At the end of the First Interstellar War, the Royal Lykan Kingdom underwent a lot of changes after their defeat in their home system of Heronia. With the King and the Royal Court killed in the destruction of the orbital city of High Charity, the Lykans were without a proper government to lead them for a short while or a manual work force in the wake of the release of their former slaves as part of their surrender. Forneido remained the last member of the former government to make decisions for the Kingdom, but his role in the downfall of the Kingdom would see him trying to reshape the government and the social structure of the nation into something like the Novus Initium Republic (NIR). Forneido, however, did not wish to lead this new government, instead resigning his position to others and becoming the ambassador to the Novus Initium Republic.
Modeled after the Novus Initium Republic, Forneido would form the Holy Lykan Republic where the people would elect who would represent them in set terms rather than the personal interests of an elite few. Forneido saw how this form of government has been successful for the Humans for thousands of years and believed that this would allow the former Kingdom to stabilize politically and socially. Unlike the Novus Initium Republic, there were a couple of details that were different for the Holy Lykan Republic that felt more attuned with the culture of the Lykans.
The first of these differences was the reason the word "Holy" is in the name of the nation. While a lot of Lykans questioned their religion in the advent of their defeat in the war, many had gone back to their holy texts to revisit the words of prophets and saints that came before all the way to the Prophet Ka'Thro, the prophet who first proclaimed that their god wanted the Lykans to rule all that they could see. It was believed that his words and those that followed may have been misinterpreted and caused them to go "out-of-favor" with their god leading to their eventual defeat. Religious interpreters have been working constantly to reinterpret their texts and scriptures to see where the previous interpretations had gone wrong. One such passage that was misinterpreted were the words of Ka'Thro stating to "seize those that do not believe" in their god and to "turn them towards their god's faith so that all will worship at their god's alter." The problem was that this was interpreted that the Lykans were to go out into the world as well as into space and conquer other races for them to worship their god. Somewhere along the way, slavery was used as the means to force those races that were conquered into accepting the Lykans' god by working off their sins. There are now many who believed that this was not how this was to be done, that the method was supposed to be peaceful and not through force. It has been researched that the implied method of slavery was introduced by the Lykan King at the time and not any saint or prophet. Therefore, slavery was a decree by royalty and not by any divine decree, leading many to believe that this was the building blocks of the Kingdom's eventual downfall from grace. The Lykans leave the name "Holy" in the title as a reminder that it is their goal to try to win favor in the eyes of their god again through their actions that will now meet what their god's will, not the will of their former royal rulers.
The second of these differences was the positions of those that would eventually be part of the government. Whereas the Novus Initium Republic had the positions of Supreme Chancellor, Senate, and Supreme Court, the Holy Lykan Republic named their positions as Prime Minister, Parliament, and the Justice Department, respectively. All of those who were elected into those positions now go through a religious ceremony to bless and ordain them in their positions to lead and represent their people faithfully, and to not give into temptations that come with their positions of power like the King and his Royal Court had done. The Justice Department is also separated into two specific courts: The Theology Court and the Civic Court. The former deals with religious-based crimes and is the more powerful of the two while the latter deals with smaller crimes and those that break the laws of the nation rather than those found in scriptures. The Theology Court functions as an appeals court for the Civic Court.
The culture of the Holy Lykan Republic has greatly changed after the establishment of their Republic. These changes are reflected in the culture and the attitudes of the general population of the nation in the wake of no longer having slaves or those Lykans of "privileged" status. Every Lykan, unless their position is not affected by the loss of slaves in their line of work, now must work for a living and to earn an income. However, while many foreign observers would think that this would cause a great deal of anger and frustration among the Lykan population, every Lykan was told by the Nifrodori, or the religious leader of the Lykan faith, that this was their punishment for straying off the true path of their god, and that the words and scriptures were "twisted" over the years by those of royal blood to serve their own selfish and power-driven purposes. By bringing a religious "renaissance" to the nation where religion was once again at the forefront of their society, many have accepted what has happened to them and their nation is the result of royal "deviancy" and now work off their "sins" and "transgressions" as best as they can. In that regards, the average Lykan has become more pacifistic to each other and to other races when applicable. There were reports of those who wish to return to the old ways of the Kingdom, stating that the words of their prophets and saints were not misinterpreted and should not be altered. However, these Lykans represent a very small percentage of the population, but there are those that fear that this small group of "zealots" may take matters into their own hands to revive the Kingdom as it once was. This may include even acting against other nations through terrorism if needed. Currently, the Justice Department and the military are keeping close tabs on those Lykans and will try to prevent them from harming others whether they target Lykans or foreign citizens.
