Green Orion Women
If non-Orions know anything about Orion slavery, it is that the Orions keep stunningly beautiful and alluring Green women for their distraction and amusement. They are often called "animal" slave women for their reputed violence and notorious effect on humanoid males of almost any species-their charms, it is said, cannot be resisted.
In short, it is all romantic spacers claptrap. Animal slave women are only a class of female Green Orion slaves who have been trained extensively as courtesans, like the Terran-Japanese Geishas. They are no more animals than are any other Green Orions. As dancers, mucicians, artists, conversationalists, they provide entertainment of a very high order.
Orion standards of beauty and grace are not as refined as those of most Federation races. To the discerning, critical Federation eye, the Green slave women are coarse and almost brutally sensual. This is not a handicap for them-on the contrary, it is the better part of their charm. In their scanty costumes, typically laden with jewelry, barefoot, with their hair loose and wild, they cut a very barbaric figure even among their own people. Everything about them-the way they move and dance, the distance they maintain between themselves and their audience, their air of smoldering, barely restrained passion, even their very scent-it is all fraught with mesmerizing power. They are indeed very compelling creatures.
Their function in Orion society is strictly utilitarian, and very deliberately ambiguous. Non-Orions who see them during Orion functions are simultaneously being paid a high complement and presented with an extrordinarily powerful distraction. Their appearance signals the Orion host's belief that his guest are equal to not only resisting but enjoying the spectacle. At the same time, those guests are being tested for their own strength of will and self-possession. An all-out Orion banquet lavishly uses strong drink, exotic food, and even more exotic smokes; by the time the Orion slave women appear, even the strongest beings may be suffering a touch of neuro-intoxication, a systemic disorder brought on by multiple chemical exposures in a confined area and in a limited amount of time. Although the symptoms may vary, the result is a general lessening of mental and emotional stability-occasionally called "zombification". Under chemical overloads, the higher brain functions cease, and the sufferer enters a vaguely trance-like state. A neuro-intoxicated being, fighting for possession of his faculties might be put over the edge by the Green Orion courtesans. Even females of humanoid races are prone to such overloading, though not to the degree that males are.
By general report, neuro-intoxicated persons are more suggestible to outside influences and do not always recall events after the fact. Many commercial deals have doubtless been 'readjusted' while a businessman was incapacitated by Orion hospitality. After all, the Orions are renown for being both sharp dealers and hard partiers.
In spite of their prominence in Orion life, little has ever been known by non-Orions about the lives of Green Orion Courtesans. How are they selected; are they sequestered during training? Who trains them?
Lodubyaln, as Green Orion courtesans are called in the Orion language are, as stated, simply a caste of Green Orion females, highly trained as dancers, singers, musicians, storytellers, and professional listeners that are a delight to lookupon, paradise to hear, and a comfort to talk to. Theirs is the only loyalty that Orions contract for and sell with perfect trust, and it is the only pillar of Orion civilization not to be radically altered since Orions have aligned with and joined the Federation.
Some lodubyaln spend their relatively short working career (few work as courtesans past the age of 40), looking forward to a time when some dashing Green male catches her eye. Some save up their tips, side earnings, and their income from their lucrative contracts, and return to a more normal life. Some take what they have learned from their various contractors, and put it to use to make themselves quite wealthy. Orion standards on lodubyaln conduct vary. Most of the older houses consider them scarcely above Grey Orions in social status; but most Orions feel that if she wishes to take a chance, and has the determination and thirst for hard work, a lodubyaln could rise to become a businesswoman or a merchant captain.
Prior to receiving Federation membership, this was a point Orions steadfastly refused to negotiate on save for the fact that all current and future lodubyaln could contract for their services. Prior to this, they were simply considered by Orions to be among the higher classes of Green Orion slaves, if not the highest class. The Federation balked slightly at the Orion demand, but agreed when they felt it likely the Orions would not negotiate further on what seemed to more than an issue of slavery, but rather a cultural matter. The Orions for their part understood prior to the start of the application process that this was likely the only major facet of Orion civilization that would not be obliterated by virtue of Federation membership; slavery and piracy could no longer exist, and had long been sore points in Orion-Federation relations. Lodubyaln throughout Orion Space has subsequently found Federation membership lucrative since they now possesses full contractual rights and legal redress of grievances. A lodubyaln with good references can command several thousand credits or strips of gold pressed latinum per contract. Lodubyaln of the highest quality can command substantially more.