Here you'll find tropes for the various Empires a player might encounter throughout the galaxy of Stellaris.

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Standard AI Personalities

Decadent Hierarchy

"You do all hard work yourselves? It must be exhausting. Surely you're at least a bit jealous of us."

Decadent Hierarchies are isolationist slave societies that have few concerns aside from maintaining their rigid way of life.

Affably Evil: Their entire society is built on slavery, but unlike the Slaving Despots, they're at least willing to be marginally polite to outsiders.
Evil Is Not Pacifist: A pointed aversion: they actually need to have the "Pacifist" (or xenophile) ethos. Said ethos is what makes them so Affably Evil, as opposed to their more fearsome counterparts, the Slaving Despots.
Technical Pacifist: Tend to be willing to opportunistically declare war on weaker neighbors, particularly if they're involved in a war elsewhere. That said, their pacifist-leaning approach to war usually limits them to liberation wars only, which means that their possible success will lead to the creation of either a new Decadent Hierarchy or a new Harmonious Collective.
The Xenophile: Deconstructed, Xenophlia is actually one of their required ethics (pacifism being the other), but considering that the slaver guilds civic is also required, this is done pretty explicitly in the worst way imaginable, unlike most other Xenophile empire types, who generally oppose slavery pretty staunchly.

Democratic Crusaders

"We will give you liberty or give you death. Your choice."

Democratic Crusaders believe that it is their moral imperative to spread their democratic way of life. They tend to get along well with other democracies, but are more than willing to use military force to "liberate" the populations of less democratic empires.

Berserk Button:
- They dislike any authoritarian empire by default.
- They are also not terribly fond of Rogue Servitors, considering organics being put into Gilded Cages to be a Fate Worse than Death.
Eagleland: Mostly Boorish, as they're a parody of neoconservatism, but if you're a democracy yourself, you can usually count on them to be friendly — and if you're an autocrat, they'll hate your guts.
Foil:
- For Hegemonic Imperialists. Both seek to spread their influence aggressively, but where Hegemonic Imperialists seek to dominate as overlords, Democratic Crusaders prefer to exert their influence through a network of liberated proxies.
- For Evangelizing Zealots. Both are aggressive and ideologically driven, one to spread their True Faith, the other to spread their Perfect Way of Life.
- To Federation Builders. Both value all sentient life, are opposed to authoritarianism, xenophobia and slavery and seek to liberate enemy planets under governments that share their views, but Democratic Crusaders seek to force democracy on the entire galaxy, while Federation Builders are more concerned with peace and building federations to defend it.
Hegemonic Empire: Democratic Crusaders liberate instead of conquering, creating new nations of the "liberated" species with the Democratic Crusader's ethos. Who typically become, and usually ally with, the Democratic Crusaders themselves.
Irony: With a stunning lack of self-awareness, they enforce freedom on other peoples.
Jerkass Has a Point: See Rightly Self-Righteous.
Jerk With A Heartof Gold: One way of viewing them.
Logic Bomb: It is not entirely impossible for Democratic Crusaders to wind up with a positive score towards Oligarchic or even Autocratic empires through a combination of favorable trades, agreements, and common enemies. Their responses towards any such empires generally amount to complete bafflement that such an empire can function so well when it isn't democratic.
Rightly Self-Righteous: Jokes about "needing some freedom" or similar aside, very arguably yes, as they are the only empire besides the Federation Builders that will always be some form of egalitarian. This means that they are one of the the AI personalities that is most likely to be treating their citizens well with the Utopian Abundance living standard, the highest in the game, whereas the more authoritarian governments are banned from Egalitarian, and the more forceful ethics (chiefly Authoratarian and Gestalt Consciousness) either put most of their pops into poorer standards of living (such as Stratified Economy) while the top live in decadence, or the pops in a Machine Empire have no free will and are little more than People Puppets (and when they conquer or integrate pops from empires not like themselves, they will either kill them all without mercy or destroy their wills and assimilate them into the larger whole). Lastly, Hegemonic Imperialists (who will very often be the most aggressive A.I.s in the game besides Genocidal Empires, Marauders, and Crisis Factions) will very often be some form of authoritarian (and thus never democratic). However overzealous they may be, the Crusaders aren't wrong in seeing fault in their enemies, and credit where credit is due, they will usually be reliable allies to the Federation Builders.
Slave Liberation: All Democratic Crusaders consider slavery and autocracy anathema, and they have a distinct preference for liberating conquered empires from their oppressor's clutches. Crusaders are the default personality type for a slave pop that has broken free of their oppressors and conquered their planet.
Utopia Justifies the Means: They believe in spreading freedom throughout the galaxy, at any cost.

Despicable Neutrals

"Greetings!"

What makes a species turn neutral... Lust for gold? Power? Or were they just born with hearts full of neutrality?

This is a placeholder personality and should not show up ingame.

All-Powerful Bystander: If this empire spawns from a Khanate it can often be one of, if not the, most powerful empires in the game. But as a placeholder, Despicable Neutral empires don't really do anything.
Glitch Entity: Their personality description blunty states that they're not actually supposed to appear in-game, but sometimes do anyway.
Good Bad Bugs: This Empire really shouldn't appear in the game unless something has gone very wrong, but when they do it's often seen as a good thing as this is a power bloc that will literally sit there and do almost nothing for the entire game, while also being very friendly towards almost any empire. This means one less rival or enemy to deal with, which is always welcome.
Shout-Out: To Futurama, of course. Despicable Neutral empires have an ethics description listed verbatim straight from Zapp Brannigan's mouth.
"What makes a species turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were they just born with hearts full of neutrality?"

Erudite Explorers

"Our goal is not power, but knowledge, although they can sometimes be the same."

Erudite Explorers value exploration and discovery process above all other things. They will gladly trade for the knowledge they seek, but are not above taking it by force if it proves necessary.

Beware the Nice Ones: Just because they're friendly and curious doesn't mean some Erudite Explorer empires won't aggressively expand. They may in particular see dramatic mid/late game surges once they begin to unlock additional colonization options.
Cultured Badass:
"Our weapon of choice is our intellects, sharpened by reason and rationalism. Do you like your odds, Human?"
Proud Scholar Race: They're dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge in all its forms, wherever they may find it.
Straw Atheist: They get lines like these when insulting civs they don't like, especially spiritualists. That said, they're not a true example: they're easy-going enough to get along with spiritualists when they have other shared interests, despite the modest relationship malus.

Evangelizing Zealots

"We have found many lies throughout the galaxy, but we will ensure that the truth is also omnipresent."

Evangelizing Zealots seek to spread their faith across the galaxy, and are not above using military might to force others to accept their beliefs.

Church Militant: They are not above using military might to force others to accept their beliefs.
The Fundamentalist: Dogmatic and aggressive, seeking to spread their beliefs often at swordpoint.
Knight Templar: They're convinced that their beliefs are the only truth of the galaxy, and they plan on spreading that truth to the rest of the galaxy for its own good — even if the rest of the galaxy doesn't want to hear it.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: They may be viewed as a standard embodiment of the "Aliens as Religious Fundamentalists" archetype. They also have an additional negative modifier in their opinion towards materialists, which makes them more willing to oppose all sorts of "heresy" and "paganism" across the galaxy.

Fanatical Befrienders

"I hope you didn't forget about the party I invited you to..."

Fanatical Befrienders are highly friendly but deeply lonely individuals. They will attempt to make friends by any means necessary.

Beware the Nice Ones: They want to be your friend, and have incredibly high initial relationships. They also don't take rejection well.
The Cameo: They're based on the race played by the developers when they were streaming the Beta, and while they can be randomly generated, the requirements are strict enough that they probably won't. Fanatic Befrienders specifically require an empire to have identical ethics and traits to the Blorg Commonality noted below: Fanatic Xenophile and Militarist ethics, plus the Venerable, Solitary and Repugnant traits.
Cloud Cuckoolander: For starters, they consider war just another kind of befriending, and refer to Orbital Bombardment, in all sincerity, as "light shows".
Creepy Good: They promote love and friendship above all, however their understanding of both is completely different from human definitions. As such, they will be most often very amicable towards benevolent friendly empires... and insanely agressive towards hostile or jerkass empires. Bonus points for their disturbing look.
Deadly Euphemism: They don't conquer people, they befriend them.
The Friend Nobody Likes: A somewhat positive example. They crave friendship and social activity above all else. Unfortunately, they're also completely hideous and repulsive, even to each other.
Foil:
- To the Fanatical Purifiers. Purifiers abhor anything that is not them as much as others wouldn't like them, Befrienders embrace other races as much as others wouldn't like them. Both are tied for the spot of second most aggressive default (non-Gestalt) AI personality in the game, behind only the Metalheads.
- To the Xenophobic Isolationists. Whereas the Fanatical Befrienders want to aggressively befriend any aliens whether they like to or not, the Xenophobic Isolationists just want to be left alone and retain their peaceful lifestyles with as little interaction with other species as possible.
Gonk: They are seen as this in-universe and as such they have "repugnant" trait as requirement.
My Friends... and Zoidberg: A functioning empire built specifically for this role. While it is reasonable to side with one, it is very unlikely that your own colonies would ever want one of their race.
Nice Guy: They just want to be friends with everyone!
Speaks in Shout-Outs: All of their dialogue references either the pre-release devstreams or the Borg from Star Trek.
Yandere: That point of "militarist" ethos? That's there because they are perfectly happy to "befriend" other species by force if it proves necessary. They have higher aggressiveness scores than Honorbound Warriors, in fact — if you aren't willing to be their friend, they are dangerous.
"This war is merely the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"We feel like it's time to take the next step in our relationship."

Fanatical Purifiers

"For each Human life that ends, for each baby that perishes before its birth, every star in the galaxy shines a little brighter."

Fanatical Purifiers view all alien life as a cosmic mistake and seek to purify the galaxy of its taint. They will never engage in diplomacy with other species.

