Kilrathi

The Kilrathi are a race of warlike, felinoid aliens in the computer game series Wing Commander. The Kilrathi stand upright, but otherwise resemble big cats: they have leonine manes but also have markings which distinguish the clan. The Kilrathi society is depicted as an empire of hrai clans, with the dominant religion being the cult of a war deity: the main religious ceremony is to be performed on newly seized territory, which drives most Kilrathi wars, and had caused the confrontation with the Terran Federation, which is the theme of the first three games and the "Freedom Flight" off-spin novel. In Wing Commander I, the Kilrathi were strictly a hated faceless enemy, but already in Wing Commander II a more complex side of them was revealed: one of the notable characters in the game is ex-lord Ralgha, the Kilrathi captain who defected his ship to Terran Federation in order to deliver the offer of allegiance from a rebel Kilrathi colony.