Rakshasans

Rakshasans are an intelligent feline predator species. They hail from a sphere known as Kzinspace, connected in the Flow to Greyspace.
Most Rakshasans live up to their heritage, being fierce and cruel opponents in battle. In their prime, they are strong, agile, and cunning. Their militaries are usually ruled by the strongest of the pride and are relentless and terrible in warfare. Their armies consist of fearsome, independent, self-reliant, and highly motivated warriors.
Rakashans are bred to the hunt. They manage terrific strength and bursts of speed to unleash their powerful, sharp teeth and claws on the unwary. A rakashan’s stealth is unmatched by other intelligent creatures. But what they manage in quickness they lack in endurance.
Rakashans struggle to maintain heavy exertion for more than an hour or so; long-distance running at the kinds of speeds they can manage in short bursts is simply out of the question. They must also take nourishment and hydrate more frequently than humans and most other sentients, though this is easily mitigated and hardly noticeable while in civilized surroundings. This trait reflects their racial heritage of making several small kills every day in the wild.
Their the journey toward civilization and technology advanced quickly down the paths of ritual cooperation, but quite slowly in the direction of military hardware. As owners of such deadly natural weaponry, they discovered early on to temper their personal battles, inventing and strictly adhering to a series of warnings, threats, counter warnings, and granting of permission before baring their claws to one another.
Rakashans find killing by means other than tooth and claw especially unsatisfying; shooting someone with a crossbow from a distance may be effective, but it does nothing to relieve the blood tension of combat. Their companions find the rakashan practice of taking a final bite out of a fallen enemy somewhat disturbing, though to the rakashan it brings necessary closure to the act of violent confrontation.
All of this makes a rakashan seem reserved and formal while at the same time incredibly dangerous. One put in a potentially deadly situation—stalking a suspect or arguing with an enemy—seethes and even trembles with pent-up but controlled rage, baring his teeth and extending his claws reflexively, taking short breaths, tensing his muscles and putting back his ears.
Even in a situation where no fight ensues, a rakashan puts on a reflexive display that can be quite intimidating. Still, within the hierarchy of his situation, a rakashan follows his orders, bows to the authority of his superiors, and does not unleash his deadly aggression unless he has permission to do so.
Their language betrays their bloodthirsty past. Terms for enemy and food are synonymous, as are the linguistic concepts for justice, dominance, and meat consumption, all indistinguishable ideas to their thinking. Their extensive rituals rely upon precise terms and turns of phrase.
Rakashan speech is vowel heavy and somewhat musical, interspersed with growls that seem more threatening than they usually are.
Their ships mimics their physiology, relying upon stealth, quick assault, and deadly firepower to overcome opponents quickly. Their military doctrine is to overwhelm and destroy as quickly as possible, reasoning there is plenty of time to sort things out after a battle’s conclusion.
Scouts are never employed; a Rakashan warrior is his own scout, ready to deal with any threat as it is discovered. Not surprisingly, Rakashan strategies are marked by poor preparation and supply trains; by their very nature they are unaccustomed to the preparation and planning for an extended military campaign, reliant instead upon quick strikes and rapid conclusions.
While most spacefaring rakashans are omnivores, at heart they embrace their carnivorous roots. They have numerous hunting planets, and on some the sentience of the prey is simply not a consideration.
Most other alien races in the Known Spheres welcome rakashans as friends and companions, if a bit warily.

Racial Enemy: the Vodoni

Rakashans are naturally suspicious of the newly encountered Vodoni, in part because of the instinctive conflict between feline and lupine soldiers, in part because the violent tactics of the Vodoni seem far too familiar, and in part because they suspect the Vodoni of having imperialist ambitions.
Some scholars speculate that the Vodoni tried to conquer Kzinspace in the distant past, but this has not been confirmed.