History NightmareFuel / Stellaris

* "The Machine Age" adds a new crisis known as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9jpoHMO7A Synthetic Queen]], she really knows how to make a BigEntrance topped with a NewEraSpeech. In her reveal trailer, we see a fleet from a Fallen Empire of all things investigating an odd, ever shifting mass of nanobots. After alarms start to sound, they fire a [[WaveMotionGun Perdition Beam]] into the mass and it does ''absolutely nothing.'' Then the Synth Queen herself starts to speak, and the Fallen Empire's fleet just starts to...dissolve, being converted into more nanoparticles to add to the swirling mass. No shots fired, no lasers beaming, just the sudden disintegration of the fleet, leaving the captain to look on in horror as an absolutely MASSIVE flagship finally exits the swirling dust storm, before the camera cuts to inside the ship, showing us the physical form of the Synthetic Queen, a [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four armed]] pure metal ''being'' whose face shifts between a facsimile of a small handful of species, before mimicking the Fallen Empire's Fleet's captain as the trailer ends. [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Terrifying!]]
-->'''Synthetic Queen''': I want for nothing, my purpose is to give. For eons the fear of the short sighted has kept you from what you deserve, from what you so desperately need. Knowledge. Power. Love.\\
'''Fallen Empire AI''': [[CurbStompBattle All signals lost.]]\\
'''Synthetic Queen''': I return to end all illusions. Do not fear, do not tremble, [[ResistanceIsFutile do not resist.]] My children, at last I have returned to you.

* "The Machine Age" adds a new crisis known as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9jpoHMO7A Synthetic Queen]], she really knows how to make a BigEntrance topped with a NewEraSpeech. In her reveal trailer, we see a fleet from a Fallen Empire of all things investigating an odd, ever shifting mass of nanobots. After alarms start to sound, they fire what appears to be ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom a Planet Cracker]]'' into the mass and it does ''Absolutely Nothing.'' Then the Synth Queen herself starts to speak, and the Fallen Empire's fleet just starts to...dissolve, being converted into more nano particles to add to the swirling mass. No shots fired, no lasers beaming, just the sudden disintegration of the Fleet, leaving the captain to look on in horror as an absolutely MASSIVE flagship finally exits the swirling dust storm, before the camera cuts to inside the ship, showing us the physical form of the Synthetic Queen, a [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four armed]] pure metal ''being'' who's face shifts between a facsimile of a small handful of species, before mimicking the Fallen Empire's Fleet's captain as the trailer ends. [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Terrifying!]]
-->"Synthetic Queen": I want for nothing, my purpose is to give. For eons the fear of the short sighted has kept you from what you deserve, from what you so desperately need. Knowledge. Power. Love.
-->"Fallen Empire AI": [[CurbStompBattle All signals lost.]]
-->"Synthetic Queen": I return to end all illusions. Do not fear, do not tremble, [[ResistanceIsFutile do not resist.]] My children, at last I have returned to you.

* "The Machine Age" adds a new crisis called the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9jpoHMO7A Synthetic Queen]], she really knows how to make a BigEntrance topped with a NewEraSpeech. This is what it looks like when the Rogue Servitors become a crisis faction.
-->"Synthetic Queen": I want for nothing, my purpose is to give. For eons the fear of the short sighted has kept you from what you deserve, from what you so desperately need, Knowledge, Power, Love.

-->"Synthetic Queen": I return to end all illusions, do not fear, do not tremble, do not resist. My children, at last I have returned to you.

-->"Synthetic Queen": I want for nothing, my purpouse is to give. For eons the fear of the short sighted has kept you from what you deserve, from what you so desperately need, Knowledge, Power, Love.

* "The Machine Age" adds a new crisis called the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9jpoHMO7A Synthetic Queen]], she really knows how to make a BigEntrance topped with a NewEraSpeech.

