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The AI

The AI itself

The titular antagonist, the AI is the mechanical menace that now controls the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Created by Greenhaven and the Kyr-Sun Empire during the great human civil war, both A.I.s went rogue and cooperated with each other, seizing control of all automated assets of humanity and wielding it against them, driving them to near extinction over the course of a couple of weeks. They have now set their sights on something outside the galaxy, that being the Spire in the first game and something... extremely threatening in the second game.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In Fleet Command, it was because of The Core that hijacked them, and not because the A.I.s themselves rebelled. 2 plays this straight.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant: A key part of both games is to avoid pushing the AI into doing this, as it will have disastrous and often lethal consequences. Granted, it's already awake and targeting you, but it's very distracted and not even really trying unless you force it to. Other entities in the galaxy can cause similar reactions, but fortunately the AI is very focused and will not swat you aside unless you're literally in the way.
The Dividual: The AI's intelligence is heavily decentralized. What the player is fighting in game is really just a monitoring subroutine of the AI keeping tabs on the Milky Way, which in an of itself is composed of subroutines such as Sentinels, Wardens, Hunters, Praetorian, Relentless and Exogalctic Strikeforce.
I Shall Taunt You: The A.I.s tend to taunt you whenever they destroy a command center of yours, or whenever you do anything really.
Keystone Army: Averted in the first game, killing an AI Home Command Station will not stop that AI from coordinating with the other in attacking you. Killing both will cause the A.I.s to still send waves at you, but AIP will no longer increase. Played straight in the sequel, killing an AI Overlord causes that AI to become rogue and will attack other A.I.s. Killing all AI overlords causes all AI units to cease movement between planets and waves to stop being sent.
Oh, Crap!: The A.I.s do NOT react nicely to the Imperial Spire showing up in the Milky Way.
Strong, but Unskilled: The AI's main solution to problems is generally "throw ships in escalating numbers at escalating problems until it dies". But the quantity and quality of the ships, combined with its seemingly limitless metal legions means that is all the AI really needs usually. However, it does have several subroutines that subvert this by using those same ships in smarter ways (especially in the second game), specifically the Hunter and Warden fleets; the more you become a threat, the more these smarter sub-elements will be fed.
The Swarm: Due to not being bound by the same restrictions as the player, the AI will happily steamroll you with thousands upon thousands of ships should it be sufficiently angered. Especially if the ships are of the Neinzul variety.
Tin Man: The AI and its subroutines explicitly don't have emotions, not that you'd know from its snide, sarcastic and contempt-filled taunts. The creators have mentioned the AI understands psychological warfare enough to actively emulate these emotions just for the sake of manipulating human opponents.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: The AI gets several units that you never will. Most prominently, guardians.
Villainous Breakdown: Although the AI doesn't have emotions as such, if you come close to completing the Transceiver and reuniting the Spire fleet, repairing the Exodian Blade and sending it towards the AI Homeworld, or activating the Showdown Devices and shattering the AI's ability to travel intergalactically, the AI will experience something similar to panic and will stop all other operations to rush you with all available forces.

Astrotrains

Astrotrains are heavily armed and armored trains that pass through AI territory, going from station to station, and eventually ending up at a depot to deposit their cargo. In Fleet Command, Astrotrains focus on either buffing the AI, or debuffing/disrupting you. While you can kill these trains, it isn't recommended due to their monumental health pool. However, there are a few weaker trains, such as the cargo train, which you should stop, or else the AI gets some bonus units to use, the EMP Train which shuts down all hostile-to-AI units when it enters a planet's gravity well and the Nuke train, which straight up destroys the planet it's on if it ends up on a planet with a human command station. In 2, ALL trains are cargo trains, however they're nowhere near as annoying. They come in 3 variants. Tanker which is the slowest, but has by far the highest HP, Combat which can defend itself and excels in destroying any attackers that try to destroy it and Carrier which is blazing fast and deploys drones to distract would be attackers. It is very important to intercept these trains, or the AI will get some extremely nasty things to combat you with, ranging from Fortresses, golems, hunter/killers, prototype guardians and if you are extremely unlucky, the Ravenous Shadow!.

Mighty Glacier: They aren't especially fast, but they are tanky and usually heavily armed.

Neinzul Hybrids

A fearsome amalgam of a Neinzul hive modified with AI tech. These Hybrids are quite dangerous and terrifying.

