pussy niggas
Fuck with real bloods, real crips, who you foolin', nigga?
Jay Rock, jack the ripper, rep for every ghetto
I'm a still be here even when the smoke settle on a sunset
Rollin' down sunset, hand on the wheel
Middle finger to the cops, give a fuck how they feel
I'm a ride like a freighttrain on ya rap-lames
Screaming? got the projects on my back, mane
You ain't gotta aks mane, Jay Rock got it
Top Dog, aka they got dollas
Big like Chris Wallace, fly like weed parlors
Sig on my lap, we'll pop your collar
From the land where the coolest cat will drop your mama
Mouthpiece like barack obama, but still street
Stilll creep through your set, I'm a thug I guess
Cold stares for the clothes I dress, I'm well aware of that
Niggas be hatin', soon as they jump like a car cable
Homie gon' be disabled, screaming for help
Tryin' to kill me? Better of killing yourself, because
Suicide, it's a suicide
The way I was raised, either do or die
You can die any given time, it's not promised
Hop out, spray lamas, come back with the bic mac
Hassle McDonalds on our house, what you 'bout?
Big money?, for cheap talk
Bumping your gums, you'll get your teeth lost
Play me for dumb, we bust guns, leave ya street-chalked
Do this for fun, we hit ya block, let the piece bump
Like pitbulls, get shookup when the flow cook up
Tell 'em I got the hookup like candyman on your steps
I command respect like a law permitted to y'all
Y'all never come brawl with the west coast general
Criminal background, tell mama her son rap now
No more hustling rocks up in that crackhouse
All I do is bring it to you, pay per view
Food for thought, brought wordplay, what you brought
I brought the big boys with me, my project people
Call me Bishop Lamont, stand on top of the church steeple
Writin' raps 'til my hands collapse
Starin' at the world from a different view like my Crooked I do
Hold my beach cruiser as I ride by you
With my Glasses on, shout out to Malone
Out-of-towners want to trip, then I'm ready to rob 'em
See I got that K boy, who wanna pile 'em
And that K got a Dot, if I let a shot go
Hit you in your Ab, and there go your Soul
On my misson ready to roll, let's do this to a living
But Jay said that's a felony cause niggas keep on telling
If a coward snitch on me, then this what I'll do
Pull the rocket out and let it bang loose
Then give his mama the blues, like SBI
Got hot dollars now, so the FBI
All inside of my ride, that's the Cadillac Fleetwood
If the west blow, shit, you know that the east would
I'm coastal with it, look, me and Mistah Fab
Doing fabolous digits, it's a family business
In the field with that, then you get stuck up
Give it to you every day, seven years of bad luck
Who got the gin and the juice, toss it up for my name