Lo'ona Aeo

The Lo'ona Aeo are a sapient race of pseudohumanoids.

Biology
While the Lo'ona Aeo look humanoid, their internal biology is different from most other humanoids significantly enough for them to be categorized as pseudohumanoids. They possess four digits on each limb.

Unlike most humanoids, the Lo'ona Aeo have four sexes. While it's a gross oversimplification, they tend to be given as male, half-male, half-female, and female. The latter is the only sex capable of bearing offspring. The half-females are infertile and do not participate in the conception process at all. As a rule, an extended family's elders request that a female voluntarily become a half-female in order to cut off an undesirable genetic line. Refusal usually results in the female's exile until the end of her reproductive period (so the end result is the same). The Lo'ona Aeo do not reproduce sexually. Instead, the process has been described as "mental contamination", with a male and a half-male entering into a special psychic link with a female of reproductive age. The link triggers the formation of a fetus without any genetic material being transferred. However, the personality of the offspring can be affected by the parents.

Unlike most other races, the Lo'ona Aeo are absolute xenophobes. Whenever they are in the proximity of an alien, they experience extreme panic that may send them into a shock. Due to their pacifistic nature, they have no desire to exterminate any alien. Instead, they merely isolate themselves from alien contact and have created the extremely sophisticated Serv biorobots to interact with aliens on their behalf.

Thanks to millennia spent in sterile low-gravity environments, the Lo'ona Aeo are not equipped for planetary travel. They are physically frail and require an anti-gravity harness in order to come down to a planetary surface. Humans have described them as having elf-like features.

Culture and society
Millennia ago, the Lo'ona Aeo abandoned their homeworld of Kullat and planetary colonies in order to live in artificial space habitats called astroids. These environments can be tailored to their taste, and the sterile low-gravity conditions allow them to live for millennia.

The Lo'ona Aeo are isolationists, but this doesn't mean they dislike aliens or their cultures. On the contrary, their long sated lives grow boring without stimuli, so they value alien art and entertainment. They particularly like collecting unique objects, paying handsomely for them.

Due to their own pacifism and xenophobia, not to mention their hedonistic lifestyle, they do not have their own armed forces. However, they are far from fools and instead employ mercenaries from a particular race as their Defenders, paying for the service in whatever manner they deem appropriate for the given race. For example, the Haptors and the Dromi were paid in technology, while the Humans are paid in precious metals and by allowing them to settle on abandoned Lo'ona Aeo planets in their Blue Zone. It seems it's a standard practice for the Lo'ona Aeo to switch to a new Defender race every two millennia or so.

Technology
The Lo'ona Aeo are the most advanced extant race in the galaxy, second only to the Daskins who have left millions of years ago. Much of their technology can seem like magic to other races and is deliberately designed to be impossible to study or reverse-engineer. Their hyper-intelligent and adaptable computer chips, for example, are tamperproof and will cease to function if used in a proscribed manner, such as in a weapon. Their devices can also be ordered to self-destruct in case the terms of an agreement are violated.

A number of Lo'ona Aeo products are considered to be forbidden goods, and their import is banned by the Earth Federation. These include hypnoglyphs (objects that place a being into a trance that cannot be broken by that individual and that can sometimes lead to death) and Fabrics of Oblivion (cloths that allow one to experience a lifelike illusion with memory loss being a common side effect).

Notable members

 * Zantoo: A Lo'ona Aeo female who refused her elders' instructions to become a half-female, as she wished to someday bear an offspring. As punishment (and to prevent just such an event), she was sent into exile until such time as her reproductive period ends. Given the lifespan of the Lo'ona Aeo, the exile was expected to last for a very long time. However, Zantoo's closeness with a Human named Sergey Valdez, who possessed psychic abilities, triggered her conception. Since the reason for her punishment was now moot, she was free to return to her family.
 * Heeyar: The male offspring of Zantoo and Sergey Valdez. Since no genetic material was exchanged, he is biologically a Lo'ona Aeo. However, the psychic bond between his parents did transfer some Human qualities to him. For instance, he is able to bear the proximity of aliens significantly better than his brethren. He is also considered adventurous by Lo'ona Aeo standards.

History
Almost nothing is known of Lo'ona Aeo history.

Tens of thousands of years ago, the Lo'ona Aeo have settled a number of planets not far from their homeworld of Kullat, terraforming them to their needs. The Human Defenders call this part of space the Pink Zone.

Thousands of years ago, they have expanded into an outer part of space Humans call the Blue Zone, settling a number of other planets. However, after some time, they have abandoned all their planets and relocated to artificial space habitats called astroids that circle one of their old worlds in the Pink Zone.

While the Pink Zone planets remain natural preserves, some of the Blue Zone planets have been given to the Human Defenders as payment for their services, especially in the early days of Human expansion into space when Earth was overpopulated.