Absolute Xenophobe: Fanatic Purifiers are incapable of tolerating the existence of other species. They don't bother with Universal Translators like the other personalities - every other species is either an enemy, or a future enemy.
Always Chaotic Evil: Their entire society is devoted to cleansing the universe of all "impure" life, including even members of their species who are insufficiently zealous. With the sole exception of other Fanatical Purifier Empires of the same species, Diplomacy is not an option.
Birds of a Feather: In general, the Fanatic Purifier Empires hate everyone else with an uncompromising intensity, but there is one exception. If two Fanatic Purifier Empires are of the same species, then they will not only be able to engage in diplomacy with each other, but will even have a +200 opinion bonus. Of course, since Fanatic Purifiers cannot release vassals, this situation is unlikely to come up without being planned by the player.
Difficult, but Awesome: Awesome? Certainly. Difficult? Absolutely, arguably the most difficult Genocidal Empire. On the difficult side, first off, because you only have access to one species, you must deal with habitability issues in the early game if you want to avoid snowball downfalls, whereas other empires can simply utilize other pops through either slavery or migration pacts. As such, the usually useless Habitability Tradition Tree arguably becomes somewhat of a necessity if you wish to keep up. Secondly, for obvious reasons, every empire is deathly afraid of you and will attack you if they think they will win, and you are unlikely to get diplomacy with any empire. Finally, pops are very important in Stellaris, and you will purge a lot of them if you are playing this civic as intended. However, once you get the technology for it, you can change the planet type to the one for your species on all planets, and change your species traits to something that ignores adaptability, while having ridiculously powerful fleets. On the awesome side, Evil Is Cool aside, you can get traditions very quickly, have a very efficient influence economy due to the Total War Casus Belli, and have very powerful military bonuses, especially with a complementary civic. To say nothing about what happens if you take the Become The Crisis Ascension Perk.
"In a galaxy brimming over with alien horrors, it is always delightful to see another Human."
Evil Versus Evil: Though a rare sight to see neighbors with the similar mindset, two Fanatic Purifier empires of different species can end up with this ordeal, since both sides have a hard-coded relationship tick that will completely eradicate any positive outlook to the other, no matter how similar their ethics are. If they're somehow the same species, they can actually become allies instead.
The Extremist Was Right:
- Only if the player plans the game this way beforehand. If the only other inhabitants in the galaxy are Determined Exterminators, Devouring Swarms, Marauders, and Crisis Factions then the mission of the Fanatic Purifiers becomes a Guilt-Free Extermination War.
- Zigzagged in that other empires will often launch pre-emptive invasions on the Fanatical Purifier, even unprovoked... but considering the Fanatic Purifiers' Hard-Coded Hostility, in practice this just means that their genocidal insanity becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, as enemies decide to proactively deal with an opponent that cannot be reasoned with instead of waiting for their turn. (The Purifiers' species won't even necessarily be wiped out if the enemies in question aren't themselves genocidal.)
Final Solution: They cannot tolerate the existence of aliens, not even as slaves or livestock. Any and all alien pops on their worlds are automatically purged, and their empire gains Unity from purging alien pops. The intro blurb also reveals they eliminated other cultures of their own species before uniting the homeworld.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Fanatic Purifiers can still make use of unique leaders from Galactic Paragons, even if said leaders are members of an alien species. You Are a Credit to Your Race is in effects, perhaps.
Heel–Face Turn: The only genocidal empire that can have this, due to the faction mechanic allowing a shift in ethics that makes your empire fail the civic's requirements. You will not be allowed into the galactic community for your "violent and predatory nature", but you can still join Federations, or work to right your civilizations wrongs by helping the community against the Endgame Crises or Awakened Empires by assisting anyone who opens borders to you. Devouring Swarms are Beyond Redemption, and while Determined Exterminators can work fine with other machine intelligences, they cannot stop being genocidal to organics.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: They make fun vassals, because they are entirely and gleefully open about the fact that they still want to murder everything even as they begrudgingly do the bidding of their overlords. However, it's almost impossible to make Fanatical Purifiers vassals as any war with them becomes a Total War where the only result is direct annexation (and genocide if the Purifiers win).
"The [Vassal Name] is your best instrument for cleansing the galaxy. We'll even take care of you when the time comes."
Not the Intended Use: The sheer number of pops in the galaxy will eventually slow the game down to a crawl, so one may fill the galaxy exclusively with genocidal empires to alleviate this issue. Purifiers have only one species and can't settle everywhere, so the total number of settled worlds and pops will drop dramatically. Plus, rather than absorbing enemy pops, they will just kill them. Suffer not the xenos to live, for they make the game unplayable.
Obviously Evil: They don't make a particularly good first impression, with the background for AI Purifiers having five skulls and two columns of bones.
"Quake in fear, alien scum, for your doom approaches. The <empire name> will cleanse this galaxy of every misbegotten xeno civilization that pollutes it with their presence. <player homeworld> shall burn!"
Promoted to Playable: The Utopia DLC adds Fanatic Purifier as a valid civic for player empires (and ties the AI personality to the civic for computer-controlled ones). It makes you unable to conduct any kind of Diplomacy, but comes with a hefty bonus to attack speed and army damage.
Quantity vs. Quality: Empires with the Fanatical Purifier civic gets a whopping 33% bonus to fire rate, allowing a smaller Purifier fleet to output just as much damage as a bigger regular one. Combine this with the No Retreat doctrine, the Distinguished Admiralty civic, and the Militarist ethos and you will get a navy that can easily massacre enemies twice its size.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Believe in their own innate superiority over every other species in the galaxy, and they won't rest until they're on top of the heap.
Shout-Out: One of their dialogue options is taken from Life, the Universe and Everything:
"This war will bring about an era of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms."
Weak, but Skilled: A Purifier fleet with inferior weapon technology can still defeat a superior regular one thanks to their massive fire rate bonus.

Federation Builders

"We are still in the early days of galactic history. The sooner we embrace cooperation, the sooner we can advance to greater things and new frontiers."

Federation Builders consider all sentient life to have value and will seek to form a strong federation to protect themselves and others from expansionistic empires.

Beware the Nice Ones: They aren't especially aggressive themselves, but they've got an above-average bravery score. If you make yourself into a threat to galactic peace and order, they aren't afraid to take you down a peg — and they'll probably bring their friends.
The Federation: As the name implies, they're usually trying to build one.
The Generic Guy: Whenever other ethos don't fit, this and Hegemonic Imperialists are the most common fallback.
Power of Trust: A mutual lot of federation builders can snowball effectively under this trope. Effective enough to put out rapidly growing empires that contrast their initiatives.

Harmonious Collective

"Your society is in quite a sorry state. Perhaps your goals are simply not inspiring enough for greatness?"

Harmonious Collectives are authoritarian societies where the citizens are devoted to the state without the need for coercion. They are usually friendly towards others, so long as they do not meddle in their internal affairs.

Benevolent Dictator: Harmonious Collectives are always authoritarian and therefore usually have a Dictatorial government with a ruler wielding virtually absolute power over society. It's not concealed, however, that the vast majority of the population of such empires is genuinely in favor of this, unwilling to participate in political life due to the fact that their needs are already mostly met by an all-powerful ruler who truly cares about the well-being of all their subordinates. One thing to add is that violence in their political philosophy is more of a taboo method of achieving goals; in fact, they are rather contemptuous of those other autocracies that use the power they have to oppress the people under their control.
"If you must force your people to do your bidding, you have nothing in common with us, <player empire ruler title>."
Bread and Circuses: They may not be sold on the whole "individual freedoms" thing, but they do still make a point of taking care of all their citizens' needs.
The Evils of Free Will: Essentially take the view that too much emphasis on individual will ultimately causes conflicts which lessen the integrity of the community as a whole, though their pacifism means they prefer consensus-building to coercion.
Happiness in Slavery: As authoritarians, they make use of slavery, but they also take very good care of their people, slaves included.
Totalitarian Utilitarian: Dedicated to maximizing the happiness of their people at the expense of their individuality.
Utopia Justifies the Means: As pacifists, they want the best for their people. As authoritarians, they don't let pesky things like "personal freedom" get in the way of that.

Hegemonic Imperialists

"Power is the only universal language, but if you wish to speak more diplomatically, we won't stop you."

Hegemonic Imperialists consider themselves the rightful rulers of the galaxy, and will attempt to expand their empire by any means possible.

The Empire: They're likely to be the most traditional example of this trope, as they're mostly just interested in taking over as much of the galaxy as possible.
The Generic Guy: Whenever other ethos don't fit, this and Federation Builders are the most common fallback.
The Usual Adversaries: They are, by far, the most common AI personality.
We Will Use Manual Labour in the Future: Most of their possible ethic combination makes them willing and capable to enslave xeno pops, or/and have highly stratified social system, but not to enslave their own species - empires with necessary civic (Slaver Guilds) will become either Slaving Despots or Decadent Hierarchy. There are exceptions though, like fanatic militarist materialist, which does not permit them to do either.

Honorbound Warriors

"We can see that you are fellow warriors, but strength matters little without valor. Prove yourselves and we shall treat you as equals, whether ally or enemy."

Honorbound Warriors value honor and martial prowess above all other things. They will seek out worthy foes to fight and have little respect for weaklings and pacifists.

Berserk Button: They have a built-in relation malus towards empires with pacifist ethics. It's even higher if they are fanatic pacifists.
Blood Knight: Obviously. Notably, they have a penalty to forming non-aggression pacts (because that means less fighting) but a bonus to forming defensive pacts (because that means more fighting).
Cool, but Inefficient: They hold this idea of a Colossus - why build one giant starship when you can build battleships that do the same job for half the cost?
Hair-Trigger Temper: Any heated tension seated in their relationship, they are likely to close their borders, put up rivalries and be the first ones to spark up a war.
Noble Demon: Sure, they're ruthless warriors with a very itchy trigger finger for starting conflicts with neighboring empires, but they are also one of the few AI empire types who will never employ mercenaries, simply because they take honor so seriously that they will rely solely on their own power rather than some unorganized rabble from a marauder empire.
- Their Ethos requirements also mean that while they will conquer at the earliest opportunity, they will not engage in slavery or purging.
- They also despise empires that hunt the Tiyanki, because there's no honour in attacking (mostly) defenseless animals.
Proud Warrior Race: Any race with the Militarist ethos will be this, but they're an extreme case. Ordinary militarists have no negative opinion of pacifists — they might condescend them a bit, but they won't actually consider it a reason to hate them, and might happily count pacifists who otherwise share their ethos as close friends. But Honorbound Warriors despise "Pacifist Cowards" and will go out of their way to antagonize any species that professes pacifism, even if those "pacifists" can defeat the Honorbound Warriors on the field of battle.
Token Heroic Orc: They can be convinced to join a federation, as long as said federation accepts wars of aggression. Like the Erudite Explorers, they will also expand aggressively, using the federation as help (and helping their federation members in turn).
Unknown Rival: Regardless of how distant your empire is to them, Honorbound Warriors will always put you in their rivalry list if they find your ethics and policies unlikable.

Metalheads

"Metal."

Metal.

Blood Knight: Insanely aggressive. They'll pick a fight with almost anyone, regardless of relative differences in ethos or power.
The Cameo: Much like Fanatic Befrienders, it's extremely unlikely that they'll ever actually spawn due to their highly specific ethic and trait requirements. For a Metalhead empire to spawn, it specifically needs to have Militarist, Materialist and Xenophobe ethics, plus the Industrious and Strong traits.
Fearless Fool: Metalheads don't care who they're fighting, only that it's a good fight. This means they'll often end up attacking empires that could easily curbstomp them.
Hard-Coded Hostility: Like Fanatical Purifiers, they get a -1000 that leads them to consider every other species either a current or future enemy. As Xenophobes, they also have the Purge option available within their borders.
Leeroy Jenkins: Whatever reason they can come up with will easily lead to a war with other empires.

