Wychmyr

The Wychmyr are a species of cat-like humaniods. Some are covered in fur and have long tails, but other members appear almost like humans with car ears. It is often speculated that their ancestors were engineered by the ancient Jotun for unknown purposes.
They are an all-female species and they reproduce through a strange ritual that invovles one member drinking the blood of another. It is frowned upon to speak in detail about this with outsiders. Not only is the ritual deeply culturally significant, but it is often misunderstood by others. Extensive archaeological studies of their alleged homeworld, Shomiesh, have failed to find any evolutionary ancestors or evidence of pre-spaceflight civilizations.

Clans and Tribes

Every Wychmyr is born into a Clan. These are partially spirtitual and partially political entities. All Clans harbor some animosity towards one another. This divide is nearly insurmountable as their souls are incompatable with one another. To stand near a living member of another Clan causes them a varying degree of pain. Some Clans will be simply uncomfortable around each other, and other pairings cause a near uncontrollable anger. According to Wychmyr legends, there was once a Clan Shomiesh that was able to interact with all other Clans and bring piece to their kind, but that they disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The only physical evidence of this is The Shrine of Peace located on Shomiesh that seems to have the same effect. It is possible for multiple Clans to share occupaition of a single planet, as long as there are enough good places to settle to be far enough away from one another. There is almost no need to justify attacking another Clan, so skirmishes are fairly common on these planets. These are usually brief, but bloody wars. Each Clan has its own rules about who leads the Clan as a whole. Typically, this is an elected position of some kind.
Each Clan has their own area of expertise, a skill or set of skills that they have an innate and spiritual connection with. For example, Melusina has an uncanny understanding of machines. These specializations lead to trade between the Clans as they focus on their own areas of expertise. The long standing tradition of trade between Clans, even including selling weapons to rivals, seems to indicate that there was a time before the Clans had these spiritual rifts that keep them from uniting in a more permanent way.
Tribes are much more informal than the Clans. They can be as small as a few dozen Wychmyr or as large as a few thousand. They are usually led by the eldest members. On more frontier planets and entire village or small town might be just one Tribe, but on more densly populated ones several Tribes will live next to each other in a city. Children are raised by the Tribe as a whole. It is not uncommon to lose track of who was a mother to which child as such details are considered irrelevant.
If a Clan has an eye towards settling a new land, they will reach out to the individual Tribes that live closest to their destination. Volunteers will set out on their new journey and form a new Tribe (or Tribes) in that local area. As the reporduction ritual is directed and coordinated by the Tribe Elders, there are rare occations where a Tribe becomes too big and has to be split into several smaller ones.
The most famous and powerful Clans are: Melusina and Thaeyka. Melusina is the formost manufacturer of military hardware and industrial equipment, while Thaeyka has an exceptional talent for creating medicines, recreational drugs, poisons, and the like.

Reproduction

The reproduction ritual requires two Wychmyr, but often includes a third. You need the prospective mother and another Wychmyr to donate blood. Usually, this ritual is overseen by a shaman or spiritual guide. The specifics vary by Clan, but during the ritual blood will be drawn from the donor and the prospective mother will drink it. The participants will reach out to the spirits around them in order to help facilitate the conception. The spirits also help subtily alter the DNA of the child. Tribes living in colder environments will usually decide to give their childen thick fur, for example. These adaptations can only go so far, they cannot give themselves wings or gills, dispite several attempts to do so. It is also necessary for the spirits to approve of the pregancy, as one Wychmyr drinking another's blood on its own is not enough to do so.

Spiritual Connection

Every member of the species has an innate understanding of Spiritsinging. It is easy for Wychmyr to find a job teaching other species the intricacies of bending the "ears" of spirits.

The Great War

Only a single time in their known history have they been able to put aside their differences and work together. The Great Wychmyr-Kharst War managed to pull their species together enough to fight The Kharst Empire. This cooperation was tenious at best, military coordination between Clans was basically non-existant. The only solution they were able to agree on was hiring enough mercenaries from some other species to fill out the ranks of each Clan so they could fight mostly independently.
The dwarf-like Razk were the first to be hired as their explorations in the stars brought them into contact shortly before the war began. The Razk, however, did not have nearly enough volunteers and the seach continued. After some time, they found that the Humans of Earth were actually willing to go along with this plan in exchange for mainly technological aid. At this time the Cold War on Earth was still going and the various world powers used this gifted technology to extend that war of ideologies to the stars. While Humans filled out the bulk of their mercenary needs, they hired just about anyone who was willing. On Earth, it was the year 1985 when the Wychmyr made First Contact. After about a year of secret talks, payment was delievered and announcements calling for volunteers was made. There were other species living through out the galaxy that got involved on one side or another throughout the war, but the Razk and the Humans were the most influential during and after the war.

After the War

Once the fighting was over, the Clans gladly returned to their old status quo. It is fairly common to see a Wychmyr Tribe or two on planets colonized by Humans and Razk. The Razk accept them typically only begrudingly, while Humans are usually a bit more welcoming. Most non-Wychmyr planets have laws pertaining to where these Clans may settle in relation to other Clans in order to prevent any issues.

Wychmyr using powers by Luna

Lifespan

300 years