LOKIITE PHYSIOLOGY

The sentient race is bipedal and somewhat humanoid looking overall, with many variations. The first thing that will strike the non-Lokiite, perhaps, are the long chitinous links that come out, connecting both wrists to one another, and both ankles to one another, that look almost like chains, save they are too long to restrict movement. jThese are the "childbonds", and explain why this race, which has no sense of mortality or altruism or love, do not drown their children when they first start to cry. The child secretes a substance from their childbonds which are necessary for the mother's well-being. (Artificial substitutes can be found, but they have bad side-effects.) The mother's and child's childbonds wrap together in a special way which allows the passage of the substance from the child's childbond into the mother's. So the health and well-being of the child is essential to the mother, and is until the child is sixteen or so. The childbonding experience heightens sexual excitement within a few hours, so males have a reason to protect a child and mother also. Since the secretions are partly determined by the genetic code, the closer the female relative is to the child, the better...if the mother dies, it is better to find an aunt than a total stranger, for instance. Still, orphaned children have been successfully raised by non-related females who have lost THEIR children, although oftentimes the mothers are more prone to sickness and convulsions. The changes in the mother that lead to the need for childbonding are part of the birth process, just as a human mother can give milk after giving birth.

One interesting consequence is that in this race,that is so indifferent to others' pain and are unimaginably cruel by human standards--there is NO child abuse by parents.

The childbond has other uses, although it CAN be severed...it has been used as a handy garrotte, since the links are hard, rather like a fingernail.

Also, interestingly, the Lokiite physiology is such that sex change is inevitable. From 1-18 the sexual equipment is like a pre-pubescent female. From 18 to 40, the sexuality develops into full childbearable female. From 40 to 80, the sexual equipment reverses itself, and they become fully funtional male. (If they have a child they are childbonding with, the childbonding need is not lessened by the change from female to male. Hence many times the male will still need to bond with the child directly.) Most Lokiites, if they live that long, know what it is like to be both mother and father to a child.

A Lokkiite physically can live to be eighty. Cases of Lokkiites living beyond that are so rare as to be nonexistent. In practice, in the extremely violent Lokkiite society, they rarely live to be beyond sixty.

There are two subspecies or races on Loki. The Falhym are the taller of the two, around five feet tall, less hairy than the other...no facial hair, although some of the head, save for eyebrows. They are by far the more numerous race, outnumbering the other race ten to one. The other race, the Norhym, are smaller (3-4 feet) and hairier, many sporting beards (both male and female). Historically they have tended to become slaves of the Falhym, but are cunning artificiers and strategists, and are especially skilled with their hands.

Like all Lokiite life, they use l-amino acids like our own life.

Physically, Lokiites have grey, seallike skin. Its rubbery texture helps protects against the acid rains. Their noses are rather horselike, able to detect needed chemicals for survival by smell from great distances. They have six fingers and toes on their hands and feet. They have red "hair"...actually broader and deeper than hair, almost looking like leaves, which give an odd effect of fire, since the hair is invariably red. Their eyes are close to terran mammallian, but have a faceted covering that gathers light better in the K5 light, giving them eyes that look curiously insectlike that contrast oddly to the red eyebrows. They also have a lateral red line running up and down either side of the body, which can not only detect changes in air pressure but weak electrical fields.