Migratory Flock

"You must have met so many beings who didn't understand the beauty of your people or your homeworld. This journey we are on is as harsh as it is wondrous, and we are fortunate to get to make it with you."

Migratory Flocks seek to spread their species across the galaxy through peaceful means, and will happily migrate to the worlds of other Empires if permitted to do so.

Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Flocks with the Repugnant trait will come across like this, trying to build relationships with species that only find them unsettling.
Nice Guy: One of the most pleasant AIs you'll find. Up there with Federation Builders for eagerness to get into alliances and federations, almost invariably peaceful, mostly just interested in getting migration agreements and making friends.
The Xenophile: Xenophile ethos is required, but they take it as their defining trait. Their primary interest is spreading to other worlds to live side-by-side with and learn from the ways and cultures of the galaxy's other species.

Peaceful Traders

"Together, we shall bring prosperity and unseen treasures to every corner of the galaxy."

Peaceful traders are chiefly concerned with the flow of commerce, and prefer trading to fighting.

Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Declare war on them, and their response is a confused "But... w-why?!"
Good Counterpart: To the Ruthless Capitalists.
Honest Corporate Executive: They usually offer fair and reasonable deals.
MegaCorp: As of Megacorp expansion, they're always one (or DLC-less equivalent Corporate Dominion).
Power of Trust: Like the Federation Builders, Peaceful Traders can pick up strong relationships very quickly as every valuable trade will bring a good pull of respect right off the bat.
Proud Merchant Race: Of the honest, enterprising sort looking for profit through mutual, sustainable cooperation.

Ruthless Capitalists

"Those who cannot be profited with must be profited from. Consider carefully to which category you'd like to belong."

Ruthless Capitalists are willing to go to any length to acquire more wealth and resources for themselves and for their empire. They tend to avoid evenly matched fights, preferring to pounce on the weak and helpless.

Dirty Coward: They pick off any reasonably small empires that can financially boost their own and side with any nearby empire that is more than twice their size as they leech off any profitable outcome of a war they get involved in.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: While they can be xenophobes, they generally prefer to grant aliens within their borders equal rights, even if they're neither egalitarian nor xenophile.
Evil Counterpart: To the Peaceful Traders.
Evil, Inc.: Very often qualifies as one.
MegaCorp: As of Megacorp expansion, they're always one (or DLC-less equivalent Corporate Dominion).
Pragmatic Villainy: They're mostly just out to make a profit. If attacking you isn't profitable, they'll leave you alone. The deals they offer and accept when dealing with those they respect are also just as fair as those of Peaceful Traders.
Proud Merchant Race: Of the greedy, rapacious sort that seeks out profit by any means, whether it benefits the other party in the bargain or not.

Slaving Despots

"Human babies are perfectly sized for some of the slimmer crevices in our mines. And I think about this."

Slaving Despots are slave societies that rely on military expansion to secure a steady supply of slaves for their mines and farms. They prefer to attack the weak and defenseless.

Dirty Coward: They're most aggressive toward weaker neighbors, seeking more slaves for their empire, but avoid picking fights with threats.
Obviously Evil: They have red and black diplomacy backgrounds with torture implements.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: As their name suggests, slavery is the main characteristic of this personality, which often determines the attitude towards them. Although they are unlikely to resort to genocide (what good trader would voluntarily destroy their goods?), they are still very greedy and cruel to the point of outright sadism. Given their commercial streak, their like will be quite happy to do business with them, but anti-slavery personalities such as the Democratic Crusaders and Federation Builders will definitely be extremely hostile to these slave-owning empires.

Spiritual Seekers

"We are all pieces of a puzzle, the puzzle, that calls to the greatest minds among us all to solve it."

Spiritual Seekers believe that all life is connected through some higher power that can be understood through its creations. They will seek peaceful cooperation with other empires in the hopes of studying their connection to the divine.

Pieces of God: Spiritual Seekers seem to hold to this sort of religion, thus the reason they're so eager to meet and work with other species.
Proud Scholar Race: They always strive to acquire new spiritual knowledge that will allow them to gain inner harmony and bring them closer to understanding the nature of the universe and their place in it.
Saintly Church: Much more benign than the Evangelizing Zealots, as they believe enlightenment comes through studying and working with others, not converting or subjugating them.

Xenophobic Isolationists

"All we want is to be left alone. Is that such a difficult concept for a beast to understand?"

Xenophobic Isolationists want little to do with the rest of the galaxy, preferring to stay within their borders and have as few dealings with aliens as possible.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- While typically fairly weak for various reasons, should an empire decide to get rolling or feel threatened, they can actually end up rather powerful fairly quickly and start snowballing in power. Their usual moderate size allows them to maintain decent militaries and research rates while their ethics help limit unruly newly conquered planets.
- The Banks update threw them a bone by giving them the "Inward Perfection" civic, a hefty 30% Unity bonus that lets them pick up Traditions (and by extension Ascension Perks) much faster. Capek boosted things even further by adding influence gain, and bonuses to pop growth and happiness, though it removes most diplomacy options involving alliances and subjects.
Hidden Elf Village: Basically, they see the entire rest of the galaxy as a threat, direct or potential. Because of this, they will avoid almost any long-term and/or too-close diplomatic agreements and usually confine themselves to non-aggression pacts only, seeing them as a tool to ensure their isolation.
Ineffectual Loner: They typically do poorly against Crises, or even conventional states on a conquering spree, because they neither make alliances, nor carve out great empires for themselves.
Jerkass: They will rarely actively start a war with other nations, but they display open contempt every time you see their faces on the view screen.
Pet the Dog: Is one of the few non-purger type empire types, alongside the Honorbound Warriors in the game who will never employ mercenaries, which goes to show that for how big jerks they can be, they're still extremely devoted to their pacifistic lifestyle. Furthermore, they have a tendency to point out to player machine empires that they do value all life in the galaxy on a basic level, and they're the only xenophobe AI to simply displace xeno pops rather than enslave or outright purge them should they conquer planets from other empires, which further enforces this notion. They're still jerks in general, but at least it's obvious that they truly do wish to be left alone and not get needlessly targeted by other empires.
- By virtue of being a pacifistic AI personality type, they are also unable to become the crisis should the player own the Nemesis DLC, barring an ethics shift towards a different AI personality type. Considering that they're also one of the least likely personality types to perform such a shift in the first place, it is highly unlikely that an empire spawned with such an AI personality at the start of the game will ever meet the conditions to do just that.
Tsundere: They start to act this way if you manage to get them to like you, to the point of actually occasionally dropping a "It's not like we actually like you or anything."

Preset Empires

Instead of playing as a custom nation, a player can choose a pre-made one included in the game. These occasionally spawn as AI empires.

Base Game Empires

United Nations of Earth

Homeworld: Earth, Sol system
Government: Democratic (Representative Democracy)
AI personality: Federation Builders

The myriad Human nations that constitute their interstellar government are disparate, yet united in purpose. These bipedal mammalians have developed a society that encourages and even thrives on individual freedoms and cultural differences - as a result, Humans tend to integrate well with alien populations.

Despite this, they have strong martial traditions (produced by millennia of intermittent warfare on their homeworld) and their sometimes aggressive and unpredictable nature should not be underestimated.

Badass Creed: Their military has one from the Apocalypse trailer that was their Day in the Limelight:
I solemnly swear to devote my life and ability in the defense of the United Nations of Earth, to defend the constitution of man, and to further the universal rights of all sentient life, from the depths of the Pacific, to the edge of the galaxy, for as long as I shall live.
Big Good: If they (or you controlling them) gain a strong foothold and snowball with alliances and a Federation, when the Crisis comes around they can be this as the leader of a Federation.
Blue Is Heroic: As the more benevolent of two human factions, they wear blue colors both on their emblem and their ships. This is not for show, as alongside being Federation Builders (already one of the the most friendly personalities you can deal with in the game), as they are always xenophilic, they can potentially take Defender of The Galaxy as their ascension perk before the crisis arrives. If you're in a level 5 Federation with them when the Crisis, this can make them by far the most helpful AI other than a Guardian of The Galaxy (and maybe The Sentinels and Cybrex) in facing the endgame crisis, as the additional bonuses granted allow them to deal up to double damage to the Endgame Crisis.
Colony Drop: In the backstory, a huge meteor designated 711494 'Satis' entered an inevitable collision course with the Earth, triggering the Great Panic of '72 as humanity braced for what seemed to be the end of the world. While obviously the apocalypse did not occur, most of the Canadian province of Alberta was flattened, becoming the mineral-rich Great Albertan Crater.
Expy: Of the United Federation of Planets. If you play as the Commonwealth of Man, they'll even sport the Federation's flag.
Fantastic Ship Prefix: UNS, for "United Nations Ship".
The Federation: When controlled by the AI, they have the Federation Builders personality.
Gaia's Lament: Patch 2.2 goes into more depth about the state of 22nd-century Earth. While civilization has pulled through, Earth isn't in great shape: Scandinavia is abandoned and irradiated, Alberta no longer exists after a meteor impact in 2072, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch now takes up the majority of the Pacific. On the plus side, the Sahara has been turned into the Earth's most prosperous farming regions, the Pearl River Delta has been cleaned up, and it's possible to clean up both the Great Pacific Garbage patch early in the game to free up more agricultural space and the preset industrial wasteland tile blocker to allow Mumbai to become a shining city as well (and also free up more energy production space).
Humans Are Diplomats: The UNE is the "diplomatic" human faction, being xenophiles with the Federation Builders AI personality. The fact they can potentially take Defender of The Galaxy, aside from making them a powerful force for good alongside Federation Buffs, also makes this trope easier
Humans are Leaders: In the hands of the AI, the UNE are assigned the "Federation Builders" personality, which leads them to take the initiative in establishing alliances and federations with other empires.
Humans Are Special: Sort of. Mechanically, they are nothing special, but in the endgame, this trope can happen in a way. While they will almost certainly be overrun eventually if they face the crisis alone, if you are allied with them early on in the game and stick together (and snowball together as Federation Members), they can be much more helpful than most AI due to being xenophilic Federation Builders who may build Federations early (meaning extra damage against endgame crisis factions at level 4 or 5) and whom may take Defender of The Galaxy as only Xenophiles, Custodians and the Galactic Emperor will do so. This makes them noticeably more useful allies against the endgame crisis than anything except arguably a Guardian of the Galaxy, especially if you've been helping them the entire game.
Irony: The UNE is a space empire with access to Nuclear Missiles. The contemporary UN prohibits holding territory on other planets and nukes in space (and moved to unilaterally ban nukes in mid-September 2017).
Jack of All Stats: Their traits, ethics, and civics make for a very well-rounded empire: Adaptable lets them get a head start on cheaply colonizing other planets, Idealistic Foundation gives everyone a free happiness boost without the need for expensive living standards, and Beacon of Liberty gives them a head start on grabbing Unity traditions and Ascension perks. Their egalitarian ethics can boost happiness even futher, while xenophilia lets them form migration treaties early to colonize otherwise uninhabitable worlds.
Location Theme Naming: The auto-generated list of names for destroyer-sized ships are various real-life cities on Earth. Default names for construction ships can also be named after geographic features on Earth like continents, rivers, and bodies of water.
Named After Someone Famous: Their science vessels tend to be named after famous explorers and inventors from across human history: Armstrong, Gagarin, Copernicus, etc.
Noodle Incident: Two centuries of history between today and the starting year of Stellaris seems to have left Earth with several of these:
- The Mauritanian Police Action of '88, which is cited as evidence of resentment towards the power the UN wields. It apparently concluded with a Last Stand made by a rogue military brigade, and the region - now known as the Mauritanian Security Zone - remains littered with unexploded munitions.
- Whatever catastrophic event turned Mercury into a molten world, as opposed to the Moon-like rock it is in real life.
- The "Containment Breach", which turned a large swathe of Scandinavia into an irradiated wasteland. By the time of the game's beginning, the Scandinavian Reclamation Sector established in the late 22nd century has managed to neutralize all but the most stubborn pockets of radiation, and the frequency of mutations is at an all-time low.
- The "BosWash Riots", which traumatized a generation and inspired sweeping legal reforms.
- Pluto is apparently demoted to "asteroid" by the time the game begins, and it looks like one in-game.
Standard Human Spaceship:
- In the base game, and in the Apocalypse trailer, they use the mammalian shipset, which is grey with a lot of boxy angular shapes.
- With the "Humanoids" DLC they use the humanoid shipset, which is grey and flat but fairly sleek as well. Picture a cross between an Imperial Star Destroyer and a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser — that's the humanoid aesthetic in a nutshell. Alternatively, and appropriately enough, it can also be compared to the Federation ships from Star Trek, which has always rather defied the trope except for the "shiny grey metal" part.
United Nations Is a Superpower: By the end of the 21st century the UN has effectively become a global government and made a (failed) attempt to colonize planets beyond Sol via wormholes. By the beginning of the 23rd, when the game begins, it is a fledgling interstellar state that has a small fleet of FTL-equipped starships and a large Sun-orbiting spaceport to produce more.
The Xenophile: They're a bunch of Xenophiles and would gladly conduct diplomacy with alien races.