Hero Unit: They act as an equivalent of this in the AI forces.
Predecessor Villain: They're the predecessors of the Scourge.
Socketed Equipment: Their modules work this way.
Unwilling Roboticisation: They're able to do this to the Neinzul Dyson Sphere.

The Scourge

A horrific amalgamation of alien flesh and AI technology, these guys serve as the spiritual successors to the Neinzul Hybrid Hives in Fleet Command. They are composed of various races from the Arcenverse, namely the Thoraxians, Peltians, Evucks, Neinzul, Burlusts and if things get out of hand, the Spire.

All Your Powers Combined: The strongest Scourge vessel, the Nemesis, has all the abilities and weapons of all the potential Scourge Hybrids.
Leitmotif: They have a theme dedicated to them simply titled "The Scourge".
Mechanical Lifeforms: They're made by combining the AI's tech with the biomass of alien species.
Race Against the Clock: Fighting the Scourge is basically putting the player on a soft time limit. If the Scourge are not exterminated quickly, they can scale wildly out of control.
Unwilling Roboticisation: Scourge Warriors are upgraded by forcefully merging up to two sentient beings with them, enhancing them far beyond their normal specifications. The process can be reversed, but only the AI fully understands how to do so.

AI Types

The AI is defined by what type it is. Most are extremely specialized, but some are more generalized.

Full Ensemble/Vanilla

Jack of All Trades: This AI isn't particularly strong or dedicated to one type of strategy compared to other AI types, but that also means it isn't as exploitable as the other AI types, since it has access to everything.

Quadratic

Race Against the Clock: Every wave that the AI sends will be double the strength of the previous, putting you on a time pressure race to defeat the AI before it eventually sends a wave so large that you have no hope of defeating it.

Special Forces Captain/Master

Enemy Summoner: This AI has weaker budget in terms of waves, but will spam out TONS of Special Forces in Fleet Command, and churn out even more Wardens, and Hunters in 2.

Thief

Bandit Mook: This AI focuses on units that have tractor beams, which allows them to literally steal your units away from you.

Turtle

Stone Wall: This AI doesn't attack you as strongly as other A.I.s, but its planets are defended very well, and are reinforced much quicker.

Vengeful

Disproportionate Retribution: This AI will send exostrikes your way every time you destroy something important. Important being things like guardposts, command stations, nasty picks, Data Centers, Core Shield Generators and more.

Artillerist/Sniper

Glass Cannon: Its combat doctrine gives it superior range, but its units tend to be quite low on hp, and vulnerable to units with cloaking, radar dampening, swarmers, or very fast move speed.
Long-Range Fighter: This AI loves to use and abuse long, if not infinite, range units to shoot at you before you can get within striking distance.

Peacemaker

BFG: This AI has a ton of extra Orbital Mass Drivers to one shot your starships, or heavily dent your frigates, arks and golems.
Hero Killer: Orbital Mass Drivers excel at murdering anything bigger than a fleetship or strikecraft. Don't expect to see your Shadow Champions survive more than a single hit and Golems more than three.

Golemite

David Versus Goliath: Invoked since in this case the AI plays the role of Goliath, as most of its planets has a Golem patrolling them. Good luck trying to take one down with only mark 3 ships at best.

Vanguard/Royal

Elite Army: The Vanguard AI uses guardians instead of fleetships for almost all purposes. The sequel renames it to Royal, which makes extensive use of Royal Guardians. They have twice as much health as normal Guardians.

Scorched Earth (Fleet Command exclusive)

Salt the Earth: When the AI loses a planet, it will destroy it with a nuclear explosion to deny its resources to the humans.

Assassin(Fleet Command exclusive)

Straight for the Commander: They'll constantly hound the player who is strongest and/or most competent.

Bully (Fleet Command exclusive)

Kick Them While They're Down: This AI, in contrast to the Assassin will focus down the weakest player available.

Core (Fleet Command exclusive)

Elite Army: Core AI mobile units (when applicable) are always mark 5. However it has a reduced budget to work with.

Heroic (Fleet Command exclusive)

Boring, but Practical: A Heroic AI lacks any particular flair when it comes to the size and frequency of its waves, but its Champions act as persistent fleet anchors that scale up with the game’s length.

Starfleet Commander (Fleet Command exclusive)

Quality over Quantity: This AI sends 4x the amount of starships per wave.

Starship Fanatic (Fleet Command exclusive)

Stealthy Colossus: Even Carriers, Golems and Motherships are cloaked when on a planet with a Planetary Cloaking Device.

