Right from the start, Planet Lom was blessed with the best evo­lu­tion­ary luck. Large tem­per­ate zones and gentle seasonal patterns allowed for life to spring up every­where. What really made life take a dif­fer­ent route on Lom is that the animal species also devel­oped pho­to­syn­the­sis. No Lom has ever gone hungry. No Lom has ever had to worry about going hungry. Life on Lom has never been a zero sum game. Without pre­da­tion there was no inherent fear in the Lom. They have dis­agree­ments, they have ego clashes and neuroses, but all Lom operate on the fun­da­men­tal assump­tion that life is good, and that they will have what they need to survive. In an envi­ron­ment free of the need to hunt or gather, even the earliest mating displays centered around intel­lec­tu­al prowess as expressed through art, music, and science. All of which they see as parts of the same spectrum. This formed the bedrock of Lom society. The Lom devel­oped complex musical instru­ments before they ever saw the need for wheels.

In an envi­ron­ment free of the need to hunt or gather, even the earliest mating displays centered around intel­lec­tu­al prowess as expressed through art, music, and science. All of which they see as parts of the same spectrum. This formed the bedrock of Lom society. The Lom devel­oped complex musical instru­ments before they ever saw the need for wheels.

As they con­tin­ued to evolve, their skin changed from green to near black. Pho­to­syn­the­sis still provides their main source of nutri­tion, but they can absorb and metab­o­lize almost all radi­a­tion. They think gamma radi­a­tion is deli­cious. X‑rays? A bit pungent for the children, perhaps, but def­i­nite­ly nothing to pass up. (Maybe equiv­a­lent to a nice Stilton.)

The societal and polit­i­cal struc­tures of the Lom, such as they are, exist as a resource allo­ca­tion hub. If a Lom gets sick, the central Lom­Sphere will find other Lom with the skills to help. If a Lom wants to start what we would call a business, the Lom­Sphere will match that Lom with other Lom who are willing and able to help.

But it would be wrong to call these concerns ​“busi­ness­es.” There is no profit motive. The Lom power their machin­ery with a com­bi­na­tion of pho­to­syn­the­sis, thermal and radiant energy. The planet is rich in minerals and other resources. The Lom want for nothing but novelty. When the Lom start a ​“business” it’s purely to explore ideas and to build things they find interesting.

The Lom cel­e­brate their indi­vid­u­al­ism, but also rec­og­nize their part in their world and all worlds. Their names are con­struct­ed to identify each indi­vid­ual from the larger unit to the smaller. A typical Lom name would be Lom­garlen Mor­sul­ton Por­fo­line Sperf — a Lom from theGarl con­ti­nent, from the city of Morsulto, a member of the Porfolin family, named Sperf. This makes for long names, of course, but except for cer­e­mo­ni­al occa­sions, they are short­ened to city and indi­vid­ual name, with the family name short­ened to a single phonem. If you wanted to look up our example Lom, you’d query the Lom­Sphere for Mor­sul­ton Por Sperf.

The Lom are expert space trav­el­ers. Sunlight and cosmic radi­a­tion are every­where. To them, the medium of travel is full of fuel and provides endless sensory delight. It’s as if you could travel through space by pulling choco­late out of the ether.

On Earth, space travel sprang from military and indus­tri­al roots. The Lom are simply curious what’s out there. Their space program was started by artists and radi­a­tion foodies. They wish simply to explore — because you never know what inspi­ra­tion a new star system might bring. As it turns out, the magnetic field of Jupiter is an absolute delicacy to the Lom.

Of course, having never known pre­da­tion, the Lom have run into some trouble in their travels. When they first met species that are built on scarcity and the will to power, they simply didn’t com­pre­hend. In those first encoun­ters they tried to explain that they were really just passing through, sampling the local cuisine, taking some pictures for the folks back home… but you can imagine how that went. If you’re part of a fear-based species, non-fear simply doesn’t compute.

In response, the Lom did develop defen­sive tech­nolo­gies. They’re sweet, but they’re not stupid. They have force fields and cloaking devices. They taught them­selves to shape-shift so they could cam­ou­flage them­selves or, if nec­es­sary, escape from con­fine­ment. Telling­ly, they also chose to make them­selves as small as possible. Size as a means of pro­ject­ing power is simply unnec­es­sary when your life is built around intel­lec­tu­al expan­sion and sensory delight. Con­se­quent­ly, the crew of a Lom scout ship would find a human thumb to be a spacious perch indeed.

So why were these advanced beings stranded on a foreign planet? If they’re so artful about space travel, why were they not equipped to fix their own ship? Well, on Lom space travel has devel­oped to the consumer level. Think of your car. It’s a hugely advanced machine that’s sub­stan­tial­ly reliable. You know how to do basic main­te­nance on it, you can change your own tires, you might even be able to do some minor repairs, but if there’s a major failure you’ll need a tow. That’s what happened to the crew of the Quar’Lo­mac.