The biggest cultural impact and change to the Lykan mindset was allowing foreign citizens into their Republic. In the past, the only non-Lykans allowed in the Kingdom were those that were conquered and enslaved. Realizing the need to be more open with their neighbors, the Lykan Republic government attempted to work out conditions for trade and commerce as well as allowing visitors and fellow Lykans in and out of their nation. However, this has been met with strong opposition by both the State and the Empire. With the State taking over the former Kingdom territories that were seized by their forces during the war and the Imperial border being heavily guarded by the Empire, neither nation will allow anyone from the Holy Lykan Republic into their nations, nor allow their own citizens to visit the Lykan Republic. The only nation not opposed of the Holy Lykan Republic's good intentions is the NIR which still maintains the star gate that is in the Dellino System. The other end of the gate has since been moved from Lumen to Sanctus at the request of the Sanctus government. The numerous religions found in the system have been inspirational and incredibly insightful for the Lykans to get a better understanding of their own religion and the peaceful implementations that their religion holds. Those Lykans who visited the planet of High Sanctus were indeed surprised about the multitude of religions but soon came to realize the historical aspects of those religions and what they mean to Humans. Also, the Lykan mindset about Humans being "vermin" has since been done away with as it was not right to call a race that accidentally ended up in the star cluster by that name. However, the allowing of Lykans into the NIR has since been a point of contention between the NIR and the State while the Empire believes that the NIR is helping to shape the Lykan people into something better than it once was. The Lykans by comparison are more than happy to allow visitors into their Republic to see the wonders of their nation and their newfound cultural and religious identity. Only the original 5 home planets of the State's races are off-limits to visitors and quarantined due to the toxic drug that was introduced and the effects it could have on others in the decay process of the bodies of those who succumbed to it. Lykan scientists have been studying the process and testing the areas to monitor the effects, but those planets are a constant reminder of the atrocities the Lykans have committed in the name of their faith and a constant source of hatred by the State towards the Lykans regardless of the changes that were made.
In the wake of these changes, the military has also undergone several changes. The first was the colors of the ships and those on the emblem of the nation. It was found that the colors on every ship were "aggressive" and foreboding when seen. The part of the emblem with the Lykan head and sword, which originally represented the superiority of the Lykans and power, was removed. The rest of the emblem, meant to represent the dawn of the new age of the Lykans, remained but was changed in color from black and silver to pewter and gold. The colors were very much like the gray and gold colors found on Novus Initium Republic ships as those colors seemed more appealing and less aggressive. These colors were soon being applied where needed including the ships the Lykans used.
The second of these changes was the ammunition used on the ships. While the Lykans still prefer the hard-hitting high-impact shells of projectile cannons for their sheer striking power, the engineers took a second look at the rounds used when compared to what the NIR, the Camino Star Empire, and the United Vitam State could deliver in terms of damage types. With the NIR's laser weapons able to deal electromagnetic damage which highly affects shields along with the new EM warheads that both the State and Empire now field on their ships, the projectile heads that use nuclear, titanium sabot, and fusion materials were what the shields of all three nations were resistant to, leading to the reason why the then-Kingdom ships found it difficult to take those ships down without overwhelming force. The designers managed to come up with ammunition with projectile heads that contained EMP and proton materials designed to short out shields faster. This ammo though was not made public as the Lykans knew that the other nations might strengthen their defenses if such knowledge were to be released. Therefore, the EMP and proton ammo development is a closely guarded secret should any of the nations, especially their long-time enemy the State, decide to attack the Holy Lykan Republic for any reason.
The third change was one based on a condition of the Kingdom's surrender. As one of the terms of surrender made by the NIR and the Camino Star Empire (the United Vitam State withstanding due to not accepting the Lykans surrender), the Lykans were no longer allowed to field ships that used the brains of their former slaves as the control centers of their ships whether "harvested" or cloned. This gave the Lykan ship designers the reason they needed to create new vessels with the new technologies that were found on the advance battleship Harbinger which included the armor repairer system. However, due to the lack of jump crystals available to the Lykans after their failed Project Beta and the systems that were rich in crystals either being annex by the State that were seized or being "gifted" to the Liberigi Mandate that was formed after the war, future designs were no longer able to jump between systems, instead relying on their existing jump gates to go from system to system. The existing ships, namely the Stabber-class Destroyer, the Impaler-class Cruiser, and the Thrasher-class Battleship, were stripped down and recycled to create a new line of vessels based on aspects of the Harbinger design that were in reality created by Human designers and gifted to the Lykans.
The first of these is the class of ship that started it all, the Harbinger-class Battleship. Little has changed in the Harbinger's design when the prototype was deployed prior to the end of the war. The ship's defenses include a primary and secondary shield system, and the armor is composed of 2400mm thick rolled tungsten plates backed by the new armor repairer system. The ships armaments were designed to engage a wide variety of vessels. Among the anti-battleship guns, the Harbinger utilizes 18 1200mm dual artillery cannons for long-range assaults and 18 425mm dual autocannons for close to medium attacks compared to the Thrasher's 12 guns each. For anti-cruiser weapons, the Harbinger fields 32 800mm quad-barrel artillery cannons compared to the Thrasher's 20 guns of this same type. It was still deemed that the need of autocannons against such targets was still unneeded as the artillery cannons should be able to destroy targets before they get close enough. For anti-destroyer/frigate combat, the Harbinger is still equipped with 28 280mm twin artillery cannons for use in long-range attacks and packs 44 125mm twin gatling autocannons much like the Thrasher for short-range combat. The Harbinger is also still equipped with two 800mm heavy artillery cannons but these weapons are forward firing only. The only piece of equipment not found on subsequent Harbingers is the "Reeler" Jump Drive System due to the lack of jump crystals available within the Lykans' existing territories.