Warmongerers / Military Production: 9
Scientists / Research Income: 5
Theologians / Faith Income: 1

Race Name: Mithran
Name of Faction: Mithran Dominion
Government Structure: In theory, an absolute monarchy. In practice, a system of landed (or orbital slot-holding) noble aristocracy handle day to day governance while the monarchy serves as a strong-yet-hands-off central authority, resulting in a more coalition-like framework as the interstellar era begins.

Race Biology: 
The Mithran species resembles a number of variety of humanoid felines, majority ethnicities being foxkin, wolfkin, and lionkin. The Mithrans have a 9-1 female-male gender ratio, and a rapid rate of maturation where a pup grows to “adulthood” in nine years. Lifespan without medical intervention is 70 years, although a Mithran can expect to be vigorously active up to their last years without too much decay, barring injury or sickness.

Cultural History:
To sum up the Mithran culture: meritocratic militant hedonism.

The Mithran culture is centered around the concept of self-fulfillment. An individual’s priority should be self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment of their abilities and potential for good of the state and self. The result has been a society that embraces both high militarism and hedonism, holding the loyal and dutiful soldier with the same respect as a person able to enjoy high wealth and luxury. The pursuit of rank and glory on the battlefield is just as lofty a goal as becoming a successful businesswoman or tycoon and being able to enjoy sky yachts all day long, and many high-ranking individuals embrace both extremes of living insofar as it doesn’t interfere with their duties.

Mithran militarism has resulted in a partial melding of their industrial-military complex with common society. Military hardware is often repurposed for civilian tasks and vice-versa. Civilian cruise liners and yachts have military-grade power cabling and provision for quick refits for heavy weapons, while an entire line of military frigates double as megafreighters with mounting for heavy cargo pods or torpedo pods.

In general, the Mithrans prefer to build capital ships than escorts, and prefer big-gun battlecruisers and battleships over strike-craft carriers in combat. Crew training and quality is highly emphasized and a high priority issue in ship and military R&D over rushing new weapons or technology to the front. Training is rigorous, crew quarters must be ergonomic and comfortable for extended ops, and ships are built with large crew complements in mind for redundancy and high readiness. But conversely, the high responsibility work and combat conditions also result in slightly relaxed off-duty regulations.

Social Structure:
The Mithran Dominion are divided into social classes of nobility, middle-class, and lower-class. The classes of the middle and lower classes are largely built on wealth, social position, and access to luxuries, meaning fluid movement is not uncommon. Transition into and within the upper class elites and nobility is more complex however, and often strictly tied to meritocratic action either in combat or in political scheming.

Mithran males stand apart from the social hierarchy owing to their limited and protected status under the Imperial government. Males are expected to take more philosophical, scientific, or social professions in addition to serving as breeding mates under Imperial or clan matchmaking. Recently the gender wall is suffering some cracks due to high theoretical and technical knowledge required to run FTL drives and starships, resulting in some males branching into high-tech space industry or even military auxiliary roles.

Reaction to Aliens:
The reflexive mindset the Mithrans have towards aliens is “how can be make use of them?” Whether it is a militaristic exploitation mindset or hedonistic thrill-seeking perspective depends Mithran to Mithran. Most would lean towards the former.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:
[hider=First Stars]
"Flag, this is Winter Tide. 2rd Light Cruiser Division assuming jump position."
"5th Destroyers, on station."
"6th Destroyer squadron, on point."
"8th Destroyer squadron in position, awaiting orders."

"Admiral, all escorts on station. Capital ships Braveheart, Intemperate, and Stalwart have assumed formation positions. We are ready to jump."

Admiral Serina Hawthorne nodded as she looked at the holo-screen depicting the formation before her. 3 squadrons of destroyers, 1 squadron of light cruisers, four battlecruisers. Her task force for exploring what was behind this gate. Not far off from the display, she watched the young male manning the hastily-installed "Jump-key" terminal as he input field parameters and programming needed to cross the threshold. Finally, he made a sign of affirmation.

"Field set. Gate signal active. Admiral, requesting permission to transit the fleet."

"Permission granted. All hands, prepare for jump. All stations to alert status one."

The crew fastened harnesses and donned the helmets kept on their shoulders. Gun stations were manned and atmosphere was drained from nonessential compartments, the ship brought to full battle and emergency preparedness. There was no telling what would be on the other side.

"Jumping in five....four...three...two...one! Jump!"

The universe inverted itself, and in the blink of an eye the fleet was moved from one place to another in the universe. And suddenly the universe was filled with light.

"Jump completed, beginning search for navigation beacons......woah." Adrian looked up from his console to look at the starscape being projected across the holo-screen dome of the bridge, transfixed like the rest of the crew at the sight before them. No one said a word, not even the AI's dared interrupt the breathtaking scene before them. For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, they simply watched the sight of the stars surrounding them. Finally the Admiral broke the awed silence.

"Flag to 8th destroyer squadron. Break off a ship and return back through the portal. Signal for the rest of the First Fleet to come through and prepare for exploration operations. We got a big galaxy to map out ladies....and gentlemen. Lets get to work. We'll have plenty of time for gawking after we find out where the closest planet we can put a beach resort on is."
[/hider]

[hider=Technology]

Tier 1:
Robotics (5): Robots of many sizes, builds, and levels of computer sophistication are common in Mithran society as servants, workers, assistants, and military support drones.
Particle Manipulation (5): Investigations into the manipulations of electrons, neutrons, non-baryonic particles, and other elements of the universe have yielded considerable theoretical applications the Mithrans have been quick to capitalize upon and advance.
Ballistics (5): The Mithrans primarily prefer to engage enemies with long-range energy weaponry, due to the industrial expense of missiles and contact-lag of ballistics. However they do arm their ships with railguns capable of launching space-to-ground kinetic ordinance or space-to-space volleys of grapeshot as a deadly close-range weapon.

Tier 2
Industrial Robotics (10): Industrial automation of a large range of fields is an essential pillar of Mithran society, with several low-level repetitive manufacturing industries solely made of robots with minimal organic supervision required.
Particle Fields (10): Advancing their understanding of particle manipulation and theory, the Mithrans discovered the capability for building particle-beam weaponry and electrostatic reinforcement of ships to resist incoming fire.

Tier 3
Particle Beams (15): The primary weapon of the Mithran fleets is the electron particle beam cannon, a long-range energy weapon. While not high-damage, it is effective at piercing armor. More brute-force powerful neutron particle beam cannons are in development, but limited solely to only the most advanced battleships and battlecruisers due to power and space requirements.
Orbital Platforms (15): While the Mithrans are primarily a planet-bound species, they can build large orbital shipyards and space platforms to host large semi-permanent populations to exploit orbital positions or resources. They have also built a number of orbital luxury resorts.
Asteroid Mining (15)

Tier 4
Orbital Construction (20): The Mithran orbital naval shipyards are the birthplace of grand capital starships. Battleships and battlecruisers that could never be built or exist at planetary shipyards are brought to life at sprawling orbital complexes. 
[/hider]