The Tyandirr species didn't originate from their caustic homeworld in the Taran Nebular, named Tyranis. Inscribed within Ancient Records from the beginning of the First Tyandirr Empire, information pertaining to the true origins of the species are kept hidden, protected, from the Warrior Castes that would act upon them - with ferocious aggression. While true to the Tyandirr Warrior culture, that aggression would ultimately place them at odds with the Shadow Elders and their vision.
The Shadow Elders.
Tyandirr Government Hierarchy is based on a patriarchal structure of absolute power, earned by merit and respect trough hundreds of cycles of hardship, dedication and adherence to the Tyandirr Culture and Way of Life. The Emperor sits upon the High Throne, nestled in the clouds of Tyanis upon the Empire's Seat of Power; a massive mega-structure covering the surface of the planet - embodying the Might of the Emperor himself.
Any alien observer of Tyandirr society and social hierarchy from an outside perspective would be forgiven for believing the Warrior Race is purely authoritarian, autocratic - patriarchal. They would be forgiven for believing that the government is based on pure ruthlessness and cold, calculating lust for power.
They would, of course, be ignorant to the true structure of the Imperial Government. Indeed, the Emperor sits upon the High Throne, indeed this five-hundred cycle-old Tyandirr Warrior holds absolute, unquestioning authority throughout all of Tyandirr territorial space - and even beyond, but the assumption of arrogance and dictatorship is misplaced.
Deep within the belly of the Imperial Citadel over Tyanis, lies a chamber dedicated to what the Inner Circle of the Emperor know as the 'Shadow Elders'. The Elders act as the direct advisory to the Emperor himself, and while they possess no real legal authority within the Imperial Government, the Emperors of the Tyandirr Empires over tens of thousands of years have never directly gone against their advice. The Elders are held with such a respect that it had become almost an unwritten code that the Emperor heeds their advice as if it was presented by the Ancestors themselves.
Little known to aliens, the Shadow Elders are truly unique among the Tyandirr population: they are exclusively female. Ancient and wise Tyandirr matriarchs outliving the oldest Emperor by thousands of years. They have seen the Empires rise and fall, and they hold close to them a trait not often seen among the aggressive, war-like Tyandirr...
Morality.
The Elder Matriarchs possess morality and ethical understanding often lost to the male-dominated Warrior Castes of the Tyandirr Imperium. In Tyandirr Culture, the Males are expected to fight and die for the cause of the Empire. They are expected to ensure the preservation of their species by War - and the genetic disparity innate to the Tyandirr breeding cycle created a huge majority of male Tyandirr. The result was a warrior-like culture developing based on anger and aggression held by the Exiled Ancestors that fled from Origin, millions of years ago.
The Shadow Elders didn't take pity or resentment on their aggressive male kin. In other cultures, discrimination often occurs between the male and female members of the species which is overall detrimental to the culture as a whole. Within Tyandirr culture, the females are revered for their wisdom and insight, while the males are respected for their devotion and passion to protect their way of life. As in ancient, nature-based religions of the early human cultures, the Male and Female spirits work together in harmony, representing all that is life and the natural world.
The Elder Council hold true to the Ancestors way of Life: morality is upheld by each generation, advising the Emperor of the Tyandirr upon decisions where outward aggression would not serve the memory of the Ancestors, or the Empire's best interests. It is this morality that holds back the expansion of the Empire. It is this morality, that prevents the spread of aggression and violence across the stars under the Tyandirr Imperial Influence.
Outwardly Connections.
The Vuljcyon Conglomerate are the only alien species to directly engage in diplomacy with the Third Tyandirr Empire. Though all interactions are channelled through the Imperial Court to the Emperor Himself, the Emperor seeks council with the Shadow Elders for their guidance on almost all matters relating to foreign affairs. The Vuljcyon recognise this and have used it to their advantage, but it is no doubt fully known by the Elders that the prospecting bipedals are mainly concerned with material matters, far below the Tyandirr Creed.
Regardless, the relationship with the Conglomerate and the Trade Alliance has been remarkably beneficial to the Third Empire, and the Elders recognise that. As such, peace has remained - despite cool relations between certain member races of Terran descent - in the Taran and Deep Red nebulas for thousands of cycles.
Forgiveness.
Though the Tyandirr hold great animosity for terran-descendant species such as the Humans of the ATIS and the Senlani of the Sector Rim Federation, a resentment that goes back to the Ancestors of Origin, it is the Shadow Elders that have shown forgiveness. The Terran-descendants do not innately inherit the crimes of their own Ancestors, something that the Imperial Government of the Third Empire would reject entirely.
Without the guidance of the Shadow Elders, the Tyandirr Imperim's war machine would have turned its crimson-red eyes upon those species long ago, and ushered in a new age of genocide in the misguided belief of vengeance. Their anger is understood and respected, but forgiveness and compassion in a harsh universe is a more powerful sign of strength, one that the Ska'Hirr way of life taught, some two hundred million cycles ago.