History VideoGame / GalacticCivilizations

** The Altarians started out looking as pretty much identical to humans, but in the third game have been given a visual redesign that makes them look a lot like the [[FranchiseMassEffect asari]] (except with hair). It's unclear whether they actually now have blue skin or if it's just the lighting making it look that way.

* {{Expy}}: The standard Resource Mining Station sure looks like [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Terek Nor]], if the central hub was replaced with a huge geometric crystal.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Korath, who were originally a clan within the Drengin, ended up breaking away from the Empire after they were angered that the Empire merely seek to enslave everyone that they can conquer instead of complete exterminating them.

* DarkestHour: The storyline of ''Gal Civ II'''s expansion packs ''Dark Avatar'' and ''Twilight of the Arnor'' can be seen as the galaxy's darkest hour, not only has most of the galaxy been enslaved by the Drengin but the Korath are planning to annihilate all non-Drengin life at the behest of the Dread Lords who weren't truly defeated at the end of the core game's campaign. The only forces left in the galaxy that can fight the Dread Lords are the Drengin Empire whose forces are too preoccupied by the Korath clan's rebellion to fight the Dread Lords directly, and the remnants of the Terran fleet which remained a factor only because they stumbled across the last of the Arnor who provided them with his race's superior technology and warships. As of the third game, the Thalans still maintain that things are only going to get worse, and it's all the Terrans' fault somehow: "[[ArcWords A crusade is coming...]]"

* DarkestHour: The storyline of ''Gal Civ II'''s expansion packs ''Dark Avatar'' and ''Twilight of the Arnor'' can be seen as the galaxy's darkest hour, not only has most of the galaxy been enslaved by the Drengin but the Korath are planning to annihilate all non-Drengin life at the behest of the Dread Lords who weren't truly defeated at the end of the core game's campaign. The only forces left in the galaxy that can fight the Dread Lords are the Drengin Empire whose forces are too preoccupied by the Korath clan's rebellion to fight the Dread Lords directly, and the remnants of the Terran fleet which remained a factor only because they stumbled across the last of the Arnor who provided them with his race's superior technology and warships.

* CommieLand: A rare benevolent version in the form of the [[{{TheRepublic}} Altarian Republic]] (later [[{{LaResistance}} Altarian Resistance]]) and the [[{{TheRemnant }} Iconian Refuge]]. For the latter, the idea of a profit seeking private sector economy is against their values of an equal and egalitarian society; while for the latter, they have been operating under a communist style collectivized economy for so long that the entire concept of capitalism and private property is alien to them. However, since they are major powers that have to interact with other galactic powers that work differently, their entire economic technology tree consist of them slowly reforming into a mixed economy in order to keep up with everyone else.

* AbusivePrecursors: The Dread Lords.

** In GalCiv3, the Altarians will get mad at you if you try to conquer them Culturally. When they contact you about it, they will dismiss your efforts because their world, in the past, had survived Sorcerer Kings and Fallen Enchantresses. Those are the names of two of Stardock's other franchises.

* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Korath.

* PrivatelyOwnedSociety: The Korx.

* LaResistance: In the sequel this is present in the form of The Jagged Knife (Evil rebels) for Good Empires, the I-League (Neutral rebels) for Neutral Empires, and the Fundamentalists (Good rebels) for Evil Empires. Unlike most minor races they will have more than a single planet due to taking a sizeable chunk of the empire they rebel from, and in the cases of especially large empire the rebels can hold more territory than some of the major players. They invariably become a major problem for the empire they rebelled from and provide the game's version of Civil War. Also how the Torian Confederacy got its start. The scattered remains of the Terran Alliance and the Altarians become this in Dark Avatar due to the Drengin Empire conquering the majority of both factions and the Solar System being sealed away from the rest of the universe. The Altarians' faction name even changes from the Altarian Republic to the Altarian Resistance.

* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Even after some 10.000 years as interstellar empire, no species has figured how to make the gates into hyperdrives. Then the humans do it, thanks to one unique energy technology: Fusion. The elemental force behind every star, the most hard to overlook reaction in the universe. Yet not one species figured out to copy it in millennia.

* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: Even after some 10.000 years as interstellar empire, no species has figured how to make the gates into hyperdrives. Then the humans do it, thanks to one unique energy technology: Fusion. The elmental force behind every star, the most hard to overlook reaction in the universe. Yet not one species figured out to copy it in milennia.

** The Dread Lords have acess to ships more powerful than anything the player could hope to build, and their soldiers have such an insane advantage that ''10'' of them are a serious invasion force against planets defended by 8000-20000 soldiers. Do note that soldiers are measured in units of a million each so it's a little less silly than it would seem at first glance.

* AlphaStrike: Favored tactic of the Arceans and custom Super Warrior races as of Dark Avatar. Pack as much firepower as possible on to each ship and as many ships as possible (or as many as needed) into each fleet and try to eradicate your enemies in that first strike alpha before they can retaliate. Also the favored tactic of anyone in the original Dread Lords game, where attacker-gets-first-strike was the norm; this was changed in Dark Avatar where defenders get a guarunteed CounterAttack against anyone who is not a Super Warrior.

---> The Spectres bow to no-one, plea for no quarter. Engraved on the seal at the base of a mile-high statue of their leader, Paul Davies, Mutilator of Worldsblood, are the words "Bring it the fuck on." In Latin.

** OTOH, there are a lot of systems with no inhabitable planets, which would really be more useful if they were just asteroid fields for your space miners. When empires get rich and bored enough, and have constructors to burn, Terror Stars start looking like big mining charges.

* ComicallySmallBribe: You can absolutely offer another race the interesting opportunity of giving you all of their ships, planets and tech for 1 bc. The AI *will* treat this as the deliberate insult it is. OTOH, while the AI is pretty damn good at managing its economy and using its money to the fullest, it hardly ever makes cash reserves (or blows them all the second a war starts anyway) which often leads AIs on the losing side of a war to sue the player for peace, please, they'll give you all they have ! Here, take these 5 bc !

** One mission in the Dread Lords campaign had three planets called [[FinalFantasyVI Locke, Sabin, and Celes.]]

** High level espionage info, which details pretty much everything the target faction has.