Lumas had an unusual affliction in that he was allergic to the great trees of Ithor. He was unwilling to live on another planet that had trees because they reminded him of the home he could not live on, so he spent nearly ten years as a pilot on a spice freighter.
Upon visiting Genarius, he fell in love with the freedom of the open skies, and with a beauty of a different kind from Ithor. He loved the air and flying, was enraptured by the shapes that clouds made, and felt that piloting a bubbleship looked like he was towing a cloud of his own.