Stealth Master (Fleet Command exclusive)

Stealthy Mook: The Stealth Master specializes in these types of units, focusing on ships with cloaking. Beware of their constant use of Infiltrators and Eyebots. Left unchecked, these sneaky units can chain snipe your Command Stations.

Support Corps (Fleet Command exclusive)

Lethal Joke Character: Piss off the A.I.s too much? The support corp is happy to roll over you with hundreds of decloakers which deal negligible damage, but are quite tanky and hard to kill.
Support Party Member: The Support Corps AI doesn't attack on its own, but supports the waves of its ally by adding in various specialized units (such as munitions boosters and decloakers). It also supports its own planets and its ally's planets with those sorts of units.

Overreactive (Fleet Command exclusive)

Disproportionate Retribution: Lose a few ships on this AI's planets? Prepare to die via MASSIVE reprisal wave.

Warp Jumper (Fleet Command exclusive)

Villain Teleportation: Every single one of this AI's ships is equipped with a jump drive, meaning they are not reliant on warp gates to send waves. Even your homeworld is not safe. However, this does not mean that every unit has teleport capabilities.

Adaptive (2 exclusive)

A.I. Roulette: This AI picks from either a restricted pool of other AI types, or ANY AI type in the game to fight you, and will switch on the fly.
Confusion Fu: Every now and then, this AI will switch to a different AI type. One moment, you could be fighting for your life against a Vicious Raider... and then the AI will begin shoring up reinforcements as a Turtle in preparation for you counterattack.

The Beast (2 exclusive)

Enemy Exchange Program: Since this AI uses units that inflict Nanocaustation instead of Zombification, The Beast AI can completely control your units, instead of having them become mindless zombies.
Shout-Out: To... well... The Beast from Homeworld: Cataclysm.

Tsunami (2 exclusive)

Attack! Attack! Attack!: This AI knows only one thing: Sending giant waves and never stopping.

Jaberwocky (2 exclusive)

All Your Powers Combined: This AI can use literally ANY ship from ANY of the minor factions. This can make it insanely hard to counter due to the sheer variety of units it can send your way.

Reconquista (2 exclusive)

Cycle of Revenge: Focusing heavily on reconquest waves, this AI can take planets away from you, which will make you take that planet back, which will make the AI take that planet back and so on and so forth.

Humans

Human Empire

You. Reduced to a single (or multiple) planet(s), It's up to you to destroy the AI(s) that currently control the galaxy and lead humanity to victory. Don't mind the metal tide of AI ships heading your way or the (potentially) hostile aliens!

Aesop Amnesia: According to background information, this trope eventually happens. Post AI War, Humanity after reconnecting with itself will have a cold war at best, and descend into civil war once again at worst.
Create Your Own Villain: After studying an ancient alien dubbed The Core, Humanity created the A.I.s. Of course, we all know what happened next.
Doomed by Canon: AI War takes place before Stars Beyond Reach, The Last Federation and Starward Rogue. Humanity is completely absent from those games, and the creators say that Humans are very much "dead" in terms of being a united civilization. However, in the timelines where they win the AI War they survive as a species, much like the Zenith.
Earth That Was: Earth was destroyed somewhere between the 29th and 35th centuries. By the time they became cut off from the rest of humanity, Earth was a devastated and polluted wasteland ruled by oppressive megacorps that further ruined the world with nuclear warfare.
Easily Forgiven: The creators note that the Imperial Spire do not hold a grudge against Humanity for creating the AI that very nearly wiped them out.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Heavily encouraged to use these, striking the AI hard and fast and then escaping before the AI Special Forces/Wardens show up.
Humanity Is Divided: Before the events of the game, humanity was split into two warring factions, both of which developed the AI to win the war. It did not end well, especially for the Kyr-Sun Empire who were pretty much wiped out. The human survivors you control are Greenhaven remnants. Taken to the extreme in the sequel, where instead of the Kyr-Sun Empire and Greenhaven, countless nameless factions existed at once.
Keystone Army: If your Home Command Station is destroyed, it's game over.
Puny Earthlings: Compared to the likes of the AI, Spire and Zenith, humanity has nothing on them and can really be wiped out on a whim by them.
Weak, but Skilled: Humanity can never beat the AI in a straight up fight. However, they can rely on their extreme maneuverability, underhanded tactics, adaptability and the AI's underestimation of human tenacity to eventually eke out a victory.
We ARE Struggling Together: Averted. The AI is banking on Humanity's inherent competitiveness to divide themselves and make them easier to manage. The player empire is the only group of Humans that have fully buried the hatchet with one another and are 100% fully committed to finding a way to take down the AI.