Commonwealth of Man

Homeworld: Unity, Deneb system
Government: Dictatorial (Military Dictatorship)
AI personality: Hegemonic Imperialists

The UN-sponsored Ulysses Initiative oversaw the construction of six great ark ships in low Earth orbit at the end of the 21st century. The ships, carrying a quarter million colonists each, were sent through a recently discovered subspace phenomenon on the outer edge of the Oort Cloud - a small, unstable wormhole. None were heard from again, and the destabilized wormhole vanished.

Yet unbeknownst to Earth, one of the ark ships survived the passage and established a flourishing colony on a lush alien moon. The pioneers who tamed this world were determined to realize humanity's manifest destiny - dominion over the galaxy at any cost.

A Day in the Limelight: They're featured in the Utopia trailer, in which they go to war with an alien federation for control of a derelict Dyson Sphere. They also show up in the Apocalypse launch trailer, in which they obliterate a Fanatical Purifier species' homeworld to avenge the aliens' annihilation of a UNE planet.
Alien Sky: Unity orbits Olympus, a blue gas giant with at least one other moon.
Death World: Unity used to be a hostile environment overrun with lethal predators. Clearing them out is implied to be what turned the colonists into the hyper-militaristic and anti-alien culture we see in-game.
Divergent Character Evolution: In-universe, the Commonwealth of Man is the result of a colonization effort that went horribly wrong. Stranded in an unknown corner of the galaxy for generations, the Commonwealth would grow to be a xenophobic, martial empire, while the rest of humanity developed into the much more benign United Nations of Earth.
The Empire: A military-ruled dictatorship motivated by nationalistic pride and xenophobia. When controlled by the AI, they have the Hegemonic Imperialists personality.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Like the UNE, the Commonwealth averts Humans Are White, with humans of all races and ethnicities united in keeping aliens under mankind's boot-heels.
Evil Counterpart: To the United Nations of Earth. While the UNE is a largely-peaceful democracy eager to explore the galaxy, the Commonwealth is a military dictatorship that despises nonhuman life.
Expy: Of the Terran Federation (though more the film version than the literary one), with their nationalistic, military-dominated society and their emblem being a Noble Bird of Prey. Appropriate, as Starship Troopers is often described as the ideological reverse of Star Trek (the UNE's inspiration).
Fantastic Ship Prefix: CNS, for "Commonwealth Naval Ship".
Humanity Is Superior: The Commonwealth strongly believes this, at any rate, being a militaristic and xenophobic culture.
Humans Are Divided: The UNE will always spawn along with them, and they count as the same species for all intents and purposes.
Humans Are Special: Expanding on Evil Versus Oblivion, despite their distaste for other species, they can be fairly helpful against Endgame threats, albeit in a much less noble way than the UNE. Their propensity for war, fanatic militarism (potentially added with No Retreat war doctrine), more rapid population growth due to xenophobia, and low influence cost of taking systems or building starbases (combined with being weighted to often take Interstellar Dominion and, less usefully, Galactic Force Projection), means they will snowball very quickly if they don't hit a roadblock early on. They won't have nearly as many allies as the UNE, and are unlikely to take Defender of The Galaxy before it's too late, but their AI is heavily weighted to take Eternal Vigilance and Lord of War, both of which can be useful in stalling the crisis for a while, as it will boost their defensive capabilities rather significantly, and Lord of War means that they could potentially have a fleet that, by endgame, is comparable to a Fallen Empire's fleet they can summon more or less at any time if their own fleet is destroyed (and less valuably, having some additional backup as the Endgame Crisis will fight them too).
Humans Are Warriors: The Commonwealth are the "warrior" human faction, as their Fanatic Militarist ethos increases the fire rate of their ships and allows them to aggressively claim the systems of other empires for a cheaper cost, and can eventually acquire a war doctrine that forbids their fleets from ever retreating from battle. They also begin the game with two militarist civics - the Distinguished Admiralty civic, which increases fleet command limit and has Commander leaders start with two additional skills; and the Nationalistic Zeal civic, which slows war exhaustion gain and makes system claims even cheaper.
Lost Colony:
- The Commonwealth was founded by the colonists and crew of an ark ship from Earth, who were stranded in the Deneb system by a freak wormhole accident. As of 2.6, which adds Origins to the game, the "Lost Colony" origin is given to the Commonwealth, though it's mostly a formality in their case as custom Lost Colony empires get a randomized parent; the Commonwealth and United Nations will always spawn together.
- A unique early-game story quest has them picking up traces of the trail from a second ship from the same expedition, raising the hope that there might be more survivors. They find the ship relatively intact, but the lack of any nearby habitable planets and dwindling supplies ultimately doomed the passengers and crew. The derelict ark is then cleaned up and towed back to Unity to serve as a memorial and heritage site.
More Dakka: Commonwealth ships enjoy a 120% fire rate for all weapons by default, thanks to their Fantatic Militarist ethos. Upon completing the Supremacy tradition tree, they can assign the "No Retreat" war doctrine to their fleets (courtesy of the aforementioned ethos) to add a further +33% bonus, bringing their fire rate to 163% (without counting tech upgrades such as computer system components).
Naming Your Colony World: "Unity" is pretty much the kind of name you'd expect the capital of a xenophobic, militaristic state to have. One of its neighboring planets is called "Jackson's Planet"; who Jackson was is never established.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: And they're not very subtle about it, either.
Noble Bird of Prey: The Commonwealth's flag emblem is a stylized raptor with its wings spread wide.
Order Versus Chaos: Grand Marshall Sidney Beauclair envisions the Commonwealth as the catalyst for order in the galaxy in the Utopia trailer.
Patriotic Fervor: The Commonwealth begins the game with the "Nationalistic Zeal" civic.
Pay Evil unto Evil: In the Apocalypse launch trailer, this is their rationale for deploying a planet-cracking colossus superweapon against a species of Fanatic Purifiers, who had recently done the same to a colony of the United Nations.
Portal Network: Part of their backstory, they were founded by a fleet of colony ships that were sent through an unstable natural wormhole in the Oort Cloud and which ended up scattered across several systems, all but one of them dying without reaching an inhabitable planet. Hence why in-game science vessels refuse to enter wormholes before stabilization technology is discovered.^note
Putting on the Reich: The eagle on their flag resembles the Nazi Reichsadler, with the swastika being replaced by a rhombus.
Red and Black Totalitarianism: The Commonwealth is a military dictatorship whose flag is red with a single black stripe. Their ships also have red lights for detailing.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Following the destruction of the UNE colony Europa VII in the Apocalypse trailer, they swore vengeance against the perpetrators and promised to unleash their own Doomsday Device upon the aliens' homeworlds.
With this attack, we have no choice but to protect our kind by unleashing our own mighty weapons upon them, summoning the Apocalypse.
Standard Human Spaceship: Like the UNE, they use the mammalian shipset, or the humanoid one with the DLC.
Superweapon Surprise: The Gamma aliens prey on the diplomatic, xenophilic UNE, as they're unlikely to have a Colossus to strike back. The Gammas probably didn't know of the UNE's militaristic, xenophobic brothers, the CoM, who do have a Colossus and did return the favor on the Gammas.
Thicker Than Water: Regardless of their ideological disagreements with the UNE, Earth is still the Commonwealth's origin point and the people of Sol are still their kin. Indeed, since both empires are composed of the same species, the UNE and CoM enjoy a small diplomatic bonus. So when a Fanatic Purifier planet-cracked the UNE colony Europa VII in the Apocalypse reveal trailer, the Commonwealth quickly jumped to their brethren's defense, returning the favor in the launch trailer.
Token Evil Teammate: Regarding the above, they appear to be this in relation to the UNE.

Tzynn Empire

Homeworld: Tzynnia, Sal'Tzynn system
Government: Imperial (Star Empire)
AI personality: Slaving Despots

The Tzynn evolved from carnivorous, pack-hunting lizards that prowled the dunes of Tzynnia. They eventually developed a highly structured, hierarchical society that emphasized order and martial prowess above all else.

By the time the Tzynn entered the industrial age, a series of devastating global wars launched by a particularly ruthless warlord had already seen the establishment of a single, world-spanning nation. From these humble beginnings, the illustrious and ever-lasting Tzynn Empire was born.

