Lyrans

The Lyrans are a pardiform people that dwell predominantly in the wide plains and deserts south and inland from the Sea of Dirac. They are physically imposing, standing six to seven feet tall on average, and are naturally armed with deadly sharp claws on their hands and feet, as well as mouths full of knifelike fangs. They are essentially anthropomorphic lions or tigers; though, unlike many popular representations, they walk with their feet flat to the ground, i.e. plantigrade, rather than on their toes.
Being predominantly carnivorous, the Lyrans are prodigious herders, keeping vast herds of hma and other herdbeasts, either driven by nomadic tribes across the plains, or kept on the wide prairies and watched by rangers in the case of the more sedentary Mrrshans. These often employ human tribesmen as either slaves or auxiliaries to help in the duties of herding (and sometimes to serve as additional sources of meat).
Lyrans are highly sexually dimorphic, with the males being larger and more aggressive than females. These differences have been approached in two radically different ways by the two main cultures of Lyrans that are in regular contact with the Ten Cities' League: the Kzinti and the Mrrshans. Where the Kzinti subordinate their females almost to the point of slavery, and espouse the aggressive male warrior as the epitome of society, the Mrrshans keep their males in luxury inside their estates while their sisters and female cousins run the estates, trade with outsiders, and generally run society.

The Kzinti
The Kzinti are more commonly known in Cothon-Gadeed and the Ten Cities, given that at least one of their nomadic tribes is almost always in contact with the cities in some way. They traverse the coastal plain with their herds of beasts, often causing mischief for unwary travelers or outlying settlements, though they are supposed to be bound to Peace with mankind after centuries of almost constant warfare (the Man-Kzin Wars).
As noted above, Kzinti culture is a warrior culture, and a patriarchal culture. Their women are treated little better than chattel for the getting of sons; males are the only ones who hold any place of esteem in their society, and only males who are capable of fulfilling the way of the warrior. Smaller males who are unfit for war are ridiculed and bullied, and often killed outright.
Every warrior carries his particular sword, called a wtsai, for combat amongst themselves or against tougher beasts; but when it comes to fighting humans, many warriors prefer to use only their own claws and teeth.
Kzinti only gain names through glory. When first initiated into the tribe as whelps, young braves are called simply Man-Hunter, or Seeker-for-Tracks, or some other appellation. Only when a Kzin has done some great deed, as deemed by the patriarch of the clan, will be granted a partial name, such as Grrf-Hunter, or Mwe-Slaver. And only the very boldest have full names that make no reference to profession.
The Kzin religious is predominantly one of ancestor worship and hero veneration, led by a caste of Black Priests (usually those who are born with black fur, though it is known that some priests dye their coats black). Every lunar year there is a great gathering of Kzinti near the Necropolis of the Tel al Safina, the Moot, wherein the tribes meet each other, exchange boasts and combats, and where the Black Priests perform some ritual with the mightiest of warriors inside the Necropolis itself.

The Mrrshans
Almost like opposites of the Kzinti, the Mrrshans are a sedentary and matriarchal culture--though still militaristic. As their lands lie  across the plains to the southeast, through Kzinti territory, there is much less commerce between the Mrrshans and the Ten Cities, and they are not as well known.
Their tribes are not nomadic, but settled, having great estates of land whereon roam their herds of hma. These estates are held by male lords, who are feted by their sisters and female cousins. These females do all the work around the estate, while their lord lives in luxury, kept away from other males and outsiders against whom he might be driven to rage. Though it would seem that the females are treated poorly, that is not really the case--being the ones who do all the work, they are the ones who run Mrrshan society. The males are lords in name only; females hold all offices of import in society at large.
Because of the way their society is set up, Mrrshans drive away male children when they reach puberty, to go live off the land until they've grown large enough and cunning enough to be able to challenge a landed male to combat, to win his estate from him. These challenges are both sources of great entertainment, and yet can also be quite disruptive to an established clan. It is also known that, especially on the borderlands, some of these bands of Mrrshan males go forth and join Kzinti tribes, so that one might occasionally find a Mrrshan male among the Kzinti (on the other hand, though it is conceivable that Kzin warrior might be able to defeat a Mrrshan lord and take his estate, it is difficult to imagine a Kzin patriarch remaining sane in a world where females control everything, and he is treated like a pampered Kzinret).
Though Mrrshans prefer to have lots of space--their estates are broad swaths of plain for grazing their herds, usually with only one great hall and a few outbuildings--there is at least one Mrrshan "city", Fierea, where an alliance of trading clans of old established warehouses in common, and which grew out into a caravanserai and organizational center. If there were said to be any head of Mrrshan society, it would be the council that meets in the city to decide matters of import to all the clans.

The Kdaptists
These mysterious sorceresses deserve some mention. Though they are technically Kzinti, they are Kzinreti (Kzin females) who have completely rejected Kzin society and seek to undermine it from without. They are a small sect, essentially maintained by kidnapping female Kzinti children or enticing more intelligent and assertive Kzinreti to abandon their tribes.
In the Ten Cities, the Kdaptists are mostly known as shapechanging sorceresses who seduce and kill humans, and take their skins to magically wear them. There is said to be a group of these sorceresses somewhere in the Tel al Safina, probably in the Necropolis.