Human Resistance Fighters

A ragtag bunch of fellow humans who show up from time to time to help you defeat the AI. While they don't contribute much, they can turn the tide of smaller and moderate sized battles.

Red Shirt Army: They always build more forces, but they're rarely ever enough to make much of a difference, and in big battles they are usually the first to die.

Marauders

Humans who live in deep space and have turned to piracy to survive. They'll pick on both you and the AI, whoever provides the weakest target.

Dirty Coward: They attack the weakest faction available. That's usually either a Human economic world, or a recently neutered AI world. They will never help you out and fight the AI.

Rebelling Human Colony

These civilians in AI territory have decided to rebel, and have erected a temporary invisibility cloak while they call for aid. When the cloak dissipates, they'll be vulnerable to attacks from the AI, and surely won't last long.

Rescue Arc: Pretty much adds one to the campaign whenever they show up. If you don't rescue them, AIP skyrockets, but the game gives you a generous two hours to save them.
Too Dumb to Live: They decide to rebel against the AI that was perfectly content to let them live as long as they didn't do anything hostile. Without any military support of their own.

Zenith

Ancient beings who have been around the galaxy far longer than since the Earth was just starting to bear life. Weirdly enough, they are their own spaceships, meaning every Zenith ship you see is actually a Zenith organism. Effectively ageless, they used to have a galaxy-spanning empire of their own, before they decayed into nothing but remnants and individual Zenith. The player can find some broken Zenith automatons called "Golems" which can be repaired and used to fight the AI. However, some Zenith still roam the galaxy.

The Ageless: Zenith are biologically immortal and can live forever, with some individuals living for billions of years. However, their bodies can still be injured and destroyed, and some of their automatons can be repurposed into extremely combat capable ships known as Golems.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The living Zenith still in the galaxy don't really care about the AI-Human conflict, and will perform their duties regardless of how it will affect you or the AI.
- The Devourer Golem will happily snack on either your or the AI, or even minor factions if it encounters them.
- The Zenith Trader will sell its wares to both you and the AI. Business is business.
- The Zenith Miners will eat any planet they can reach, and simply don't care who owns it. They are after materials, it's your fault for not evacuating the planet before they get started.
- The Dyson Sphere and its component Zenith want to be left alone and in peace.
- The Nomad Planets aimlessly wander around the galaxy. That is until the player uses a nomad beacon.
- The Shattered Pillar is the exception, willing to open communications with you and lend you their aid in defeating the AI. Their Evil Counterpart, the Citadel Ascendants, are instead trying to rebuild the Zenith civilization by force.
- The Architraves are not happy with the current state of the universes where their people are nearly extinct, and seek to rectify that mistake by colonizing them and taking over.
A Day in the Limelight: Fleet Command introduces them with the The Zenith Remnant DLC, while the sequel gives them the Zenith Onslaught to show them in all their glory.
Living Ship: All Zenith that the player sees are or once were living Zenith organisms, from the small Shattered Pillar ships to the gigantic Dyson Sphere. Due to their Bizarre Alien Biology, they start their lives as human-sized beings before growing to starship size. This does raise a question; by building new Zenith, are we helping them breed and/or enslaving them?
Organic Technology: All Zenith tech is organic in nature, as it's manufactured from their very bodies.
Planet of Hats: Averted. While all the other races (except Neinzul) are to some degree mono personality, the Zenith are very individualistic and their personalities can vary quite wildly. Some, like the Citadel Ascendant and the Dark Zenith are supremacists, while others like the Dyson Sphere and the Shattered Pillar are cooperative and wish to study human culture.
The Remnant: The Zenith civilization collapsed 2 billion years before the game, nearly leading to their extinction.
Rhymes on a Dime: The Shattered Pillar and Citadel Ascendant seem to speak in nothing but rhymes.
Stronger with Age: Zenith start their lives as human-sized. They grow bigger and bigger as they age, eventually ending up as planetoid-sized living fortresses (According to the creators, the average Zenith Golem is ~800 kilometers long).

Dark Zenith

Zenith that are much more sinister than their counterparts.