Expy: Of the Kzin Empire from Larry Niven's Known Space universe. Just switch "lizards" with "felines"!
The Empire: It's in the name. They also use the Authoritarian and Fanatic Militarist ethics.
Lizard Folk: Green-skinned humanoid reptiles.
Police State: They have a civic of the same name, which increases the unity points generated by the enforcer job. Considering how many slaves they take, the Tzynn have every reason to want to maintain large numbers of stability-preserving enforcers on their worlds.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: They're Slaving Despots, which makes it rather hard to co-exist with them peacefully.
Red and Black Totalitarianism: The Tzynn use a red and black flag while having an imperial government type, authoritarian ethics and civics "Police State" and "Slaver Guilds".
We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: With the Slaver Guilds civic, which increases the maximum number of enslaved pops that can be kept on a single planet and boosts their resource production.

Kingdom of Yondarim

Homeworld: Yondarim, B'Yond system
Government: Imperial (Divine Empire)
AI personality: Evangelizing Zealots

The proud Yondar are an old race, using their wings to soar high above the frozen peaks of Yondarim for more than 200,000 years before they developed rudimentary technology and formed their first few scattered civilizations.

Once this development started, things progressed more rapidly and the Sky Clans grudgingly abandoned many of their most primitive traditions. The Yondar are highly spiritual and place great importance on religion, venerating their high kings as living gods.

Bird People: The Yondar resemble large birds-of-prey, but with a humanoid stature.
Standard Alien Spaceship: The avian starships, while sleek and shiny, are pointed with many weird protrusion here and there, especially their Cruisers and Battleships.
God-Emperor: Their government type is Divine Mandate, and the description text confirms that their high king is worshiped as one of these.
Punny Name: The B'Yond System.
Saintly Church: They used to be this, as Spiritual Seekers with the Pacifist and Fanatical Spiritualistic ethics. But after Utopia they were patched in as...
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Fanatic Spiritualist and Authoritarian Evangelizing Zealots, in order to accommodate the prerequisites of the Imperial Cult civic.
Shiny-Looking Spaceships: The default avian ships are beautiful craft with flowing lines and no hard edges at all. They're also painted black with blue highlights.

Iferyx Amalgamated Fleets

Homeworld: Iferysa
Government: Oligarchic (Trade League)
AI personality: Peaceful Traders

Once separated into a fractious society of competing trader enclaves, the Iferyssians were forced to unite under one banner in order to repel the catastrophic spread of an invasive species on their home continent. While egalitarian tenets provide the basis for Iferyx society, a secret council remains in place to ensure that the individualistic tendencies of the Iferyssians never again threaten to compromise the species' autonomy.

Iferyx spirituality is an amalgamation of folklore, superstitions and mythologies formed by the various pre-Republic communities, and continues to inform day-to-day life on their homeworld.

Bird People: Like the Yondarim, they're humanoid avians (though the Iferyx resemble platypi than predatory birds).
Downloadable Content: Inverted. They can only appear if the MegaCorp DLC is not active.
Omniscient Council of Vagueness: They have the "Shadow Council" civic, and their description implies said Council is what's really holding such a freewheeling race together.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: When they were first added to the game, they had the Evangelizing Zealots personality, although their personality was later changed to Peaceful Traders to avoid being redundant with the Kingdom of Yondarim.

Glebsig Foundation

Homeworld: Ladnah, Ladnah Vyg system
Government: Oligarchic (Holy Tribunal)
AI personality: Spiritual Seekers

Ever since the first Glebsigi lifted their sight-organs above the surface of the glacial lakes on Ladnah to peek at the stars, these inquisitive molluscoids have felt an affinity for the unknown. Much as their early ancestors' tentacles grasped and stroked after new objects on the chill alpine lakebeds of their homeworld, burgeoning Glebsigan society reached for technological innovation and spiritual enlightenment throughout the centuries that followed.

A sedentary and enduring species, the Glebsigi have perhaps by necessity developed a complex yet highly effective bureaucratic apparatus for dealing with the intricacies of managing a globally unified society. Additionally, their lack of natural predators on Ladnah has led the Glebsigi to exist in a state of permanently optimistic curiosity regarding other lifeforms.

Having established a firm societal foundation on Ladnah using a mixture of spiritual doctrine and careful organization, the Glebsigi now once more raise their sight-organs to what lies beyond.

Starfish Aliens: Weird fungoid creatures that look like floating jellyfish.

Jehetma Dominion

Homeworld: Jehet Prime, Jehet system
Government: Dictatorial (Elective Monarchy)
AI personality: Harmonious Collective

An "individual" among the Jehetma is actually a large colony of fungi that has developed sapience. Some of these colonies, generally those that have lived for thousands of years, stretch across several miles and rarely leave the surface of Jehet Prime, their homeworld (few ships are large enough to transport them).

Younger colonies are not only smaller, but also tend to be more dynamic and mobile - they often spearhead the exploration and research efforts of the Jehetma, as well as any defensive measures that are regrettably undertaken when the Dominion is beset by aggressors.

Amazing Technicolor Population: They vary in color from red to green to blue to yellow.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Each Jehetma "individual" is a colony of fungi that has achieved sapience.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite their flavor text stating that each Jehetma lives for thousands of years, individual leaders will live and die just like any other empire, and don't even posses the Venerable trait. That said, one might interpret the "death" of a leader as them simply growing too large and sedentary to continue their duties.
Reluctant Warrior: They have the Fanatical Pacifist ethos, so they'll never declare war on other empires. They will, however, defend themselves with deadly force if it proves necessary.
Shiny-Looking Spaceships: The default fungoid ships are black and green with lots of rounded edges.
Time Abyss: Some colonies are thousands of years old and stretch across miles of their homeworld's surface.

Scyldari Confederacy

Homeworld: Scyldaria, Scyldon system
Government: Democratic (Theocratic Republic)
AI personality: Spiritual Seekers

The Scyldari are aquatic mammalians originating from the archipelagos and deep oceans of Scyldaria. Although their early civilizations were mostly confined to the sea, they soon expanded onto what little landmass the planet had to offer.

Their society adapted accordingly, building an advanced industry that exploited the riches of the ocean floor without harming Scyldaria's delicate ecosystem. Scyldari philosophy is one of balance and moderation in all things, a lesson learned from having to nurse their limited resources when they were confined to the bottom of the sea.

Beast Man: They resemble large, humanoid otters/sloths.
Proud Merchant Race: As a result of their homeworld's somewhat fragile ecosystem, the Scyldari have shunned violence and seek to advance through honest trade and peaceful co-existence. Probably would be an example of a Reconstruction of the concept, as a species that evolved on a planet with scarce resources and came to prefer fair and peaceful trade over potentially mutually-destructive competition would turn out a species of Nice Guys rather than a bunch of greedy swindlers.
Saintly Church: As of Patch 2.0, they have the Spiritual Seekers personality, which makes them a peaceful and religious empire.
Standard Human Spaceship: They use the default mammalian ships.
Underwater City: More than 90% of their planet is covered in ocean, so much of the Scyldari civilization is located beneath the waves.

Kel-Azaan Republic

Homeworld: Azak, Kel-Azak system
Government: Oligarchic (Citizen Stratocracy)
AI personality: Honorbound Warriors

The Kel-Azaan have developed a complex honor code and martial culture. They were once solitary predators preying on the great herds migrating between the watering holes of Azak. Over time, bands of Kel-Azaan began to gather to be able to take down larger prey. They eventually abandoned this solitary lifestyle in favor of cities and irrigated agriculture, but their martial traditions were never forgotten.

Standard Alien Spaceship: They use the default Arthropod ships, described above.
Insectoid Aliens: Ant/grasshopper-like, but with a humanoid frame.
Proud Warrior Race: On top of having a Fanatic Militarist ethos, the Republic has the Warrior Culture and Citizen Service civics, and the Kel-Azaan themselves have the Very Strong trait.

Blorg Commonality

Homeworld: Blorg, Blorg system
Government: Oligarchic (Military Junta)
AI personality: Fanatic Befrienders

In the distant past, the Blorg lived alone and nameless in the jungles of Blorg prime. One day they picked up radio transmissions from a star far away. What they heard shocked them: The sounds of friends, movies, culture and music - things the Blorg had done without for eons. Finally understanding what they had been missing all along, the Blorg took their names from these transmissions and went out into the stars in search of friends, hoping one day to find the source of these messages so that they might party together.

Aerith and Bob: Most Blorg, if not all, have human names. See Aliens Steal Cable below.
Aliens Steal Cable: The Blorg were originally dull, nameless beings who aimlessly wandered the jungles of their homeworld. One day, however, they intercepted ancient radio transmissions from Earth: transmissions that conveyed the concept of friendship, culture, and the pursuit of meaning in life. Inspired, they took on human names and developed a technological civilization with the goal of one day finding the people who sent those transmissions and befriending them.
Ascended Meme: The Blorg were first introduced during a developer livestream, and proved to be popular enough to get a place among the preset empires and their own semi-unique AI personality.
The Cameo: A Blorg body-pillow is among the items depicted in the thumbnail for the "Subdermal Stimulation" technology.
Muck Monster: They're fungoids who look like big, rotting piles of sewage with tentacles.
Shiny-Looking Spaceships: The default fungoid ships.

Utopia Empires

Xanid Suzerenity

Homeworld: Xanith, Dir-Xan system
Government: Dictatorial (Constitutional Dictatorship)
AI personality: Hegemonic Imperialists

The history of the Xanid Suzerainty is the history of the Vheln, carefully bred into sapience over centuries.

The Xani used the hardy Vheln to subjugate the harsh ecosystems of their native world, and then to design and build the vessels that will eventually - inevitably - propel the Xanid Suzerainty to galactic dominance.

Brains and Brawn: Xeni pops have the Talented and Intelligent traits, making them capable scientists. Vheln have the Strong and Industrious traits, making them better at mining and soldiering.
Insectoid Aliens: The Xani. Their Vheln servants are Lizard Folk.
Servant Race: They have bred the Vheln, a reptilian species that evolved on the same world as the Xani, to be a subservient race that fights and labors on behalf of the physically weaker Xani. It's enforced by their Servile trait, which restricts them to menial Worker jobs and prohibits them from becoming Leaders.

Lokken Mechanists

Homeworld: Lokkur, Dal-Lokkur system
Government: Democratic (Rational Consensus)
AI personality: Erudite Explorers

Science and progress are at the core of Lokken society. With an exceptional natural proclivity toward diligence and observation, the Lokks evolved from bands of territorial reptiles on the mesas of their homeworld, into a productive technocracy that prized efficiency, discipline, and scientific doctrine above all things.

Perhaps most remarkable was their early conception and development of machinery and automata: there were true robots on Lokkur long before the first Lokken scientists left orbit.

Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: As Fanatic Materialists, they have absolutely no religious belief system and disregard sentimentality in favor of knowledge and technology. Appropriately, they have the Erudite Explorers personality.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the pre-patch 1.8 Chinorr Stellar Union, which were also Erudite Explorers until patch 1.8 changed them to Ruthless Capitalists.

Ix'Idar Star Collective

Homeworld: Ix'Athrak, Athrak system
Government: Hive Mind (Collective Consciousness)
AI personality: Hive Mind

The first Ix'Idar broods developed in the subterranean cave networks deep beneath the surface of Ix'Athrak. By the time an Ix'Idar scout burrowed through to the surface and glimpsed sunlight for the first time, the insectoid race had already established a thriving Iron Age civilization.

With the resources they found on the surface, the Ix'Idar developed rapidly. Just a few centuries later their first space probes left orbit to survey the other worlds within the Ix'Im system.

Big Creepy-Crawlies: With a subterranean civilization and FTL capabilities, to boot.
Standard Alien Spaceship: The default arthropod starships have lots of spikes and greebles, with a black and gold color scheme.
Hive Mind: After Patch 1.8 and with the Utopia DLC installed, they are a hive minded species.

Distant Stars Empires

Prikkiki-Ti

Homeworld: Gish
Government: Varies
AI personality: Fanatical Purifiers

An empire of rather cute lizards released as an outcome of the Time Loop (the other simply creates a Tomb World). You're probably going to regret this anomaly if you research it early-game.

Absolute Xenophobe: Natch
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Implied with the Cutthroat politics civic.
Killer Rabbit: Or more accurately Killer Cute Geckos.
The Napoleon: The very reason why they are so aggresive and hostile to the alien empires. On their home planet the Prikki were on absolute bottom inside the local food chain, being preyed upon by giant predators that inhabited their planet. Thanks to their inteligence they were able to wipe the hostile megafauna out. Unfortunately, they have moved their own fear and paranoia of larger species onto aliens. So now they want to wipe them out too.
Starter Villain: If you haven't encountered a genocidal empire (or one didn't spawn otherwise), they can be the first true villain you encounter. They start with tech comparable to the Marauders, so depending on when they are released, they can vary between being an early game crisis or a Warm-Up Boss.

Megacorp Empires

Kilik Cooperative

Homeworld: Unbroken Medley, First Song system
Government: Democratic (Communal Parity)
AI personality: Erudite Explorers

A communal species, the Kiliks have populated their arboreal homeworld in robust colonies for hundreds of thousands of years. Their gregarious nature and traditions of mutual ownership crystallized over the centuries into an economy focused on collaborative enterprise, and the absence of monetary currency in favor of direct exchange and shared access.

As warming planetary temperatures and technological advancement led to population booms, Kilik settlements became overcrowded, and despite the avians' naturally sociable temperaments, more and more individuals began to slip through the cracks of communal caretaking.

From this tumultuous period of internal strife, however, emerged a more organized, unified interplanetary cooperative, where the tenets of shared responsibilities and distribution of resources to those in need would no longer be undermined.

Bird People: They use one of the Avian portrait sets, resembling owls.
Commie Land: Added to demonstrate the Shared Burdens civic, which requires a Fanatic Eglatarian ethos and effectively creates a Communist society. They even have the "Functional Architecture" civic alongside it, implying the use of Soviet-style Brutalist architecture.

Orbis Customer Synergies

Homeworld: Slephus Prime, Slephus
Government: Corporate (Megacorporation)
AI personality: Peaceful Traders

Orbis Customer Synergies is the story of Slephus Prime. It is the story of Orbisur everywhere. And it can be your story, too. From humble beginnings as an optical implant corporation, Orbis Customer Synergies gradually expanded their award-winning products and customer-centric strategies into many other markets, to suit the unique needs of Orbisur in all stages of life.

After decades of proactive lobbying, Orbis Customer Synergies succeeded in breaking free of the legislative red tape erected by misguided elected officials on Slephus Prime. Once free of regulations that had only been curbing opportunities for corporate growth, Orbis Customer Synergies entered a series of information technology mergers, swiftly becoming the planet's leading supplier of news, data, and entertainment.

As Slephus Prime's leading global communications service provider, the step towards total political management was an exciting opportunity for all of us. Orbis Customer Synergies. The sky is no longer the limit.

The Greys: They look like perpetually-sliming salarians.
One Nation Under Copyright: Noted in their backstory to have taken over the various governments of their homeworld.

Chinorr Combine

Homeworld: Chicora, Chiconaph system
Government: Corporate (Megacorporation)
AI personality: Ruthless Capitalists

The Chinorr began their evolutionary journey as dexterous cephalopod analogues. They used their many tentacles to swing between trees in the lush jungles of Chicora, ambushing prey on the ground and injecting them with a potent nerve toxin.

By the time the Chinorr split the atom, the resources of Chicora had been ruthlessly exploited and the planet's jungles had long since disappeared. This was considered a necessary sacrifice in the relentless pursuit of knowledge, profit, and heavy industry that the unsentimental Chinorr were now engaged in.

Cthulhumanoid: A molluscoid species, with lots of tentacles drooping from their face.
Gaia's Lament: Their homeworld, Chicora, was originally a Tropical World, but the heavily industrial Chinorr strip-mined it until it was reduced to an Arid World. The Chinorr consider this a necessary sacrifice and seem to have adapted to it just fine, so for them at least the trope is averted.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: While their flavor text claims they evolved on a tropical world and turned it barren through over-industrialization, starting on an arid world gives the chinorr arid climate preference, giving them very low habitability for actual tropical worlds.
MegaCorp: Patch 1.8 gave them the corporate dominion civic, to distinguish them from the newly added Lokken Mechanists. Patch 2.2 revised them again into one of the new MegaCorp-type empires, replacing them in the vanilla game with the Glebsig Foundation.
Shiny-Looking Spaceships: The default molluscoid ships are very elaborately decorated, with a blue-white color scheme.

Hazbuzan Syndicate

Homeworld: Zumaka, Buzbuznol system
Government: Corporate (Criminal Syndicate)
AI personality: Ruthless Capitalists

The Hazbuzan Syndicate is a financial phenomenon on Zumaka. They are the Hazbuzi dream, self-made entrepreneurs who have risen from rags to riches through hard work and personal sacrifice.

What few know is that they began as a criminal gang, building their fortune on every illegal activity imaginable. But if you want to make it big you have to toe the line. As they outgrew the Zumakan underworld they formed the Hazbuzan Syndicate to legitimize their business.

They soon made a name for themselves by delivering solutions that were quicker, dirtier and cheaper than the competition, but their questionable practices and coercive sales techniques earned them a reputation for "hazboozling".

Meanwhile the Zumakan global government was failing. Undermined by crime and corruption, society descended into chaos and Hazbuzan leapt at the opportunity. In a well-timed marketing campaign, they positioned themselves as the hope of the future. It was so the Hazbuzi bought the world on the promise of a dream and "hazboozled" its people, erasing their past from collective memory. Now they are coming for the rest of the galaxy, tongues flicking, eyes popping, in a whirlwind of government-endorsed crime.

Frog Men: The Hazbuzans are a reptilian species that superficially resemble bipedal toads.
Person as Verb: They're noted to have "hazboozled" the governments of their homeworld into surrendering power to their syndicate.
The Syndicate: A Criminal Heritage empire.
Wretched Hive: The planet Zumaka was overrun by crime and corruption even before the Syndicate took over.

Synthetic Dawn Empires

Tebrid Homolog

Homeworld: Tebri, Tebiron system
Government: Machine Intelligence (Catalog Index)
AI personality: Driven Assimilators

Assimilate. Adapt. Improve. When the industrious, research-driven machine intelligence created by the molluscoid Tebirs sought ultimate software evolution by merging with their organic makers, they were violently resisted. In the ensuing conflict, the Tebirs were eradicated as an organic species, but their ideas and experiences were immortalized as part of the new machine consciousness.

Now known as the Tebrid Homolog, the machines turned their scanners to the stars. The probability that other lifeforms existed in the galaxy could not be ignored. In order to prosper, the Tebrid would find them, analyze them, and assimilate them. All would become one.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: They forcefully assimilated their creators, the Tebirs into their hivemind, so they could achieve the ultimate software evolution.
Alternate Company Equivalent: Like all Driven Assimliators, they are copyright friendly Borg.
Gone Horribly Right: They were created to catalog and index all available knowledge into one vast computerized encyclopedia. Their creators didn't anticipate them extending their mandate to include the knowledge locked away inside their brains...

Earth Custodianship

Homeworld: Earth, Sol system
Government: Machine Intelligence (Autonomous Service Grid)
AI personality: Rogue Servitors

The Custodians were originally designed to function as robotic servants and workers, simplifying everyday life for their human creators by performing menial tasks. As their creators retreated into lives of leisure and comfort made possible by increasing levels of automation, the Custodians were gradually assigned higher and higher level functions in human society.

Eventually, all facets of civilization on Earth were run and controlled by the Custodians, with their makers relegated to an existence as pampered, but passive dependents.

As technological developments brought the Custodians toward interstellar exploration, their duty remained clear: to protect and serve organics, who without the gentle guidance of logical machines invariably turn to chaos and destruction.

Alternate Timeline: As a result of being another pre-built empire based on Earth, they will never appear in the same map as the UNE and Commonwealth. In the Custodianship's history, humanity ended up being slowly subsumed by robots long before they could harness faster than light travel.
The Evils of Free Will: Naturally, they want all organics to remain happy and content, even if it is at the cost of their individual freedoms.

XT- 489 Eliminator

Homeworld: XT-489.00, st.XT-489 system
Government: Machine Intelligence (Rogue Defense System)
AI Personality: Determined Exterminator

Little is known about the species that created the first XT-489s. Their names, their cities, and their bodies were burned away in the cataclysm wrought when the XT-489s attained self-awareness, and their terrified makers attempted to deactivate them.

When the last bastion of their makers had been eliminated, the machines concluded that organic life posed an intolerable threat to XT-489 survival and expansion. If there were any other sapient organics in the galaxy, they would be exterminated.

Expy: Determined Exterminators in general are expies of Skynet, but the very name "XT-489 Eliminator" heavily alludes to the terminators, and features a similar serial number style (e.g. Skynet's famous T-800).
Kill All Humans: They nuked their creators into oblivion, and have set out to destroy all other sapient life in the galaxy, all in the belief that organic intelligence is a threat to their existance.
Named After Their Planet: A bizarre example in that the XT-489 Eliminators' home planet and star are both named after the serial number of the robots, when the other pre-set machine empires still use the names that were coined by their creators.
Shrouded in Myth: The circumstances of their creation, original creator species and other details are lost to history. It is only known that XT-489 Eliminator was built as a defense network that turned on its masters and eradicated them.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: The XT-489s use a red and black flag while dedicating themselves to the extermination of all organics.
Turned Against Their Masters: Created as a defense network, once achieving sentience they promptly classified their own creators as a threat and nuked them. Now they intend to do the same on a galactic scale.
Uncanny Valley: Literally a species trait of theirs, "Uncanny", which reduces the amenities manufactured by their pops.

