During the fifteenth aeon (roughly 600 million years ago) the Galaxies were in turmoil. Wars were rampant and the Galactic Library was nearly destroyed. After the galactic chaos had sorted itself out, three races controlled all the Galaxies. This alliance can be translated to "The Lions." (In Galactic languages the term is a generic one meaning "large, land dwelling, pack-hunting social carnivores at the top of the food chain." [Tg.C.I.A.: Note the rare use of metaphor. "Hyenas" might better render the connotations now associated with the Galactic word.]) Two of these races were the greatest military powers in the entire history of the Linked Galaxies. The third were extraordinary tacticians and engineers. They introduced many new and innovative starship designs, many of which are still in use today.
For 20 million hab-years "The Lions" held power. They practiced uncontrolled breeding and filled the Galaxies. They pushed out weaker races (how many starfarers became extinct is now vague and unknown). They were the perpetrators of countless ecological holocausts much worse than the modern Garth or Deemi incidents, and killed off 80% of all pre-client races on all worlds they inhabited.
One race, the Tarseuh, were able to gather Six Races thought to be extinct and defeated the mighty "Lions." The Lions were quickly exterminated, but it took tens of millions of years to restore the ecology of the Galaxies. This time has proved to be a warning, and precautions have been taken so that this sort of disaster will never happen again.
See also, Lion --a Promising Earth Carnivore
e3v5r1
Tg.M.A.A.: Many races --most notably the Gubru, Jophur, and Tandu --shrilly insist that the A4P races --especially Humans and Clan Tymbrimi --through our skeptical and systematic questioning of Galactic Tradition, and our dangerously innovative and impertinent behavior will necessarily bring forth another such age of disaster if permitted to live. If not exterminated --and soon --the virulent Human and Tymbrimi demographic and ideological infections will continue to spread through the delicate Galactic body-politic so wisely bestowed by the Galactic ancestors. Soon the Human-Tymbrimi infestation will be beyond any mere O-2er ability to reverse the red tide of these mad races and their febrile ideologies. (Note: original statements would contain none of the metaphors necessary to render the tone of these statements into Anglic.) Since the Streaker broadcast, Jophur and Tandu statements to this effect have become almost hysterical.