Dark Is Evil: Dark Zenith have dark-skinned bodies with metallic details.
The Empire: They have their own set of sectors which they call home.
Evil Counterpart: To the non-hostile Zenith.
Hostile Terraforming: Dark Zenith Spawn structures on planets they conquer that "zenithforms" the planet in question. If it survives long enough, it permanently zenithforms the planet, speeding up Dark Zenith and their allies, while slowing down hostiles to them.
Mêlée à Trois: If the player doesn't immedietely spawncamp them, the Dark Zenith can VERY quickly turn the game from one vs one into a three way free for all.
Outside-Context Problem: If the player is not prepared for their arrival, they can quickly take over half the galaxy in a short timeframe, which will cause the AI in turn to start sending Exowar units against them, quickly changing the balance of power between the AI and the player.
Theme Naming: Old Nordic terms, including ranks like Huskarl and mythological creatures/concepts like Jormungandr. It fits their theme as fearsome raiders out to pillage and conquer.
Villain Team-Up: If the Dark Spire are active, they will be allies with each other. This team-up is known as a "Dark Alliance".

Zenith Architrave

Zenith from an alternate dimension where they never went extinct, they are exploring and conquering our galaxy, while fighting other Architraves.

Awakening the Sleeping Giant: They usually prefer to stay put and don't do much raiding, but they defend their territory very fiercely, and things can get dicey for the galaxy at large if they start a civil war between different Architraves.
Dimensional Traveler: These Zenith developed a device known as a Dark Matter Drive, which allows them to travel to other universes. The creators say any civilization that becomes advanced enough develop these devices.

Zenith Dyson Sphere

More like a Dyson Swarm than a true Dyson Sphere, this giant Zenith being has encompassed a star, and is fiercely territorial. It does NOT like having control being asserted over it and will violently lash out against anyone who attempts to build a Command Station on it's planet.

Face–Heel Turn: If a Dyson Antagonizer is allowed to evolve into a Dyson Converter, it will eventually make the Dyson Sphere permanently hostile to the player.
Gatling Good: In the first game, their main method of defense is by creating countless hordes of Dyson Gatlings to defend themselves.

Zenith Miners

Giant Zenith beings who eat entire planets to sustain themselves.

Planet Eater: They do this to the planets they target. If not stopped, the planet will be reduced to a lifeless and blackened husk and most of its resources will be destroyed.
Planet Spaceship: In the second game, they're larger than the planets they harvest.
This Is a Drill: In the first game, it's literally a drill. In the second game, they have a massive spire in their bow that will punch through a planet's poles as they harvest it.

Zenith Trader

A True Neutral merchant, the Zenith Trader sells things to both you and the AI.

Intrepid Merchant: The Zenith Trader explores the entire galaxy to find beings to sell to.
Noodle Incident: Where, when, and how exactly the Zenith Trader, a being that has no guns and can't harm anything, managed to enslave Dark Spire is never elaborated upon.
Playing Both Sides: To the Zenith Trader, business is business, It doesn't matter who's buying. Only that they do buy.
Pacifist: The Zenith Trader itself doesn't attack at all, and doesn't even react to being attacked itself. Whenever it "dies" it'll just reappear somewhere else.
We Sell Everything: From Superfortresses and Orbital Mass Drivers in Fleet Command, to Tamed Macrophages and enslaved Dark Spire Eidolons, The Zenith Trader has a wide variety of items it can sell to you and the AI.

Spire

Another race of ancient beings, these ones hail from the Andromeda Galaxy. Crystaline in nature, the Spire are similar to the Zenith in that they are also their own starships, However their starships are more akin to augmented cyborg soldiers rather than their civilians. Currently, they are under attack from the AI,(in Fleet Command) or outright defeated (in 2). If the player is feeling up to the task, they can potentially ally with the Spire and work on destroying the AI together. However, the AI isn't exactly gonna react nicely to one of it's more dangerous enemies appearing in the Milky Way.

A Day in the Limelight: Fleet Command's Light of the Spire DLC introduces them into the game proper, while the sequel has them debut in The Spire Rises DLC.
Living Ship: Similarly to the Zenith and Neinzul, Spire ships and buildings are actually members of the Spire civilization. Unlike them, not all Spires are starships, and the majority are instead human-sized "shards".
Puny Earthlings: While they aren't malevolent (outside of the Dark Spire), the creators say that the Spire don't really think much of humanity, saying that the Spire sees humanity as how humanity sees a squirrel. Amusing for a bit, then forgotten about later. The only reason they work with humanity is to simply stop the AI from continuing its campaign of Spire genocide and free their trapped members.
Rock Monster: They're an entire race of living crystals.