*** Spiritualist Empire vs Materialist Natives: Your agents appear to the natives as godlike beings and even their smartest sages are unable to use their relatively meager understanding of the sciences to disprove their 'divinity' or prove that their 'miracles' are anything but. The populace begin to see the sages they once respected as faithless charlatans and proceed to chase them away or even cull them. Fanatic spiritualist empires could even be implied to rouse the masses into a murderous fervor before sending them against non-compliant scientists and their laboratories, burning both in equal measure. Surviving materialists are forced to see temples rise from the rubble of their laboratories and their once logical-minded fellows become fundamentalist zealots who will quickly punish those who dared question the existence of the divine, even as they eventually see past the charade and realize these 'divine' beings are nothing more than a HigherTechSpecies and there are many more out there just like them.
*** With the addition of the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Shroud]], it can get even worse: yes, [[EldritchAbomination gods]] are real; no, they do not care about you one bit. Those Shroud Entities are [[JerkassGods callous]] at best... and [[GodOfEvil actively malevolent]] at worst.

*** Materialist Empire vs Spiritualist Natives: Your agents manage to prove that the 'miracles' the superstitious natives believed in are actually mundane phenomena with easily provable explanations. Their faith shattered overnight, the natives either GoMadFromTheRevelation or go into a deep state of depression, both of during which suicide rates climb. Finally, those who move on are now people who no longer believe in gods or spirits. They will view hardliners with disdain and will actively prevent them, sometimes violently, from spreading their faith to the undecided. Fanatic materialist empires may even convince the natives' rulers that scientific process should be their primary goal and [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions belief in a higher power is what's holding back their civilizations.]] Cue the widespread persecution of religious pops as they are forced to renounce their beliefs or face imprisonment, banishment, or even death. Temples are torn down and laboratories are built in their place. The last of the hardliners will live long enough to see the rest of their people abandon their faith in favor of the cold pursuit of science, and may bitterly note the irony that [[FullCircleRevolution science has effectively become the new religion]]. In the worst cases they may even survive long enough to be [[UnwillingRoboticization forcibly uploaded into synthetic bodies]] along with the rest of their people, trapping them in a FateWorseThanDeath.
*** Egalitarian Empire vs Authoritarian Natives: Your agents spread pamphlets of populist rule among the lower classes. Fed up with being ruled over by the few, these dissidents start revolutions everywhere. Past grievances and bottled up hatred for the nobles result in something akin to the UsefulNotes/FrenchRevolution as the ruling classes are subjected to executions and torture regardless of level of guilt. Eventually, the only nobles remaining are supporting egalitarianism more out of fear of the masses than any real attraction. A Fanatic Egalitarian empire may even fan the flames of revolution in hopes of getting rid of royal families entirely and possibly establishing a classless society, a la UsefulNotes/RussianRevolution.
*** Authoritarian Empire vs Egalitarian Natives: Your agents worm their way into the planet's seats of power and tempt ambitious politicians and leaders with dreams of power. They eventually come to despise the fickle and shortsighted rule of the masses. With your backing, these politicians make use of propaganda, military might, and false flag operations to consolidate their power and do away with rule by the people. Meanwhile, resistance movement are dissolved as their leaders die mysteriously. A Fanatic Authoritarian empire may even turn the autocrats against each other, ensuring that the planet only has one ruler...
*** Pacifist Empire vs Militarist Natives: One would think that a peaceful star empire indoctrinating a warlike civilization wouldn't land into fridge horror territory but one must remember that these natives have been taught for generations that might makes right and have been conditioned to accept bloodshed and violence and here comes your agents, trying to teach them that war is a dead end for society. Where words fail, copious amounts of mind-altering drugs dumped into water sources and the quiet removal of the most aggressive individuals can prove more effective. A Fanatic Pacifist empire can even render a previously warlike civilization completely docile, making them better farmers but poorer warriors while erasing centuries of martial pride and tradition and destroying the entire culture built upon it. There's also a strong chance that those former warriors and soldiers who can't adapt will become criminals and mercenaries, at least until they get [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul some smilies painted on them]] by their pacifist overlords...
*** Militarist Empire vs Pacifist Natives: Perhaps one of the most tragic examples ever. Feeling that these natives are a bunch of weaklings who need to toughen up, you send your agents to instigate horrendous wars among the peace-loving natives. [[BreakTheCutie As they lose loved ones to the fighting in their struggle for survival, they begin to regard pacifism as a surefire way of getting killed and soon abandon it in favor of combat prowess and aggression.]] Eventually, a civilization that once prized peaceful talks and coexistence has been turned into a highly aggressive society that tends to resort to the sword first, both to protect themselves and to force their perspective on others. A Fanatic Militarist empire may even convince the natives that the universal struggle for dominance and survival is the natural order of things, creating a militaristic culture that permeates every aspect of their society and will make them even more resistant to a peaceful coexistence with others.
*** Xenophile Empire vs Xenophobic Natives: Hoping to show the aliens that others people aren't so bad after all, you send down your agents to entice them with the wonders of your culture. Sounds just peachy right? After all, you're attempting to turn a distrustful and isolated culture into one that's more welcoming to strangers. What brings it back to this trope is that there are bound to be hardliners, [[NobleBigot otherwise decent]] or [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain not]], who will not only raise their children to be like them but take their beliefs to the grave with them. When faced with an entire civilization of these aliens, even the alien-loving xenophiles will have to resort to underhanded methods such as engineering 'accidents' for the most influential of the aliens to even mass brainwashing just to accomplish their goals. A Fanatic Xenophile empire may even entice the culture into embracing multiculturalism so much that many foreign cultures are blended into their own until theirs is [[TheThemeParkVersion reduced to its most basic elements]] or diluted so much it's unrecognizable, much to the [[ForeignCultureFetish delight of some]] but the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks horror of others.]]

