Lumenchi:

Appearance:

• Basic shape - like that of a beetle complete with three pairs of buggy legs.
• Head - beetle head, big pincer-like mouth parts, bug eyes.
• Body - ground-hugging body that is rather flattened out, size depends on age.
• Limbs - first pair of legs longer and more mobile, able to clumsily grasp and manipulate objects with help of jaws. rest of legs just for walking.
• Wings - first pair of wings tough; black color that looks rainbow-oily when the light shines on it correctly. second pair of wings brilliantly colored and patterned and capable of a little hovering for mating dances.
• Clothing - none. lumenchi have belts and harnesses for holding tools or hauling loads. sometimes modify their bodies for a certain job.

Stats/Skills/Etc.:

• Strength - immense, especially the jaws. capable of lifting and carrying twice its weight with them.
• Stamina - built for hard, slow labor. speedy combat would soon tire out a lumenchi who couldn't keep up.
• Agility - very bad.
• Speed - only in lunging forward, otherwise, slow.
• Climate - during bad weather, lumenchi hide. low tolerance for cold, high tolerance for heat and humidity
• Weapons - powerful jaws used for biting. jaws become more powerful as lumenchi ages. spikes are sometimes attached to their legs for fighting purposes.
• Aging - lumenchi continue to grow and shed their skin throughout their lifetimes though growth slows after 30 years.
• Children - massive egg-laying and fertilization every two years.
• Food - lumenchi eat primarily plain old plants like grass and leaves. occasionally fruit, flowers, and roots.

Arts:

• mating dances are very fancy and often involve props. Male lumenchi constantly practice their dances. All lumenchi dancing is for mating.
• before the elves, lumenchi were sophisticated painters. they often painted their black wing covers. the elves do not permit the lumenchi to waste time and resources on painting anymore.

Religion/Philosophy:

No notes yet.

Social Structure:

• all lumenchi are slaves to the elves and just about every one of them plots to free the species from slavery.
• those few male lumenchi who willingly side with the elves are rejected. females will not mate with them.
• male-dominated society, the females are of the same size and strength, but 'not very bright' (possibly because they are never educated). males rule, make important decisions
• were a democracy and with the few things they still control about their lives, still are.
• males outnumber females about 100 to 1.

Mating:

• every two years, all the adult females become fertile and the males grew their second pair of wings.
• after hours of laborous and intricate mating dances that showed off the male wings, the females would select the best, and strongest dancers to mate with.
• the males then shed their second pair of wings.
• the females then laid and, over the course of the next two years, tended the massive amounts of eggs and hatchlings.
• the immature females stay with the females for four years, tending the eggs with them until they are ready to mate as well.
• the immature males worked with the males and recieved their education.

Government:

There is none. They are slaves. Okay, okay, they do vote for little team leaders.

Pre-elven Government:

• Everything was done by vote.
• Whoever was there got to vote. If you're not there, tough.
• Major cities would become very crowded during elections.
• As a slight concession to space travel, off-planet lumenchi were allowed to place their vote before leaving and have it count as 1/3 a vote. Always rounded down.

History:

• long ago, the lumenchi were defeated by the elves and their mercenaries. mostly due to primitive technology.
• the elves took all the females and immature lumenchi as hostage and forced the other lumenchi to work for them.
• attempts at only allowing lumenchi who co-operated with them mate failed due to female rebellion. the elves no longer try that.
• numerous rebellions have been put down. the lumenchi would have a nice start and then fall to pieces because they kept trying to vote about every decision.
• rebel organizations are all over the lumenchi nation. most lumenchi participate in several at a time.
• lumenchi are the elves' hard laborers. they are often sent ahead with supervisors to settle new lands. they are also used to haul things about in the jaws and on their backs in areas where road building and maintenace would be costly/difficult. occasionaly used to pull carts.
• every elf owns a few slave lumenchi

Species Interaction:

• the lumenchi think it beneath them to ally themselves with other "primitive" species to fight against the elves.
• many other species consider the lumenchi to be brainless slaves to the elves and refuse to acknowledge their intelligence. Especially the Mantids, Ligers, and Pegasi. Not surprising since they are all carniverous fighters and lumenchi only eat plants and rarely fight.