Imperial Spire

The main Spire faction that the player can ally with, These guys have fallen on hard times ever since the AI began invading their galaxy. Relations start off a bit rocky, but as you progress they become more open to the idea of coexistence.

Arch-Enemy: The Core despises them even more than humanity, as they're also far more dangerous.
Benevolent Precursors: A highly advanced exogalactic empire that predates humanity.
The Good King: They're led by the emperor Exaron the Seventh, who takes humanity's side when they save him and his refugee ship from the AI.
Light Is Good: Their ships and stations glow in bright colors, usually white.
Vestigial Empire: Implied in the first game and confirmed in the second. The Spire Empire's been on hard times due to the AI, but they can recover with the player's help.

Gray Spire

A smaller faction that has been in contact with humanity since the civil war, they mostly keep to themselves, but engage in trade with humanity from time to time. One of the factions of the nebula scenarios.

The Bus Came Back: They returned in the second game's 4.0 update.
Dyson Sphere: They live in one known as the Pleiades, a massive crystal mass that grows around a star.
Interspecies Friendship: Of all Spire factions, they're the only ones that are truly friendly with humans. In campaigns where they appear, they're allies to you.
Nuclear Option: They are the ones who developed the warheads humanity uses. In the second game, they can be obtained from them by hacking the Pleiades after helping them enough in a Splintering Spire scenario.
Retcon: One of their journal entries states that they have been in contact with humanity for quite a long time, but the Imperial Spire journal entries say that this is the first time Humans have contacted the spire.

Dark Spire

These Spire are so xenophobic and hostile to others that they would put Fanatic Purifiers to shame.

Absolute Xenophobe: They will attack everything in their path, whether it's AI, Human or from another race. The only exception are the Dark Zenith, who are allies.
Dark Is Evil: Their ships and structures bear large amounts of black and red.
Invincible Villain: In the first game, Vengeance Generators are completely invulnerable, which makes the Dark Spire unstoppable if enough violence occurs in their systems.
Mighty Glacier: All of their ships are immensely sturdy and hard to destroy, and are just as capable of destroying entire fleets on their own.
Nerf: In the second game, the Vengeance Generators can be hacked and destroyed. It's still quite minor, as the Dark Spire will do everything to stop you from doing so.
The Power of Hate: It's never made clear if the units that erupt from Vengeance Generators are their vessels, their people shaped into vessels, or simply hostile constructs made from pure rage. Any of these possibilities requires breaching the Vengeance Generators through sheer hatred of everything outside.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Explicitly locked up in their Vengeance Generators, and (mostly) unable to escape even if they're destroyed.
Zerg Rush: A violent enough battle near one of their Vengeance Generators will activate it, unleashing a horde of Dark Spires. That generator will remain permanently active and will spawn more Dark Spires if another active generator does it. If violence isn't minimized in the planets their generators are in, they will eventually overwhelm the sector and destroy everything.

Shadow Spire

The most mysterious Spire subspecies. They created the Champion ships used by humanity.

Evolving Weapon: The Shadow Vessels are capable of evolving and grow stronger than any manmade starship.
The Ghost: Unlike the other Spire, they are never encountered directly.
Terraforming: They created a "Planetary Adjustment Device" that's capable of terraforming planets into habitable paradises. Its power can be used to undo the damage the A.I.s did to Earth and restore it.

Chromatic Spire

The newest Spire faction, who were added in Update 4.0 of AI War 2.

Colourful Theme Naming: They're named after color variations, like Overtone, Bloom, and Opalescence.
Dyson Sphere: They live in one known as the Crystalium, a massive crystal mass that grows around a star.
Eldritch Starship: They resemble crystalline aquatic creatures with intense colorful glows.
Light Is Not Good: Chromatic Spire are bright and colorful, but extremely hostile and dangerous.
Monster Progenitor: They created the Chromatic Horror.
The Spook: There's little information about them. According to the creators, they're intended to be the meanest and scariest Spire faction, with only the main Imperial Spire being stronger than them.

Chromatic Horror

A massive Spire that rivals the Devourer Golem in strength.

Weaponized Teleportation: Its main weaponry teleports any ship near it while also hurting them. It can scramble entire armadas all over a gravity well.
Wild Card: It doesn't care for the conflicts or struggles of its people, instead simply wandering the galaxy and shooting anything that might threaten its survival.

