please do not mistake the following information for canon, or an insult to the canon...
Okay guys, me and my buddy ScottaHemi (the artist of the webcomic Dan's Voyage) got into a discussion recently about the continent of Akavir, he doesn't know jack about the Elder Scrolls universe but the vague nature of the races of Akavir intrigued him somewhat.
So we talked about the races and came up for ideas one how they would work if they were further elaborated upon! We intially planned to do 7 Akaviri races (human, Canine, Rodent, Monkey, and Kamal being the others), but we never got around too it and he got busy with Dan's Voyage.
First up is the Tsaesci, this one has caused a lot of confusion amongst Elder Scrolls fans. Our idea for the species though was that they were assimilative "vampires" and that when they fed on their prey they could chose traits to integrate into themselves.
In their nation roughly 60-70% of the population would actually be human, this population being maintained so they could maintain their more humanoid traits which would fade over time leaving them mindless beasts.
However if they absorb too many traits from their prey, they run the risk of losing their ability to absorb traits all together. Most nobleman prefer the "naga" form, but military Tsaesci must use a more of these traits to be effective in combat, and thus they run the risk of becoming fully "human" as did most who joined the empire.
The next races was an obvious choice, the Tiger-like people the "Ka Po'Tun". This idea was a little easier to articulate, we didnt want them to be like the khajiit, so we made them more upright, thicker, tailless, and we included vague draconic features in the chest area indicating the mystical Draconic selective breeding the race has been performing on itself.
Attire was modeled after mesoamerican stuff, because while we did like the asiatic vibe of Akavir we also wanted to include some other cultural ideals with it. The Dragon on the awesome sword was not my idea, I wish I was half that creative.