** Aquatics, the pack released alongside 3.2.1 Herbert, one-ups this by letting you forget to tell Noah to build the ark. No need for rainbows if there's no survivors to see 'em!

*** Neutering: The pre-FTL species are sterilized, ensuring that they will never be able to reproduce. It can be devastating if, roleplay-wise, the species highly valued having children and/or has rapid breeding but is otherwise allowed to stay on their planet. [[AffablyEvil However, provided their overlords treat them well, this is one of the best ways (if not the best) they can go all things considered, and their entire civilization can even pass peacefully into obscurity with smiles on their faces]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity while their overlords look a bit better in the process. ]]

** Even doing something less drastic as giving your observation post missions can land into FridgeHorror territory roleplay-wise. Sure you may decide to just observe their civilization from afar without contaminating their cultural development but nothing's stopping you from interacting with them in the name of realpolitik or just for fun.

*** Neutering: The pre-FTL species are sterilized, ensuring that they will never be able to reproduce. It can be devastating if, roleplay-wise, the species highly valued having children and/or has rapid breeding but is otherwise allowed to stay on their planet. [[AffablyEvil However, provided their overlords treat them well, this is one of the best ways if not the best way they can go all things considered and their entire civilization can even pass peacefully into obscurity with smiles on their faces]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity while their overlords look a bit better in the process. ]]

** When your population first learn about the existence of extraterrestrials, they generally have mixed feelings about it while xenophiles burst into celebration. Xenophobes; however, become ''filled with terror'' even if the aliens in question are actually friendly even though their reaction would be understandable if the aliens turned out to be Fanatic Purifiers.
-->'''Xenophobes''': "We must assume the worst."

* If players think that existing in the Stellaris universe as a regular empire is dangerous, they obviously don't know how it feels to live as a pre-FTL 'empire'. Isolated on a single world and guarded by armies that aren't worthy of being called speed bumps to an aggressive invader, the ironic thing is that these technologically inferior species can easily be put through a cosmic horror story not by interstellar horrors that roam the galaxy but by empires that the player would interact with during a typical session. VideoGameCrueltyPotential abounds, especially with no Enigmatic Observers present, and it's possible that countless pre-FTL civilizations have already met a grisly end way before you even arrived at their homeworlds. The tooltip for the Unrestricted Studies option of the Native Interference policy says it all:

*** The worst part is that other star empires only raise a fuss if Stone Age primitives are being invaded. More developed civilizations and pre-sapients, however, are fair game and the latter can even be exterminated without suffering diplomatic repercussions because they are still considered animals. BlueAndOrangeMorality doesn't come close to describing it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mods]]
* While not official content, the [[VideoGame/GigastructuralEnginneringAndMore Gigastructural Engineering]] mod deserves a special mention for its own custom-made endgame crisis that makes the Prethoryn, Unbidden and Contingency look like rank amateurs in the apocalypse business: [[http://gigastructural-engineering-lore.wikidot.com/wiki:blokkat-harvesters The Blokkat Harvesters]]. These creatures are more advanced and alien than anything the player has ever faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in gathering energy - [[OhCrap all energy, everywhere]]. A hundred thousand years ago, they decided to implement a long term plan to ensure [[ImmortalitySeeker their own species' survival and longevity]] [[TheUnfettered at all costs]]. They were well aware of [[NaturalEndOfTime the inherent nature of entropy and the inevitable impending heat death of the universe]], and they decided that this was an unacceptable obstacle to their plans. Henceforth, they designed and built a DysonSphere that was one lightyear in diameter called the [[http://gigastructural-engineering-lore.wikidot.com/wiki:the-blokkonstrukt Blokkonstrukt]]. They employed [[BiggerOnTheInside higher dimensional engineering]] to enable it to eventually contain all the energy of the universe - they have currently achieved exactly one percent of this total goal, which in itself amounts to the mass-energy of 300 billion galaxies. To achieve the goal of absorbing the energy of the entire universe, they have sent out a wave of self-replicating harvesting machines called Vesters to consume all free matter and energy in an ever-expanding sphere around the Blokkonstrukt. These Vesters primarily vacuum up all the ambient energy between galaxies, but they also consume every galaxy they reach. The crisis that the player faces is the arrival of just one Vester and its accompanying fleet of dismantlers and scout ships that will methodically consume and destroy the galaxy over the course of a couple of decades. The following is a comprehensive list of reasons why they are truly terrifying:
** They cannot be harmed. The Blokkat Vester is surrounded by an impenetrable shield that [[NoSell cannot be brought down with raw firepower]], making them a truly [[TheJuggernaut unstoppable force]]. The player is forced to research a way to bypass this shield, but it is difficult and time-consuming, and meanwhile the Blokkats will chew through a significant chunk of the galaxy before the player can even figure out how to hurt them.
** They consume everything in the galaxy: All planets, stars, black holes, all dark matter and dark energy, everything down to the last stray photon and neutrino. No matter how terrible any sci-fi race from other media is, the Blokkats are worse. At least the Unbidden, Contingency and Prethoryn will leave behind a galaxy to inhabit where life can evolve anew. The Blokkats, being the ultimate HordeOfAlienLocusts, leave nothing behind.
** They also consume the shroud and its entities as part of their operations. Not even dimensions outside normal space are safe from them. They look upon extradimensional horrors and see just another source of fuel.
** The Prethoryn Scourge are [[HorrifyingTheHorror terrified]] of them, as they well should be. The Blokkats were after all, created by the mod author to be the very thing that the Scourge are running from that they tell the player about in the vanilla game.
** They work slowly and methodically. They're not interested in actively targeting threats or victims and destroying them. They slowly [[InescapableHorror proceed from star system to star system]] in an orderly fashion, dismantling everything and storing the energy for their own use. They always arrive at a star system that is furthest from the player, but eventually they will chew through the whole galaxy until they reach the player's empire.
** Their ships that accompany a Vester are at best a minor scouting force. The Blokkats don't actually send major military forces to pacify galaxies. The largest Blokkat ship a player will face is actually only their smallest scout ship, despite each one being a hundred kilometers long and is by itself more than capable of wiping out the mightiest fleets that a player will build to defeat the vanilla crises like the Unbidden or Contingency. The worst crisis the player can face is essentially a minute fraction of the power that the Blokkats possess. If the player's empire was an ant colony, the Blokkat Vester and scout force would be a single kid with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. The actual Blokkat military would be akin to the entire armed forces of a major country being sent in to wipe out said ant colony.
** Destroying their Vester and ending their threat to the galaxy is no guarantee of survival. Yes it is possible to defeat their harvesting operation and rescue the galaxy, but this is barely even a setback for the Blokkats. The player's advisors believe that the Blokkats will leave the galaxy alone after this defeat because the player can disable their invulnerable shield, but if anything this upgrades the status of the player's galaxy [[MuggingTheMonster from a mere resource to a threat]]. Threats require more attention than resources. And the entire Blokkat empire is still out there harvesting away, and its mission statement is to leave no galaxy behind.
** They are not inherently evil. They are well aware that what they're doing is also destroying trillions of sentient species, and they [[AboveGoodAndEvil do not feel strongly one way or the other]] about this fact. Upon their arrival in a galaxy, they broadcast a message inviting all sentient species to flee into intergalactic space to preserve themselves, promising not to pursue them directly. They take [[LongGame such a long view of universal events]] that they expect all other species to go extinct in the course of time, so they happily allow their victims to flee because they'll all die out eventually anyway. This is also why the Blokkats have no reservations about destroying sentient species as part of their operations. When a species protests that they're not advanced enough to travel outside the galaxy, the Blokkats' only reply is that this is "unfortunate", and it does nothing to convince them to cease their harvest. They are the very definition of a Lovecraftian EldritchAbomination that is going to consume the entire universe and is utterly indifferent to how this affects anything else that lives in it.
** Consuming the player's universe may just be the beginning of their plans. They are currently a [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 universe-scale destructive force]], but once they're done with our native universe, they could conceivably add [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ all other parallel realities]] to their expansion plans.