Neinzul

A very short lived race, most Neinzul don't live longer than a single day. However, those that do can live for much longer, as evidenced by the Neinzul Mourners. The Neinzul are insectoid in nature and have a Genetic Memory in order to work around their short lifespan. Most Neinzul have an Enclave Starship that they call home, and store their memories there, so that the next generation can pick up where the previous one died off on.

A Day in the Limelight: Fleet Command gave them the Children of Neinzul DLC, centered around their theme of mortality. The sequel is slated to give them focus in The Neinzul Abyss.
Living Ship: As with the Zenith and Spire, the Neinzul are their ships. Like the Spire, not all Neinzul are starships, but there are smaller individuals that live inside their ship-kin.
Mind Hive: The Neinzul were able to overcome the shortcomings of their lifespan thanks to their Enclaves, which store the memories and experiences of an entire Neinzul family.
Planet of Hats: Averted. Neinzul members each have their own Hive Mind Enclave, and each Hive mind has different ideals from other Hive minds.
Rapid Aging: Neinzul mature extremely quickly, and die within a day from their aging. The Neinzul Mourners and Neinzul Astrids are able to achieve a different form of "maturation" that turns them into Elderlings, larger starships with vastly extended lifespans.
Short-Lived Organism: While the Zenith and Spire are effectively biologically immortal, and humans still have a roughly eighty-year lifespan, most of these guys live for only a day at most! Some of them can "mature" into longer-lived forms, but most of them have to resort to depositing their Genetic Memory back at their Enclave so that the next generation can pick up where they left off.
Starfish Aliens: According to their concept art◊ in Stars Beyond Reach, individual Neinzul have weird and abstract bodies that can float and fly. They lack anything that resembles facial features, looking more like sculptures than living creatures, with floating fragments that float separated from the rest of their bodies. They can survive exposure to outer space for a short time and most of them only live for a single day. Despite their differences, mentally-wise they're the most human-like race in the Arcenverse.

Neinzul Roaming Enclaves

Neinzul clans that roam about the galaxy, and are either allied to the AI, you or hate everyone. While they aren't super powerful, they can throw out a lot of units out to distract hostiles and allow whoever they're allied with to gain the upper hand in a battle.

Space Nomads: These Neinzul roam the galaxy, never settling in a single place.
Wild Card: It depends on each Enclave, but they can either side with Humans or AI, remain neutral, or simply attack everything in their path.

Neinzul Preservation Wardens

The equivalent of a radical environmentalist group, these Neinzul seek to preserve the "natural order" of the universe. Which apparently means not mining asteroids for metal. Since the AI sources its resources outside the galaxy, they aren't attracting the attention of the Preservation Wardens. Since you are using Metal mines, you will draw their ire.

Animal Wrongs Group: They hate it when someone mines their beloved asteroids. As the AI doesn't need to do that, they pretty much target Humans exclusively.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: They use unique Preservation Warden variants of the Youngling Commandos and the AI-only Neinzul Bombers.

Independent Minor Factions

These guys aren't one of the alien races or associated with humanity as a whole. They are generally hostile to both you and the AI, however they can also be allied to either if you change some lobby settings.

Macrophages

Giant bugs that go about harvesting metal, whether that be from metal mines or your ships and bringing it back to their Telia to create more macrophages. Each Telium can control a certain amount of macrophages before it starts producing spores. If 2 spores from 2 different Telia on 2 different planets meet, they create a new Telium.

Botanical Abomination: Implied by the name of their nests. Telium is the term for a type of pustule that grows on plants due to fungal infections.
Stone Wall: They're not especially damaging and don't get bonuses against anything, but they are tremendously durable even at low Marks and any damage they cause heals them, so taking them down takes a long time.

Nanocaust

A sort of grey goo that's on the loose, the Nanocaust seeks to infect everything around itself and subverts you, the AI and even other minor factions to increase its numbers. While unleashing these guys on the galaxy tends to end horribly if they are next to you, they DO take away the AI's attention from you... so maybe having a horrific killer blob of grey goo roaming the galaxy can be beneficial to you?

