Lunarians

"- Phos: [Stopping Sensei] is for our own good. - Peridot: By "our", do you mean us, or the Lunarians?"

- Peridot confronting Phosphophyllite for their assistance on Lunarian's side.

Lunarians, also known as the Moon People (月人, tsukijin), are a species that inhabits the Moon. They are the main antagonists of Land of the Lustrous series and constantly attack the Gems in order to collect their gemstone bodies to be used as weapons and decorations. They have also defeated and captured the Admirabilis to use them as cattle. Their leader is Prince Aechmea.

Overview
The Moon People that come to the Land are various types of humanoid beings with a Buddhist motif. They appear as pale, smooth genderless beings with blank eyes and flowing clothes adorned with bands and beads. In the various animated versions, they are portrayed with white skin and yellow or pink shades on their clothing and accessories.

Their true nature is later revealed to be the souls of humans who once inhabitanted on the Land before the doomsday. They captured the Gem People mainly for forcing Adamant-Sensei, who was a cyborg made by Lunarians, to pray for their souls and send them towards afterlife. Not only did they captured gems, they showed an interest to Adamant as well because of the latter's renounced duty.

Sunspot
When they attack the Gems, they appear far in the sky from a black portal-like apparition called a "sunspot". According to Euclase, sunspots appear approximately once every three days for any season except winter. They only appear during sunny days, never at night or on rainy days, and only rarely during the winter as the sky is often cloudy.

Single Sunspot
Lunarians with single Sunspot is the most recurring type of Lunarians in the series, often they are old type of normal Lunarians, but new types are included in few occations. The currently named Lunarians, including their leader Prince Aechmea and his right-hand Semi, are Single-Sunspot Lunarians.

The normal Lunarians attack comes with one larger central figure and a few dozen sundries, usually with bows and arrows or other ranged weapons. This type of sunspots is fairly ordinary and easy to dispatch. Four holes can be seen in the central figure when it is cut horizontally.

The new type may look the same as the old one, but not always. Sometimes they have different formation, but still have the bigger figure on the center of cloud. The main differences are: their arrival type and, if the bigger figure sliced, it will release a different weapon from more than four holes and the cloud will be intact. These weapons are usually made from captured gem’s shards.

Double Sunspot
The Lunarians with Double Sunspots are a rather rare kind of Lunarians, appearing only in rare events where two sunspots appear superimposed upon each other. So far, only Shiro and the Pieces are shown to be with Double Sunspot. The two enemies brought so far both seem to be related to Kongo and manage to be far more problematic for the Gems than the usual Moon People attacks.

Triple Sunspot
Triple Sunspots are even rarer events and have only occurred twice in the story. A woman clad in white, adorned with a flowery motif. She fell from the triple sunspot in front of Zircon and Bort, where it stood up and waited without answering any questions. It was eventually sliced in two by Phos. It was eventually revealed to be a forgery imitating the human woman who created Kongo.

A second Triple Sunspot appeared during Phosphophyllite's night raid of the School. The Gems fought amongst themselves to a draw, at which point a Triple Sunspot appeared, revealing a large party of Lunarians with Cairngorm at the head. The Moon People finished off the worn out Gems and collected them before heading back to the Moon.

Behavior
"Fu..."

- A Lunarian made mere sounds whem Phos forced it to speak

On the Land, the Lunarians do not seem to communicate by talking, though they do behave in an organized fashion, attacking and moving in unison almost like a hivemind. Despite that, Ventricosus was shown to be able to communicate with them when they were negotiating. The Gems are not known to have tried to communicate with them in the past, although Phos tried once by capturing a Lunarian during an attack and asking it if it understood them. The Lunarian only made a few unclear sounds before it was destroyed by the Amethyst twins (In the anime, it was destroyed by Cinnabar).

When on the Moon, they drop their emotionless facade, talking and acting in a human fashion like the Gems or Admirabilis. It is revealed that they do not talk or breathe on the Land as the thick air is reminiscent of unpleasant things from their past. Their appearance also changes - they have visible pupils and irises, wear their hair down, and also have parts resembling small rabbit ears on the top of their heads.

Like the Gems, the Lunarians are immortal and ageless. They are able to recover after being dispersed, though they do so at a much faster rate on the Moon, being able to do so in mere seconds. They seem to be even more resilient than the Gems as they do not require physical reassembling to regenerate. They have been shown eating food and drinking, though it is not clear if they do so for nourishment and energy or if it is just for show and pleasure.

Trivia

 * Unlike the Gem People who are mainly genderless, Lunarians has concepts of gender.
 * Like Kongo-sensei, the Moon People have a Buddhist theme.
 * The rabbit ears that the Moon People possess when on the moon is likely a reference to the Moon Rabbit legend that exists in many Far Eastern cultures. Whereas in the West, the craters on the Moon are said to resemble a face, in Far Eastern cultures, the craters are said to resemble a rabbit working with a mortar. In Chinese legend, the rabbit is pounding herbs for the Elixir of Life which grants immortality. In the Japanese and Korean versions, the rabbit is pounding the ingredients for rice cake. Additionally, among these legends and myths is the belief that the Moon is inhabited by rabbits.
 * In the 2017 anime, the sunspots resemble fractals when they appear and expand. They were most likely inspired by the Buddhabrot fractal set.

Source

 * This article uses material from the Moon People on the Houseki no Kuni Wiki and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.