La Metalians

The People of La Metal (dubbed La Metalians by translators) are the native sentient species of the planet La Metal. Once an ancient yet advanced civilization, many of the original life forms later became Machine Men after their source of energy started to fade.

Physiology

La Metalians appear very similar to Earth humans with the only notable difference being their extremely long lifespans, spanning from hundreds to thousands of years. For some it takes a hundred years to begin physically aging. Because of their long life spans some La Metalians have a distorted sense of time such as how fast a day goes to them. This is likely the result of their advanced technology as well as the severely cold conditions of La Metal. In fact, many of the La Metalians stay in transparent glass life-support systems called Beds for most of their lives to hibernate due to their planet lacking a regular sun. The hibernation periods themselves are recorded to be around 999 years and 9 months. Once the hibernation period ends, La Metalians have only three months worth of time to wander about, the event is referred as "Fleeting Spring". However other media depict the hibernation periods differently with the hibernation spanning 800 years with the Fleeting Spring being 200 years while other series do not display the hibernation period at all. In the movie version, it is stated that La Metalians also age quicker when facing imminent death.

Society and Culture

La Metalians are led by a Holy Queen, most revealed of which bear the name La Andromeda Promethium. Below this are the Millennial Queens, leaders of underground colonies on planets that support life before the planets are conquered. Once the planet is conquered, the Millennial Queen gains the right to become the next Holy Queen ruling the empire of La Metal.

When it comes to the citizens however, not much is known as most of them just followed orders of whoever was in charge. The inhabitants of the Royal Palace in the colony cities wear garments similar to what was worn in ancient Greece and Rome. Around the Royal Palace are cities with compartments for each of the classes with the royal family living at the center, citizens living on the outer ridges, and settlers from Earth living on the edges and being prohibited from leaving as they are a slave class. They are the primary work force used to support La Metal, but with shorter lifespans than the inhabitants, and Earthlings having bad features when hooked up to Bed's, new slaves had to be brought to and from Earth with each passing millennium.

As revealed in the TV version, there are no ceremonies or holidays as most time and energy is spent on the military exploits for colonization. In fact due a lack of importance in love, ceremonies such as weddings and funerals are unheard of and most children are not directly raised by their parents, the royal family being no exception.

Millennial Queen

The Millennial Queen is the designated leader of the colonies on other worlds, dispatched by the Holy Queen. They are a referred to as a secret presence to govern Earth. They have always been born in the underground colonies and the structure dubbed the Cocoon. When fully gestated, they are released onto the surface as infants to live among Earth's ranks and begin plans for settlement and transport of slaves. The movie version of Queen Millennia even states that some of these women became major if controversial figures such as Queen Himiko, Yang Guifei, and Cleopatra.

Once the millennial period of approach comes closer, some people are sent out to retrieve the Millennial Queen and begin operations. However, there have been cases where Queens die off from either an accident or an illness with replacements immediately dispatched. If the current Queen would ever deviate from their original plan, a duel for the new queen is issued with no outside interference at all and overseers are not to be attacked. More recent developments however allowed users to cram information into a recipient making them the new queen.

Divergence

Some La Metalians have attempted to leave their home world behind and settle on Earth, seeing it as a paradise and a thousand year spring. However due to some of the Holy Queen including Larela, seeing coexistence as both impossible and a waste of effort, this is an unpopular method and instead has been revised to conquer Earth instead. As a result, some of the La Metalians who still sided with the idea of coexistence were lead under Yayoi Yukino and her sister the Millennial Thief leader Selene stood against the ruling family with a conflict breaking out with many sacrifices on both sides. Eventually the Earth's resettlement plan was called off with La Metal continuing in a new cycle.

Behavior

The La Metalians are a proud nation with high technological prowess and civilization. As such many of their leaders look down on the so-called inferior civilizations such as that of Earth's, referring to Earth humans as 'monkeys'. Under certain Holy Queens, Earthlings were meant to be nothing more than slaves. As stated previously, many La Metalians lack a sense of love, due in part of spending most of their lives in hibernation and spending more time on other activities. Even immediate families are at best distant from each other. However, this does not mean all La Metalians are incapable of love as Selenium lamented Yayoi Yukino's death. Selenium was even impressed that Earthlings could share joy and sorrow with all other people as well as self-sacrifice.

Scientific and Military Power

The technology of the La Metalians is very advanced, often best shown through their androids that are manufactured with artificial cells that can be seen with a microscope at a magnification of 500,000 times the vision. Transferring a consciousness into one of these frames is also possible, but given the military focus, functions like emotion are often excluded. Cloning is also a commonly seen method used by the royal family, such as the women similar to Yayoi in the structure called the Cocoon as well as the body doubles used by Queen Promethium in Space Symphonic Poem.

Structure's within a planet's crust are normally used for colony cities, making use of hidden elevators, light large enough to brighten an entire cavity. There even exist cities that are able to float in the sky. In fact, some of La Metal's technology can even defy the laws of nature, it can bring about extinction or even create a paradise if ever deemed necessary.

Concepts such as the soul have also been grasped by La Metalians, allowing energy to be transferred among individuals. Energy itself can even be used to create an artificial sun, unfortunately these had very mixed results that were later cast aside.

In terms of military, machines such as tanks and star ships are capable of repairing, decomposing, and disappearing at the molecular level. However, they are still vulnerable to old fashioned weapons such as museum display aircrafts and their guns, showing a very brittle exterior.

History

It is unknown when La Metalians first came into existence but their civilization predates Earth's humans by a very long time. Time and again, La Metal would pass by Earth about every 1000 years with most La Metalians controlling parts of history to make sure they stayed hidden while gathering slaves from Earthlings. Eventually, La Andromeda Prometheum under the name Yayoi Yukino surfaced as the then current Millennial Queen. However, growing to love Earth and its people, she instead helped the rebellion against her home world with help from Professor Amamori and his nephew Hajime. Sacrificing herself to end the cycle by sealing up a black hole responsible for La Metal's orbit, a truce was formed with Earth as La Metal leaves on a new and uncertain journey.

Many years later, a new La Andromeda Promethium took control of La Metal utilizing an artificial sun to provide life and energy for La Metal. Eventually, she married the scientist Dr. Ban and sired the twin daughters Emeraldas and Maetel. With the artificial sun failing, under new instruction, the inhabitants of La Metal were forced to get Machine Bodies, which put them under Promethium's control after gaining Dr. Ban's intelligence with Promethium herself succumbing to the side effects of the process. This effectively kick started the beginning of the Machine Empire with a resistance lead by Maetel and Emeraldas composed of survivors of the conversion and other allies.