Li'mai

"Not going to lie, li’mai give me the creeps. Something about them is just… I’m almost worried they’ll crush me in their coils… or worse."

- Kalia Suuk

Li'mai are a cold-blooded homosaurian species of snake-like xenos hailing from the planet Gorgora. One of the Teyan Dominion's client-species, the race is infamous for its great physical strength. Their highly-traditional culture has survived through the Li'mai's ages of technological advancement, with great importance placed upon tradition in Li'mai society. Particularly feared by the ankoran colonists of the Triangulum Covenant Territories for their role during the Covenant-Dominion War as auxiliary warriors responsible for the occupation of many Covenant worlds, the species has gained a reputation as being cunning and dangerous creatures.

Biology
One of the unique attributes of Li’mai biology is that they are ectotherms, lacking the ability to properly thermo-regulate their bodies. Instead, they must use external heat sources to keep themselves sufficiently warm, similar to many serpents found in the galaxy. Their primary source of heat is sunlight, and they have evolved to seek out such warming rays. For them, it’s a primal satisfaction, an urge, with all members of the species finding sunbathing especially pleasing. However, they can get body heat from a wide range of sources, including warm air, as well as from hot liquids and food they consume.

Due to their ectothermic nature, Li’mai have the remarkable ability to rarely overheat due to clothing. As they do not produce their own body heat, then wearing insulating layers has little effect beside retaining body heat they already possess. As a consequence of this, clothing that would be ill-suited for other species on certain worlds provides little discomfort to Li’mai individuals, such as heavy wools on desert worlds.

Reproduction
Reaching sexual maturity at 30 years old, the Li’mai are a universally hermaphroditic species. Li’mai are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within their bodies until they are almost ready to hatch.

Mating rituals between Li’mai are typically long affairs, lasting between two to three hours, in which both partners will act as both male and female. Eggs are not released from the ovaries unless fertilised and are continuously produced upon reaching sexual maturity.

Li’mai couples do not mate for life, typically only remaining with a partner for several weeks before parting ways. Many Li’mai couples who are already friends may become temporary mating partners, and remain in contact afterwards.

Development and Growth
Li’mai age remarkably slow compared to most sapient species, requiring a full thirty years to reach sexual maturity. The li’mai life cycle begins with a five-month incubation period for the egg inside the mother, followed by an additional four months of development from within the safety of a nest. Upon hatching, the newly-hatched li’mai will lack the throat muscles needed to swallow meat, necessitating a milk-based diet for anywhere between one and two years, after which the li’mai hatchling can be weaned.

Li’mai begin their puberty phase at twenty-two years old, at which point the li’mai’s physical features begin to grow more prominent. Puberty is often a time in which a li’mai will experience significant growth spurts, with many recorded cases of individuals growing from two to five meters long in the span of a single year. During this period, the young li’mai will begin to produce eggs, develop their bust, and experience the first subtle developments of a sex drive. This period is often known to cause severe growing pains in some individuals, and most find themselves with an overworked appetite during the five-year puberty phase.

Upon reaching thirty years old, a li’mai’s physical development and growth will typically end, although recorded cases of certain li’mai continuing to grow longer and bulkier have been noted. When reaching this age, the li’mai is a fully-capable adult and will require significantly larger quantities of food to survive than what was necessary pre-puberty.

Diet
A strictly carnivorous animal, Li’mai are a predatory species incapable of biting, chewing or tearing food. As a result of this, all Li’mai swallow meals whole, although many will prepare meals to be easier to consume. Most often, meats are prepared as sausages, or meatballs of a size easy to consume, although many Li’mai restaurants offer larger meals in other exotic shapes.

Despite the common misconception amongst xeno socities that Li’mai can dislocate their jaws, the species cannot do this. Instead, Li’mai have a very flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and numerous other joints in their skull which allow them to open their mouths wide enough to swallow meals whole, even if it is larger in diameter than the individual Li’mai eating. Although largely unnecessary for modern Li’mai, this fact helps in the prevention of choking. Dependant on the size of a meal, an individual Li’mai can go days to weeks without eating again.

Li’mai hatchlings lack the strength in their throat muscles to swallow meat for the first few months of their lives, instead subsisting on a liquid diet provided by their mothers.