The shock for the Creonti involved size. They are only 0.4-0.6 meters tall on average, as opposed to anything from 2 (Human) to 3.5 meters (Ik-Thorne) for other species, and they lack any threatening features. While most non-Creonti readily agree that it's natural for them to feel a bit inferior, they fail to understand the magnitude of this feeling. The critical factor is that Creonti are the largest creatures on their world. In fact, their most dangerous predator was the size of a common rat. The Creonti reveled in their towering over everything, and took great pride in being the largest. In fact, status in early Creonti society used to be derived from a group's largest members, much as terran bears would decide territorial rights by the highest claw marks on a tree.

As fate would have it, one of their first scouting trips into space resulted in the discovery of a crashed Ik-Thorne scout. Ik-Thorne ships being what they are, the Creonti thought it a great battlecruiser of some kind. They never found any crew, only a huge monster, easily 8 times as tall as a Creonti. Much distressed, the Creonti covered up the whole find, and buried it as deep as possible on their homeworld. Life went on as usual, with the Creonti at large no wiser about other life in the universe. Then, on a sunny morning a few weeks later, the Ik-Thorne Carrier arrived, having followed the homing beacon in the wreck.

The Ik-Thorne decided to make peaceful contact and inquire after the whereabouts of their scout. They selected a landing party of 10 members, and touched down near what they identified as the capitol. The results of their walk to the city limits were disastrous to say the least; thousands died in the stampede of fleeing Creonti, and half the Ik-Thorne landing party died in the desperate attack the Creonti military launched to defend their fellows. The Ik-Thorne retreated to orbit, and only their persistence allowed for radio communication to be established, and the relations mended somewhat.

At this point the Creonti deviated from the normal course of crisis and recovery: they plainly denied the existence of creatures larger than them. They created a half-hearted delusion they still maintain to this day. Even when necessity forced them to start trading with the other species, the Creonti try to ignore them for as long as possible, or fix things in such a way that they can ignore the size difference. This has lead to two important developments.
First is the introverted stance of Creonti. They don't like dealing with other species, and avoid face-to-face dealings at all costs. They much prefer to use audio communications from their ships, sending only an image of their ship along with it, which brings us to the second part:
Creonti have developed some of the biggest baddest guns and ships in the universe. This is as much to compensate for feelings of inferiority when dealing with others as it is to be able to safely ignore those others. While loathe to start such things as wars with other species, when attacked by others the Creonti aim to "make them go away" as quickly and permanently as possible, and they are quite proficient at it, not in the least because of the big guns mentioned earlier.

This discussion has so far done little justice to the nature and society of the Creonti. They live in small groups called 'families', even though they are usually not biologically related. The families share an telepathic bond, which they use to communicate. While in theory there is no range limit ot this telepathy, families must share physical contact at least once every two or three days or lose the bond. Understandably, this does not happen often, and family members usually work together on everything they do. A Creonti spaceship is usually run by one or more families, with one member (usually the largest) acting as captain, with lots of telepathic support from the others. (NOTE: Strong feelings can apparently cross between families. It is probably in this way that the Creonti showed such a unified reaction to the Ik-Thorne, and still unite quickly to combat dangers.)
What we know of their society before first contact is mostly the work of an enterprising Thevian. While Thevians are too big to be welcomed among Creonti, this particular one built a small robot which he linked to his own controls, thus creating a small body to interact with them. He learned that while they were free from natural enemies, the Creonti were not always as peaceful as commonly thought. Long periods of Creonti history are dominated by rivalries between 'clans', consisting of shifting alliances of families. Every now and then, these rivalries resulted in a short and bloody war, which usually ended in the dissolving of one or both clans. All standing matters died with the clan, and feuds did not exist.
When the population grew and civilization advanced, these wars were highly ritualized, until they involved hardly any fatalities.
A golden age started which lasted until first contact. While the society seemed to recover at first and the standard of living to fail (due to lack of resources), the interstellar trade has resulted in the exact opposite. Creonti traders have brought much wealth back, but the increased contact with other species is wearing down their mental stability, which is dangerous in a semi-telepathic race, because it can become epidemic. Already there is an increase in reported fights among Creonti which would not have happened a century ago. Pessimists predict a "bend or break" choice for the Creonti. Either would be a shame, for they enrich the universe with their presence, and above all, their ingenuity.

Creonti are intelligent on their own, more than a match for most humans (if not emotionally), but in their family groups their intellects combine to something greater than just the sum of their members. A family can perform a brainstorm-like process which often gives rise to very high levels of creativity and inspiration, and usually a large number of inventions following from there. Inherently practical in their thinking, Creonti can and will improve just about anything they encounter. Weapon dealers have remarked on the almost unrecognizable, but very effective weapons Creonti offer for trade-ins, and their high interest in uncommon weapons. A fact known to only a few is that the so-called "Big Momma" torpedo launcher was not actually designed by the humans, who introduced it, but stolen from a Creonti family. That family in retaliation released the "Big Daddy" design, which completely killed interest in the "Big Mommas", facing the human thieves with immense costs for the construction and promotion of a worthless weapon.