The Kzinti are a race of vicious and intelligent carnivores. They are bipedal felinoids related to the Fedration member race, the Caitians, but stand about 8 feet tall compared to the generally petite, human-sized Caitians. Kzinti are orange-furred, but have a distinctly tigerish aspect as compared to the leonine Caitians. A Kzinti’s ears and tail are hairless. Most Kzinti look like large orange-furred tiger-humanoids, but that isn't an exact description.
The Kzinti are physically large (usually 2.5 meters tall), and they have a preference for unarmed combat, because they are so profecient at killing with their bare claws. They rarley resort to energy weapons such as phasers and disruptors.
Immensely powerful, the Kzinti have more than one heart and vertical bracing of their ribs. Their warrior code of single combat commits them to fight to the death any foe who engages in hand-to-hand combat with one of them. If a Kzin commander is physically attacked, combat reinforcements may not be requested until honor is settled.Kzinti only eat flesh, preferably blood-raw and served at body temperature, and refuse to speak to herbivorous beings, save when absolutely necessary. They also revile pacifists, so Vulcans are doubly contemptible to them. They will reluctantly converse with omnivores like humans, although they will use other peoples for food if possible.
Kzinti females are regarded as non-sentient, animal-minded creatures, like Ferengi females who are repressed,
that are fought over, kept in harems much like lion prides. Kzinti males frequently treat females of other species with the same lack of respect as their own females. This leads many of them to underestimate female opponents, because
they instinctively consider females to be inferior.
They are very touchy about their honor and have no respect for herbivore races whom they consider as prey.
The Kzin produce telepaths with great ability to read minds, but these individuals tend to be unhappy neurotics. Although they do not need to touch a subject to read its mind, they are reluctant to read omnivore minds, and will only read herbivore or female minds if disciplined by the commander. Reading minds causes great psychological stress to telepaths, and unless the telepath rests for a period of time after each mind reading, the stresses build up and they tend to lose consciousness. Thus, Kzinti commanders do not use their telepathic subordinates casually.
Among the Kzin, names are given only to individuals who have been awarded that honor by the Patriarch,
Unnamed Kzin are referred to only by their rank or specialty. Distinguished Kzin gain a partial name, only the greatest of Kzinti warriors gain a full name,The Human race first incountered the Kzinti in 2065 when Kzin scout ships landed on earth stealling raw materials and humans for slave labor and as food. The Kzinti have fought four wars against humanity, losing all of them. This has been due in large part to inferior technology and a tendency to attack before they are ready. Kzinti technology development has been slowed by their distrust of pseudo-intelligent computers; the Kzin have ancient legends of weapons haunted by dead owners, and thus are reluctant to deal with machinery that talks.
Around the time that the Romulans and Federation were fighting their first war, the Klingons and Kzinti met each
other in their first war. Both sides consider the other to be evil barbarians. Kzinti, while being honorable by their
own standards, tend to consider other races to be inferior to them, and consider eating dead sentient beings to be
acceptable. Though they fought for many years, there was no successful end to the war.
They have no moral issues with eating other sentient beings (the prey thing again) often before such beings are rendered non-sentient. They host barbeques for their prisoners, who are the center of attention and usually the main course as well.In terms of design, Kzinti ships are relatively underpowered designs, they are large saucer shaped vessels that are designed in the same way as the old style, in terms of aesthetics, posses modern warp drives that are generally similar to a Federation Galaxy-class starship in engine design. A typical ship’s maximum warp is 9.93. They tend to possess Klingon or Romulan style disruptors, and are also capable of launching photon torpedoes. Recent reports also mention that Kzin ships now possess cloaking technology, though how or where they got it from still remains a mystery.
