Loa

The Loa are a lumin race recognized by the Intergalactic Federation. Hailing from Sasena orbiting Vorgona in the Saffron Galaxy, the Loa brought their highly advanced civilization across the void of Dark Space and were the catalyst in the formation of the Intergalactic Federation. After Sasena was destroyed by a supernova, the Loa declared Shaffer orbiting Almira their new home-world.

Early HIstory and Space Exploration
The Loa are the oldest and most storied race in Federation space, and likely the entire universe. They are the only species to have documented contact with both the long extinct Rel species and an unknown race hotly debated as the Master Race that spawned both humans and andolians. They started, however, as a simple society with a focus on agriculture and hunting. The harsh environment of their home planet Sasena, however, forced the Loa to 'grow up' quite quickly and spurred their cultural and technological developments to soaring new heights. They became masters of their environment, taming the planet to their will and harvesting the force which is today known as magic. Using magic, the Loa quickly conquered the land, the seas, and the skies of Sasena, so much so that they were eventually able to leave the harsh surface of the planet to live in the clouds on massive floating cities. Most species would have been content with this feat, but the Loa hungered for more, to further step beyond the boundaries of the known possibilities. Believing that their magic could possibly come from not only Sasena, but the stars themselves, the Loa set to work furiously determined to reach them. As with their other endeavors, the final frontier came easily to the Loa. Within a decade they had reached all eight moons of Sasena and were preparing to venture to planets far beyond. Using self sustainable ships powered by the never-ending magic energy, they set out into the darkness. Centuries passed as the Loa discovered the rest of the Vorgona system, and other local systems. Through their travels they found no other life, but curiously stumbled upon several faint signals containing intelligent data. The Loan fleet set their coordinates for the signal's source and headed off into the void outside the Saffron Galaxy, commonly known as Dark Space. For countless decades they floated almost aimlessly; entire generations lived and died upon the Loan ships. Then the most disturbing news came via transmission from Sasena: the star Vorgona had suddenly ballooned outward and was verging on a supernova. Several debated turning around to rescue their civilization, but in the time it had taken the message to get to the fleet, Sasena had been devoured by the ballooning star. The Loan fleet was now all that was left of the race, cruising lazily towards the Fith Galaxy.

First Contact and Formation of the IF
After nearly two millenniums of drifting through Dark Space, the Loan fleet finally entered the Fith Galaxy. It would be another four decades before they could pinpoint the signals they had been following, now stronger than ever. But on a fateful night in the Gycin-Alset city of Herrkinsmirra the fleet landed to an uproar. Immediately seeking an audience with planetary leaders, the Loa were brought before the Interstellar Forum composed of the Nimmik elves and Setza andolians. They explained their plight, a few thousand Loa holding the future of their race and the dream of creating a vast galactic empire to reach out to less advanced civilizations. Using their technology, along with the resources and manpower of the Forum, they pledged to unite the galaxy under one flag. The Forum agreed to their plans and the trio of races began work upon the formation of the Intergalactic Federation.

Culture
Loan culture has developed over several thousand years and archives suggest that the culture of modern day Loa is vastly different from their Sasena brethren. The Loa are often seen as innovators and their traditions are varied and sometimes strange to other races, even other lumin.

Religion
The Loa, like most magic using races, believe in a structured pantheon of deities, each with its own aspect of control. Some examples are Lillenfey the deity of fire, heat and air, as well as Thurven'hal the god of the harvest and soil. All gods answer to the mother Raeri and the fearsome Vorgon who dwells within the void. Each Loa is born under the sign of a god and they devote their life's accomplishments and trials to this deity. The gods themselves are often depicted in various forms in literature and architecture, and each god has a symbol which is said to invoke their favor. An often used example is again of Thurven'hal, whose symbol often appears on spears overlooking fields of crops.

Gender Roles and Society
On Sasena it is documented that the Loa exhibited loosely segregated gender roles, but aboard the many ships of the Loan expedition fleet these roles dissolved. The modern Loa are mostly free of gender roles as Loan women make up a sizable portion of many police forces, while men often seek to learn the arts of homemaking in an effort to appeal to the more open minded Federation populace. Dating remains fairly traditional, however, as most Loa still adhere to the strict ways of their ancestors. Loa often abstain from sex until marriage at which point the newlyweds take part in Aroria, the consummation of their marriage over the course of a single day. Oddly enough, these traditional values also allow for a Loan male to have multiple willing wives, something most races do not allow. The first wife of any Loan male remains his true spouse, while any further wives typically perform menial tasks like cooking and cleaning, in exchange for the well being and support of the family as a whole.

Arts
A technological race, the Loa aren't known for their artistic endeavors. Their single most prominent contribution to the arts in general is their elaborate use of wearable armor. The tradition of wearing lightweight decorative armor dates back to Loa on Sasena and has continued to the modern day. The various pieces worn are merely stylistic, not suitable for protection. Many other people have adopted to wearing pieces of decorative armor, usually arm pieces.

Government
On their home planet, the Loa was governed by a Democratic Senate, much like the current Intergalactic Federation. They are credited with bringing this form of government to the expanding universe. However, once news reached the Loan expedition that Sasena had been engulfed by the star Vorgona, all sense of government collapsed. Each ship in the fleet had its own leader, council or electorate and rules that varied widely. Attempts at a unified council were futile but with the formation of the IF and the founding of a new home-world on Shaffer orbiting Almira, the Loa decided to reinstate the original Senate government from Sasena. This would further be know as the Greater Loan Senate, a collective of leaders from the various regions of Shaffer.

Economy
The Loa utilize the currency of Credits (C) much like the IF. The major branches of the Loan economy are magical items and devices, as well as high technologies like FTL drives and military technology. Many Loan merchants have often capitalized on selling their trademark decorative armor to others, many times under lower quality standards than their own traditional wear.

Language
The language of the Loa, known as sesian, is very direct and literal language with a structure similar to many Romance languages, while sounding more like a Germanic tongue. Sesian also makes use of inflected vowel tones, represented in Standard as ˚ for an upward inflection and ˳ for downwards. An example of the change this has on words can be see in the basic noun 'kta'meaning 'sky'. Adding inflection changes the meaning or tone of words, such as 'ktå' referring to the heavens and space, while 'ktḁ', meaning 'tower', is unrelated to the noninflected noun.