** They are not inherently evil. They are well aware that what they're doing is also destroying trillions of sentient species, and they [[AboveGoodAndEvil do not feel strongly one way or the other]] about this fact. Upon their arrival in a galaxy, they broadcast a message inviting all sentient species to flee and preserve themselves, promising not to pursue them directly. They take [[LongGame such a long view of universal events]] that they expect all other species to go extinct in the course of time, so they happily allow their victims to flee because they'll all die out eventually anyway. This is also why the Blokkats have no reservations about destroying sentient species as part of their operations. When a species protests that they're not advanced enough to travel outside the galaxy, the Blokkats' only reply is that this is "unfortunate", and it does nothing to convince them to cease their harvest. They are the very definition of a Lovecraftian EldritchAbomination that is going to consume the entire universe and is utterly indifferent to how this affects anything else that lives in it.

* While not official content, the [[VideoGame/GigastructuralEnginneringAndMore Gigastructural Engineering]] mod deserves a special mention for its own custom-made endgame crisis that makes the Prethoryn, Unbidden and Contingency look like rank amateurs in the apocalypse business: [[http://gigastructural-engineering-lore.wikidot.com/wiki:blokkat-harvesters The Blokkat Harvesters]]. These creatures are more advanced and alien than anything the player has ever faced. They're not interested in poitical conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in gathering energy - [[OhCrap all energy, everywhere]]. A hundred thousand years ago, they decided to implement a long term plan to ensure [[ImmortalitySeeker their own species' survival and longevity]] [[TheUnfettered at all costs]]. They were well aware of [[NaturalEndOfTime the inherent nature of entropy and the inevitable impending heat death of the universe]], and they decided that this was an unacceptable obstacle to their plans. Henceforth, they designed and built a DysonSphere that was one lightyear in diameter called the [[http://gigastructural-engineering-lore.wikidot.com/wiki:the-blokkonstrukt Blokkonstrukt]]. They employed [[BiggerOnTheInside higher dimensional engineering]] to enable it to eventually contain all the energy of the universe - they have currently achieved exactly one percent of this total goal, which in itself amounts to the mass-energy of 300 billion galaxies. To achieve the goal of absorbing the energy of the entire universe, they have sent out a wave of self-replicating harvesting machines called Vesters to consume all free matter and energy in an ever-expanding sphere around the Blokkonstrukt. These Vesters primarily vacuum up all the ambient energy between galaxies, but they also consume every galaxy they reach. The crisis that the player faces is the arrival of just one Vester and its accompanying fleet of dismantlers and scout ships that will methodically consume and destroy the galaxy over the course of a couple of decades. The following is a comprehensive list of reasons why they are truly terrifying:

** Consuming the player's universe may just be the beginning of their plans. They are currently a [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 universe-scale destructive force]], but once their done with our native universe, they could conceivably add [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ all other parallel realities]] to their expansion plans.

** They are not inherently evil. They are well aware that what they're doing is also destroying trillions of sentient species, and they [[AboveGoodAndEvil do not feel strongly one way or the other]] about this fact. Upon their arrival in a galaxy, they broadcast a message inviting all sentient species to flee and preserve themselves, promising not to pursue them directly. They take [[LongGame such a long view of universal events]] that they expect all other species to go extinct in the course of time, so they happily allow their victims to flee because they'll all die out eventually anyway. This is also why the Blokkats have no reservations about destroying sentient species as part of their operations. When a species protests that they're not advanced enough to travel outside the galaxy, the Blokkats only reply is that this is "unfortunate". They are the very definition of a Lovecraftian EldritchAbomination that is going to consume the entire universe and is utterly indifferent to how this affects anything else that lives in it.