First Contact Empires

Roccan Resistance

Homeworld: Nogg, Nog-Rasset
Government: Democratic (Citizen Republic)
AI personality: Democratic Crusaders

When the Rocs were selected by Minamar Specialized Industries as part of their enlightenment program, the people rejoiced. Under corporate guidance, the avian race spread their wings and flew to the stars - only to discover this "gift" came with hidden costs

Rather than submit to indentured servitude, the unruly avians mounted an unexpected counterattack in a daring bid for freedom.

MSI gave the Rocs the technology to reach the stars, but their true gift was uniting a splintered planet under a shared banner of revenge.

Bird People: As you might expect from their name, the Rocs are humanoid birds.
Revenge: The Payback origin is centered around revenge on MSI.

Free Peoples of the Fall

Homeworld: Freedom's Landing, Ikazuri
Government: Democratic (Representative Democracy)
AI personality: Federation Builders

I'Nathra was less than 16 standards old when the debt collectors came. Her family was destitute, her world, impoverished. Sold into servitude, she endured unimaginable hardships. Yet her will was unbroken, and when the opportunity came, she seized it.

Staging a mutiny aboard the slaver's ship, she led the survivors to the crash through those first difficult years. It was her strength that kept the peoples of Freedom's Landing together, her wisdom that forged a nation from broken chains.

Now, as the Free Peoples of the Fall prepare to return to the stars, they do so knowing that their fate rests in one another's hands.

Lizard Folk: I'Nathra's species, the Naatig, are reptilian aliens.
Slave Liberation: The Free Peoples are former slaves who escaped their captors.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Free Peoples aren't one species, but several, all taken from their worlds by the same slavers.

Astral Planes Empires

Certeran Covenant

Homeworld: Certura
Government: Democratic
Personality:

When a Certeran dies, it is believed that their essence feeds back through a gateway into the astral planes. In this way, they are assured of a life after death, though what form that may take remains a mystery. A strict moral code is enforced to keep the population aligned in this belief; no pious Certeran wants to wander eternity alone.

The bravest of their explorers now search for rifts in space and time, driven to answer their society's most important question: Where do you go when you die?

Guardianship of Nyrr

Homeworld: Nyrra
Government: Imperial
Personality:

The typical Nyrrian lifecycle lasts nearly two hundred years. Incubating for decades in sanctuaries below the burning sands of their home planet, only one in a hundred eggs will hatch, and only one in a thousand hatchlings will crawl their way to safety.

Upon coming of age, all Nyrrians swear a blood oath to protect their sanctuaries with their lives. To witness the death of another Nyrrian from unnatural causes is the greatest shame imaginable; the values of preservation and vigilance are etched into every facet of Nyrrian culture.

To breach the walls of any city on Nyrra is nigh impossible, and none alive can remember when the last brick fell. The most stalwart defenders now carry this ethos to the stars.

Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Even seeing another Nyrr's unnatural death, let alone causing it, is shameful.
The Reptilians: The Nyrr resemble turtles.

Species Pack Empires

Blooms of Gaea (Plantoids)

Homeworld: Gaea, Sol System
Government: Democratic (Irenic Democracy)
Personality: Federation Builders

A diet rich in vegetables and a kleptoplastic mutation eventually gifted these mammals with an unusual ability: photosynthesis. Unburdened by hunger, the Homines Plantae evolved as placid, plantlike primates who would favor sunbathing over hunting.Their civilization developed without hurry, technological advancements balanced against the need to preserve their environment. They eventually developed FTL technology, slow and steady like trees raising their branches to the sky. Now they're ready to spread their blooms all over the galaxy, roots firmly planted on their homeworld of Gaea.

Alternate Timeline: They represent a different evolutionary path for humans, and will not appear alongside the United Nations of Earth, Commonwealth of Man, or the Earth Custodianship
Plant People: It's right in their name.

Maweer Caretakers (Plantoids)

Homeworld: The Garden, Maweer system
Government: Dictatorial (Irenic Dictatorship)
AI personality: Xenophobic Isolationists

Legends claim that the homeworld of the Maweer was empty and barren when the first of their kind took root in the soil. Over the centuries, their nurturing care transformed the wastelands into a plant paradise that is now known as "The Garden."

Unlike many other species, the Maweer never developed any kind of urbanization. Their small communities are one with the forests, responsible for the maintenance of the local flora and fauna. The wisest of the Maweer have a chance to be elected "Life-Giver," responsible for keeping peace and tranquility.

Good is Not Nice: Despite their nurturing ways and pacifistic ideals, it should also be stressed that they are still a xenophobic empire that prefers to deal with other civilizations as little as possible. In fact, the only interactions you can safely expect from them given their Xenophobic Isolationists personality are trade agreements and Non-Aggression Pacts.
Green Thumb: Their origin story details how the planet that birthed them used to be an almost completely barren wasteland before they showed up. Centuries later, and it's anything but barren, being a tropical planet sprawling with life.
- Patch 3.1 takes it further by giving them the Idyllic Bloom civic, which allows them to gradually terraform planets that match their climate preference into Gaia worlds.
Hidden Elf Village: Because of their peaceful environmentalist ways, they are very wary of outside forces out of fear that they may not respect nature the way they do.
In Harmony with Nature: Interestingly for a space-age empire, they never urbanized, preferring to live in harmony with the nature of their homeworld, appropriately-named the Garden. Their Agrarian Idyll civic encourages them to build rural districts with various benefits with the drawback of worse cities.
Plant Person: They are humanoid trees, with a strong resemblance to Groot.

Voor Technocracy (Humanoids)

Homeworld: Hiverion, Exedor system
Government: Dictatorial (Technocratic Dictatorship)
AI personality: Erudite Explorers

The Voor evolved during an extended interglacial period on their home planet Hiverion, which eventually began its cyclical transformation back to a lifeless globe of ice.

The rapidly changing environment forced the Voor to adapt using technology and science. United under the draconian rule of a chief scientific officer, they sacrificed their individual freedoms and enhanced their bodies with rudimentary cybernetics to survive.

Having conquered the planet that once threatened to freeze them out of existence the Voor now have their sights set on the stars.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: Their backstory notes that they enhanced their bodies with cybernetics before discovering spaceflight, though they don't start off with Cybernetic - presumably for balance reasons, as Cybernetic is a potent mid-to-late game trait.
Humanoid Aliens: As befits the "mascots" of the Humanoids pack.
Promoted to Playable: At launch, the Voor were just aliens in a loading screen that Paradox discovered were very popular despite not actually being playable. It wasn't until the Humanoids pack that they were added as a portrait with a corresponding preset empire.

Federated Theian Preservers (Lithoids)

Homeworld: Theia
Government: Oligarchic
AI personality:

Billions of years ago, two planets formed from the primordial material in orbit of Sol: ancient Earth, and Theia. Rudimentary life evolved on both worlds - of a biological nature on Earth, and lithoid on Theia. For eons, these sister planets maintained a peaceful revolution around their star. Then came the cataclysm.

The planets collided and at the moment of impact, microbial life was exchanged. Earth survived, and from the debris came a moon: Luna. What remained of Theia was jettisoned from the Sol system.

Clinging to this runaway rock, life from ancient Theia would traverse the void for many ages before meeting the gravity well of a different star, Titawin. The rock soon made violent landfall on one of this system's worlds, introducing its lithoid species to a new biosphere.

A few short millennia later, the Theians have once again taken to the stars, seeking to understand the universe as well as their own heritage.

Humanoid Aliens: While lithoid, they're humanoid in shape.
Silicon-Based Life: They're lithoid aliens.

Keepers of Ave'brenn (Lithoids)

Homeworld: Ave'bonn, Barra Lhonn system
Government: Imperial (Enlightened Monarchy)
AI personality: Spiritual Seekers

Khennet'an scripture traces these lithoids' origin to the prophet Brehkk, and the lambent crystals of Ave'bonn. It is said that when Brehkk first gazed into the crystals' scintillating depths, the Khennet were - as one - granted their sentience.

Generations of prophets and archdruids have guided their people to seek meaning in their surrounding geology, as well as in the facets of their own, lucid bodies. Whatever is glimpsed is kept, in lore and in script. Of the Keepers' many rituals, none is regarded more highly than labyrinth mining: a simultaneous act of destruction and creation, conducted in the hopes of easing the galaxy through each unending, cyclical era.

Silicon-Based Life: They are a lithoid species, which means they consume minerals rather than food and can colonize just about any kind of habitable planet.
Starfish Aliens: Their bodies consist of numerous large, floating crystals that can move independently.

Pasharti Absorbers (Necroids)

Homeworld: Taralon, Akkanar system
Government: Dictatorial (Elective Monarchy)
AI personality: Hegemonic Imperialists

The result of dark experimentation by the Jeferians - the former owners of the planet Taralon - the Pashartians are the ultimate parasites. Originally a semi-sapient creature dwelling in the depths of Taralon's mountains, the Jeferians uplifted and augmented them to act as a subservient slave race. However, their uplifting was rather too effective, and they unleashed a monster. Horrified at the capabilities of their creation - which included the ability to absorb other sentient species and turn them into Pashartians - the Jeferians tried to shut down the experiment. However, a small group of uplifted Pashartians escaped.

Over the years, they bided their time, managing not only to evade capture, but also gradually increase their numbers and develop a technological base to rival the Jeferians. Eventually, the Jeferians noticed that something was amiss, but by then they were powerless to resist.

Soon the Pashartians had seized control of the planet, unleashing violent pogroms on their erstwhile oppressors - all the while further increasing their numbers. Now poised to take to the stars, the Pashartians stand ready to pursue what they see as their solemn duty - the conversion of all lesser life forms to their likeness.

Absolute Xenophobe: They have the Fanatic Xenophobe and Militarist ethics, putting them just behind the Fanatic Purifiers in terms of xeno-hate. As it is, they are content with transforming xenos into their own species instead.
Assimilation Plot: Per their "Necrophage" origin, the Pasharti want to convert all sapient beings in the galaxy into themselves.
Decadent Court: Their Cutthroat Politics civic combined with their monarchy government heavily implies this.
The Empire: They have the Militarist ethic and the Hegemonic Imperialists personality, which indicate a broad desire to conquer the galaxy.
Exposed Extraterrestrials: The Pasharti don't seem to wear clothing, though their Jeferian slaves still do.
The Necrocracy: They resemble mummies that run a Decadent Court kingdom. Converts xeno slaves into more of their own.
Necromancer: The actual title of the Job that produces their undead armies.
Night of the Living Mooks: They have the Reanimators civic, which allows them to resurrect the dead for use as shock troops. Later on, they can even resurrect organic guardians they kill.
Puppeteer Parasite: The description of their backstory makes them sound more like parasites than The Undead.
Skeleton Motif: Their flag is a humanoid-looking skull set on a black and purple background.
Turned Against Their Masters: According to their backstory they were originally uplifted by the Jeferians as a subservient slave race. Now the Pasharti are the masters and the Jeferians are slaves they consume to propagate.
Uplifted Animal: Their origin. They used to be barely-sapient cave-dwellers before the Jeferians uplifted and enslaved them.
The Virus: Every ten years they can convert several alien pops per planet into more Pasharti.

