History VideoGame / GigastructuralEngineeringAndMore

* MultiversalConqueror: They've existed, but only extremely rarely, only thanks to luck, and never get beyond a handful of them. Portals can be opened by random chance, and in some timelines, the laws of physics will temporarily change, but in the default timeline, it is completely and utterly impossible to traverse into other universes through controlled means.

* SoulEating: The blokkats harvest the Shallow Shroud, as well as all the souls residing in it. They then process those souls into the artificial soul of a newborn blokkat. The blokkat will inherit personality traits from those souls, but the souls themselves will suffer until the NaturalEndOfTheUniverse finally puts them to an end.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The Aeternum have the tech to keep themselves alive until the heat death of the universe, but nothing to help themselves psychologically handle it.

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: In vanilla Stellaris, civilizations can decide to become a [[FinalBoss Crisis Aspirant]] in order to attempt to follow in the divine Zroni's footsteps, building the Aetherophasic Engine and sacrificing the galaxy to presumably AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. In vanilla, it isn't explicitly shown whether it works as advertised or not, but it explicitly ''doesn't'' in Gigastructures lore, where it is treated as a delusional mass suicide on the Crisis Aspirant's part.

* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler:Kaiser has an artifact from a previous cycle of the universe where a lot of the laws of physics were very different from normal. If Kaiser is in danger, he will use it to escape to the next cycle of the universe. It will automatically activate if he is brought to the brink of death by surprise. In theory, he can be killed for good if someone somehow figures this out and disables the artifact, but Kaiser will always retreat immediately if he notices anyone figure him out.]]

* NaturalEndOfTime: The default timeline will always end with the expansion and eventual heat death of the universe. Eventually, it will be reset with a new big bang. A lot of things will be random, but certain historical events are effectively [[StableTimeLoop universal constants]]. For civilizations that want to persist past the heat death of the universe, there are no easy options. Ascension to godhood via the Aetherophasic Engine is explicitly a lie and a trap in the story of the mod. Escaping to another universe won't help, because the immediate multiverse, as vast as it is, is still finite, and will end at the same time as everything else. The greater multiverse is completely inaccessible in most cycles and only ''becomes'' accessible very rarely by random chance. The Blokkats' method is to harvest the entire universe and use that energy to send a tiny fragment of their civilization into the next cycle. [[spoiler:Kaiser has an artifact from a cycle where the laws of physics were different, allowing him to send himself into the next cycle a lot more easily.]]

* [[SpaceIsAnOcean Space Is A World War I Battlefield]]: In the mind of the Kaiser, armored warfare on planets is directly translatable to space, with most Katzen admirals having traits related to armored warfare giving minor bonuses.

* TheMultiverse: Lore says there is one. The immediate multiverse is massive, but still finite. There is a greater and infinite one, but it is entirely out of the reach of the main timeline. It is also completely and utterly impossible to traverse ''any'' part of the multiverse via controlled means. It can only be done by the whims of chance. Aspiring {{Dimension Lord}}s need a lot of luck to exist at all and will never get very far.

* MechanicalAbomination: The Blokkats are something like this, being made of uncountable numbers of attomachines that each have computational capacities comparable to planetary-scale computers. They were once brings of flesh, but went through the Synth ascension route via BrainUploading. Despite this, they have twisted artificial souls on par with gods due to SoulEating. Their objective is to [[spoiler: preserve their existence indefinitely by accumulating so much mass-energy they can propagate their civilization into future versions of the universe]]. They do this by dismantling entire galaxies, and even harvesting the vacuum energy constant.

* AndManGrewProud: At their peak, the Aeternum were poised to become an extragalactic civilization, with aspirations to conquer the entire universe. In order to see this through, Empress Alice II became a GodhoodSeeker. Their civilization managed to create an artificial dragon with the peak of their technology. The Empress intended to then transfer her consciousness into it, but the project held an [[CreatingLifeIsUnforseen unintended consciousness of its own]]. It proceeded to punish its creators for their hubris before departing to parts unknown, causing the Aeternum to collapse, with the survivors consolidating in their birchworld.

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: In vanilla Stellaris, civilizations can decide to [[FinalBoss Become the Crisis]] in order to attempt to follow in the divine Zroni's footsteps, building the Aetherophasic Engine and sacrificing the galaxy to presumably AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. In Gigastructures lore, this is nothing but a delusion and a mass suicide on the Crisis Aspirants' part.

* {{Tulpa}}: The Grandbunny is basically the goddess of the Paluush species, formed from the wish for peace of the more empathetic Paluush. She also amplifies the collective Psycho powers of all Paluush, which is part of why they are so much more powerful than normal psions.

* MechanicalAbomination: The Blokkats are something like this, being made of uncountable numbers of attomachines that each have computational capacities comparable to planetary-scale computers. Their objective is to [[spoiler: preserve their existence indefinitely by accumulating so much mass-energy they can propagate their civilization into future versions of the universe]]. They do this by dismantling entire galaxies, and even harvesting the vacuum energy constant.