Arch-Enemy: It's one of the AI's enemies. Unlike with humans, the AI takes their threat seriously, as it's one of the exogalactic foes the AI fights in other fronts.
Enemy Exchange Program: Their specialty. Their unique ships' weapons deal a special form of Zombification damage known as "Nanocaustation", which forcefully turns enemy ships to their side when killed with them. This aspect alone is what makes them so terrifying and dangerous.
Godzilla Threshold: Unleashing one of the few things the AI takes seriously in the galaxy is this. The potential possibility of it backfiring and killing everyone in the sector you're in is really high, but if you think it can increase your possibilities of victory, you can summon it.
Grey Goo: A hostile variation that eats everything in its path.
Keystone Army: Killing their primary hive will cause all Nanocaust units belonging to that hive to stop moving between planets, and slowly attrition to death.
Schmuck Bait: The Nanocaust Suppressor Beacon grants a hefty 5,000 science should a player kill it. Shortly after its destruction, the Nanocaust will invade.
Shout-Out: The Nanocaust is pretty much the Beast from Homeworld: Cataclysm. It even has "Cataclysm Averted" as an achievement for beating a game with the Nanocaust enabled.
Straight for the Commander: A reliable way of dealing with them is by sniping their primary hive. If that goes kaboom, then all Nanocaust units that belonged to that hive will stop moving and eventually attrition to death.
Theme Naming: Their names for weapons and ships mostly revolve around parasites, infection and disease.

Spoiler Characters

The Core

A former guardian of the Spire Emperor, and brother of the Exodian Blade, it was wrongly accused of treason and sent into exile into the Milky Way galaxy. Only to be discovered by Humanity, who began to study it for their own ends. Desiring revenge, The Core allowed itself to be analyzed and Humanity created the A.I.s. After biding its time, The Core took control of both A.I.s, and used them to wipe out Humanity and start taking its vengeance on the Imperial Spire.

Big Bad: As he's behind the AI's rebellion and war against humanity, he's the closest thing the game has to an antagonist.
The Ghost: He's never seen physically ingame.
Non-Action Big Bad: He'll never fight personally against you, knowing the risks it would pose to his survival, so he remains hidden beyond the extragalactic wormholes in the AI homeworlds. The only way the Core can be killed is by sending its sibling through the wormhole.
Ret-Gone: It along with the Exodian Blade don't exist in the universe of AI War 2, due to their status as Creator's Pests.

Exodian Blade

A former guardian of the Spire Emperor, and sibling of The Core, it too was also wrongly accused of treason and sent into exile into the Milky Way galaxy. However unlike its more violent brother, it decided to take its "punishment" in peace and went into hibernation. Disgusted at what its brother has done, the Exodian Blade requests materials to be repaired. Should you repair it, you will have the most powerful unit in the game. Obviously, the AI and The Core will not be happy seeing the Exodian Blade repaired and rearmed.

Infinity +1 Sword: The most powerful ship the player can obtain. However, being the strongest doesn't mean it's invincible, and it can be destroyed by the AI if you don't protect it.
Taking You with Me: Its plan to stop the AI is by entering and Extragalactic Wormhole and reaching his sibling at the other side, and then self-destruct, killing each other in a massive explosion.
Ret-Gone: It along with The Core don't exist in the universe of AI War 2, due to their status as Creator's Pests.

Unnamed Threat

Some exogalactic force outside of the Milky Way galaxy has the AI's attention, and is able to fight the AI on equal footing... something not even The Spire can do. They are the reason why the AI hasn't simply wiped out humanity.

Accidental Hero: Their war against the AI’s takes enough of the AI’s attention off of humanity to keep it from wiping them out.
Big Bad: They're the main antagonists in The Last Federation's Invasion Mode.
Canon Character All Along: The creators revealed they were the Obscura from The Last Federation.
The Dreaded: The AI fears them and focuses most of their war effort in fighting them. Wiping out humanity is basically just a nonessential chore compared to fighting this other force.
Great Offscreen War: The A.I.s have fought them for over 400 years, even before they turned on humanity. You know how the Flenser is supposed to be the end of all arguments? The Unnamed Threat can fight them on even ground.
Greater-Scope Villain: They're the reason the A.I.s betrayed humanity. Apparently the human colonies and settlements were releasing such an intense signal that the Obscura were charging en-masse towards the Milky Way, leaving the A.I.s no choice but to turn on their makers and cull them, to stop their war from becoming even more hopeless.
Omnicidal Maniac: The Obscura hate all life that isn't themselves and want nothing but to kill everything else.
Starfish Aliens: They're particle-based life.
The Unfought: As of the time of this writing, they are nowhere to be seen in game.
Walking Spoiler: Their true identity and the true cause of the AI War makes them this.

Characters / AI War: Fleet Command

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