Luminoth

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"Through vigilance and strength, we create peace." -Luminoth Creed

The Luminoth, like the Chozo, are a technologically advanced race of moth-like beings who have an intense spiritual fixation with light. They are the last of the known Higher races, as both the Chozo and Alimbics are now extinct the former assumed to have nothing more than a Etheral state of being in the world, the latter being wiped out by Gorea with horrifying speed and are nothing more than telepathic essences now.

According to Luminoth Lore, they were apparently "born between the stars," and were searching for a home planet for a very long time. On their travels for searching for such a planet, they encountered such peoples as the Chozo, and possibly exchanged technologies. In fact, based on circumstantial in-game evidence, it is speculated that the Screw Attack may have been of Luminoth design, which the Chozo then brought to some of their worlds. They finally found Aether, and it was a wonderful oasis to them. They colonized the planet, and made it their own in just a short time.

The Luminoth lived in peace on Aether, until a mysterious meteorite crashed onto their planet which carried extremely high amounts of Phazon. Dark Samus arrived much later to the planet, most likely because it had a need to feed on the Phazon which impacted the planet much earlier. The explosive impact of the meteorite literally tore the planet in two, creating a second Aether, known as Dark Aether. On that planet, the Ing thrived. It seems that all of the Phazon from the impacted meteorite transferred only to the dark version of Aether, as it doesn't seem to appear in Light Aether. When the Ing discovered portals that took them to Aether, they began invading Luminoth territory by possessing several creatures (including Luminoth soldiers and technology themselves). After a near 70 year long bitter war of attrition, they had defeated the Luminoth, who retreated into the Great Temple and into stasis tubes upon the order of U-Mos. However, U-Mos stayed awake to fight and pray for salvation.

It was he who guided Samus Aran to power generators located throughout Aether and Dark Aether. Once restoring power to the Luminoth, they were able to defeat the Ing and Dark Samus. Today, the Luminoth live in peace on Aether. It is revealed during the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption that the Galactic Federation visited the Luminoth on Aether and helped them clean up the remaining Space Pirate technology and that is when the Galactic Federation discovered Phazon and first began the Phazon Enhancement Device program.