** Since the emergence of their goddess, the Grandbunny, the Paluush have declared the end of history. They are completely content with their current lives and can get what they want with their unusually potent PsychicPowers. They have been temporarily forced out of their complacency twice, both times by the ancestors of the Blokkats, during which they were forced to innovate psychic {{Magitek}}. After driving them off, they immediately gave up their new tech and returned to the agrarian lifestyle.

* BrokeYourFistPunchingOutCthulhu: Killing the Grandbunny of the Paluush is extremely difficult, will require the sacrifice of many powerful soldiers, and will result in the destruction of the Paluush and their home world instead of letting you conquer them.

* CreativeSterility:
** After the downfall of Empress Alice II due to her failed GodhoodSeeker quest, the Aeternum, who were on the brink of expanding to an extragalactic power, collapsed. Some of the more ambitious royals have attempted to rally their society, but to no avail as the Aeternum have grown content with their present status and complacent.
** Since the emergence of their goddess, the Grandbunny, the Paluush have declared the end of history. They are completely content with their current lives and can get what they want with their unusually potent PsychicPowers. They have been temporarily forced out of their complacency twice, both times by the ancestors of the Blokkats, during which they were forced to innovate psychic {{Magitek}}. After driving them off, they immediately gave up their new tech and returned to the agrarian lifestyle.

* {{Tulpa}}: The Grandbunny is basically the goddess of the Paluush species, formed from the wish for peace of the more empathetic Paluush.

* SerialEscalation: Much of the content of this mod effectively falls into this. Instead of putting one ringworld around a star, put four. Ringworlds not enough? Build an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderson_disk Alderson Disk]]. The Prethoryn want to consume all the life in the galaxy? The Blokkats want to harvest the galaxy down to the vacuum energy constant!

[[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1121692237 Gigastructural Engineering & More]] is a GameMod for VideoGame/{{Stellaris}} originally by Elowiny, themed around, as the name implies, more and larger megastructures. However, that is not where the mod ends, adding a new midgame crisis, two new endgame crises, and a [[SerialEscalation post-endgame crisis]]. In total, it adds 45 new megastructures, [[{{Kaiserreich}} The]] [[GratuitousGerman Katzenartig]] [[CatFolk Imperium]], [[AbusivePrecursors The Aeternum]], The Compound, and [[PlanetLooters The Blokkat Harvesters]], providing a significant cast of characters and lore to add to the game, all individual components being completely optional.

* {{Expy}}: Perhaps fittingly, given ''Stellaris'' is very much a SpiritualAdaptation of the ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'''s Space Stage, the Aeternum are quite similar of The Grox Empire. A powerful, mysterious, ancient, reclusive and extremely technologically advanced (even compared to The late-game player's empire) empire that gives little information about itself to other empires, has a seething hatred for other species, resides in the galactic core, and stays inactive until a war starts, at which point there is no turning back, and no peace to be made. About the only real difference is that unlike The Grox, the Aeternites will eventually [[OhCrap declare war on the entire galaxy with the intention of exterminating them,]] serving as an alternative FinalBoss to the other endgame crisis'.[[note]]Unless you fight the Blokkats[[/note]]

* {{Expy}}: Perhaps fittingly, given ''Stellaris'' is very much a SpiritualAdaptation of the ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'''s Spore Space Stage, the Aeternum are quite similar of The Grox Empire. A powerful, mysterious, ancient, reclusive and extremely technologically advanced (even compared to The late-game player's empire) empire that gives little information about itself to other empires, has a seething hatred for other species, resides in the galactic core, and stays inactive until a war starts, at which point there is no turning back, and no peace to be made. About the only real difference is that unlike The Grox, the Aeternites will eventually [[OhCrap declare war on the entire galaxy with the intention of exterminating them,]] serving as an alternative FinalBoss to the other endgame crisis'.[[note]]Unless you fight the Blokkats[[/note]]

* DangerInTheGalacticCore: In vanilla Stellaris, there are originally no hyperlanes leading to the galactic core, and there are only a few stories covering it. This mod adds a project to open hyperlanes leading to it.

* {{Expy}}: Perhaps fittingly, given VideoGame/{{Stellaris}} is very much a SpiritualAdaptation of the [[VideoGame/{{Spore}} Spore Space Stage]], the Aeternum are quite similar of The Grox Empire. A powerful, mysterious, ancient, reclusive and extremely technologically advanced (even compared to The late-game player's empire) empire that gives little information about itself to other empires, has a seething hatred for other species, resides in the galactic core, and stays inactive until a war starts, at which point there is no turning back, and no peace to be made. About the only real difference is that unlike The Grox, the Aeternites will eventually [[OhCrap declare war on the entire galaxy with the intention of exterminating them,]] serving as an alternative FinalBoss to the other endgame crisis'.[[note]]Unless you fight the Blokkats[[/note]]