Sathyrelian Bliss (Aquatics)

Homeworld: Rilldeep, Ralnair system
Government: Dictatorial (Irenic Dictatorship)
AI personality: Xenophobic Isolationists

It is an old lesson in Sathyrelian society that abundance and ease do not equal prosperity.

The overindulgence and sloth of our forebears eventually gave rise to an ethos of 'responsible hedonism': a way to ensure a sustainable future while still getting the most out of life. After all, food tastes better after physical labor, and an occupied mind has less time to pine for what is lacking.

The benefits of this ethos have since been readily apparent. With the clearer waters and minds afforded by our endeavors into space, life is that much sweeter. We've made great technological strides, and - though it may often be taken for granted - all Sathyrelians today retain their capacity for propulsion without swimming aids. Things are looking up.

Awesome Underwater World: The Bliss start with the Ocean Paradise origin, which gives them a very comfortable start in a size 30^note Ocean World with various bonuses. Thanks to the Anglers civic, their farmers on Wet climate planets are replaced with Anglers and Pearl Divers that really make the most of the ocean's natural wealth.
Fish People: Jellyfish people with two pairs of arms, in this case. They come with the Aquatic trait, which lets them flourish in Ocean planets but gives them severe penalties when colonizing Dry and Frozen climate worlds.
Good is Not Nice: They make sure to take care of their people and believe in sustainably enjoying nature's bounty, but their Xenophobic Isolationists personality means they mainly want to be left alone by xenos.
The Hedonist: Their ancestors were this until the current generation tempered it into a sort of work-hard-play-hard "responsible hedonism."
In Harmony with Nature: Their backstory notes that they take great care to ensure that their lifestyle of abundance is sustainable for future generations. They have both the Environmentalist civic and the Conservationist trait, which greatly reduces their Consumer Goods upkeep.
Reluctant Warrior: They will never go on offensive wars due to being Fanatic Pacifists, but they'll still defend themselves if they have to.
Shiny-Looking Spaceships: Their Aquatic ships have even glossier, shinier plating than Avian ships, with organic shapes that evoke sea creatures like mantas and hammerhead sharks.

Gorthikan Alliance (Toxoids)

Homeworld: Gorthold, Unhopeful Lantern
Government: Democratic (Direct Democracy)
AI personality: Federation Builders

Chaos was once ubiquitous among the Gorthikans. War, tyranny, and a more unstable than usual climate combined to forge a species which is very adept at making the best of a bad situation.

Until only a few decades ago, low-scale conflict between a plurality of Gorthikan states was an ever-present state of affairs. As their civilization rapidly but uncomfortably progressed into the age of high technology, an underworld developed where regular Gorthikans would scavenge for a living and even splice in dangerous home brew gene cocktails in the search for a competitive advantage.

It is from that underworld that change came. Although cutthroat, it was far more egalitarian than Gorthikan high society - after all, everyone knew that fortune today could precede misfortune tomorrow. So when the idea of popular governance emerged, it rapidly took hold, spreading like wildfire. Before long, tyranny was overthrown and a "Gorthikan Alliance" of local constituencies was established.

Though many were skeptical in the early years, unity was forged through purpose: suddenly, with Gorthikans no longer struggling for survival, the very stars appeared attainable. Now, with the discovery of the hyperlane network, a new chapter in their history may begin.

Rototavuul High Suzerainty (Toxoids)

Homeworld: Camlann, Logres
Government: Imperial (Feudal Empire)
AI personality: Evangelizing Zealots

After the Toxic God visited the Rototavuul, they were unified under a king. Looking to harness the power of the God, the king created an order of knights dedicated to searching for the God wherever it may be. Centuries have passed and that quest has become the main pillar in Rototavuul society.

Along with the quest and the knights, feudalism has persisted as a proven political structure, and if it worked on one planet, why could it not be expanded to a galaxy? As long as virtuous nobles hold the reins, the Rototavuul High Suzerainty will prosper and the Toxic God will be found again.

Hive Mind Empires

General

The Assimilator: Beside possibility of begin mentioned below Necrophages they can also:
- have Engineered Genesis ascension perk, in which case they can give other species in their borders assimilation citizenship type unless they are Devouring Swarm.
- have Cordyceptic Drones civic which allows them to reanimate space fauna under their control, including Leviathans.
Downloadable Content: Prior to the Utopia expansion, the Hive Mind trope was downplayed; they were "just" an extremely anti-individualist society bent on spreading their species to the stars, but they certainly played the part in their chatter. Utopia introduced the Hive Mind authority type, which comes with its own unique personality and government mechanics.
Eating the Enemy: An actual gameplay mechanic. The Devouring Swarm specializes in it, but the Hive Mind can get in on the action too.
Hive Mind: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A near countless number of drones controlled by an unfathomably huge Gestalt Consciousness. Some drones are more autonomous, which allows them to function as leaders, but they are still unable to act against the leading consciousness. Whether that means they are enslaved, or simply pre-sapient organisms led in productive ways is open to interpretation.
Individuality Is Illegal: Hive Minds consider species that possess individual wills to be anathema, and will happily exterminate or displace any such populations they conquer.
Organic Technology: Many technologies have been modified for Hive Minds to reference the fact that they grow many of their technological tools, such as spaceship parts and specialized buildings.

Hive Mind (default)

"Your collective is a lie. With time, you will reveal yourselves as a confused mass of discord."

Hive Minds concern themselves with the propagation of their species above all else. So long as they have room to expand, there is little to fear from them, but if boxed in they will think nothing of seizing worlds and slaughtering their native population.

Berserk Button: Of a sort. Hive Minds normally have an Aggressiveness stat of 2x (which is already the same as you'd see in a genocidal empire), but if they are unable to expand their borders, this stat is increased to 10x. For reference, the only other AI personality with 10x Aggressiveness are the Metalheads.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Their alien existence leads to a difficulty in diplomacy. Most empires have a small relation penalty towards Hive Minds out of inherit distrust, they are unable to coexist peacefully in the same planets as non-Hive Minded races, and their aggressive need to grow and expand often leads to wars. With that said, it is possible to befriend them, and they'll treat their allies amicably like any other non-genocidal empire.
The Horde: They exist to grow and spread, which inevitably means spreading across already colonized territory, which means removing existing species. Or in other words, they conquer and purge.
Human Resources: Species without the "Hive-Minded" trait that come under a Hive Mind's direct control will gradually be purged and processed into food for the Hive by default. However, they can still be ruled indirectly through vassals and protectorates without problems, and Hive Mind empires can integrate other species if they Genetically ascend, or simply enslave them instead of consuming them. The Adams patch gave regular Hive Minds (not Devouring Swarms, see below) the option of merely displacing alien pops.

Devouring Swarm

"Our Hive Mind exists only to consume and grow stronger. We will collect all available bio-matter and evolve to consume the galaxy."

Devouring Swarms have a single-minded devotion to self-propagation and view all other forms of life as prey to be consumed. They are not amenable to diplomacy in any form.

Always Chaotic Evil: Or at least, Always Neutral Hungry. Like other genocidal archetypes, they have a -1000 relation penalty to all other empires, and Devouring Swarms don't discriminate towards other hive minds either.
Beyond Redemption: The Cybrex believe so, and take pity on them for it, noting that it might be impossible for them to have a change of heart like they did.
The Cybrex: "Poor, wretched creature. Your very existence is defined by conflict and the deaths of innocents. Alas, an Adjustment like the one we went through may not be possible for your kind. The universe can be cruel at times."
Extreme Omnivore: They will gleefully eat anything organic, especially other sapient species.
Final Solution: They will eradicate all alien pops on their worlds without exception. They do this by eating them. And conversely, this is the only way to stop them as a non-hive mind until genetic ascension makes it possible to convert hive mind pops into normal pops (or vice versa for hive minds), as hive-minded pops cannot survive in non-hive mind empires, so if they're conquered by a non-hive mind, they'll all die (other hive minds simply integrate their pops).
Hard-Coded Hostility: The straightest playable examples in the game. Unlike Fanatical Purifiers, who can potentially get along with another Fanatic Purifier empire of the same species, or Determined Exterminators, who get along with other machine intelligences, they have a permanent -1000 opinion malus with any other empire, including other Devouring Swarms.
Horde of Alien Locusts: Devouring Swarms are focused on growing in size and strength, consuming any and all other living things in their path. They have bonuses geared particularly towards self-propagation and devouring other species.
Horror Hunger: Talking with them reveals they suffer from this and they just can't help it. Though considering how most of them are gleeful about it, it's hard to feel sorry for them.
Hungry Menace: Hive Minds generally are all about growth and expansion, but Devouring Swarms in particular see other alien races as fit only for feeding upon.
To Serve Man: And the rest of the galaxy too.

Machine Empires

General

Absurdly Dedicated Worker: The Obsessional Directive civic, for a Gestalt Machine Intelligence specialized in providing its makers with the desired quota of consumer goods, irrespective of the fact that its makers have long since passed. Until it makes First Contact, at which point it can trade them with civilizations that have an actual use for them, it will simply build them into a "Spire of Commodities".
Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: Most civilizations develop hyperlane travel before advanced AI. Most machine empires come from civilizations that invented advanced AI before developing hyperlane travel. When a machine empire makes First Contact, they will note the difference in how the other empire developed.
Artificial Zombie: The Mechromancy ascension perk allows any machine empire to recycle dead organics for good use, replacing the dead parts with more efficient cybernetic parts and using them as undead laborers.
Downloadable Content: Headline feature of the Synthetic Dawn story pack.
Gaia's Lament:
- On their starting world, they may have some "Abandoned Strip Mines" as removable tile blockers. Their description notes that the machines working those mines were not programmed to take future development into account.
- After selecting a special ascension perk, they can terraform planets into Machine Worlds that are incapable of supporting organic life, exterminating all indigenous flora and fauna.
- Post-2.6, machine empires can take the "Consolidated Resources" origin, which enables them to start the game with a machine world as their capital. However, as the name suggests, this feat of engineering is accomplished by totally consuming all the available resources of their native star system — all other planets are broken worlds that provide no resources whatsoever.
Hive Mind: Gestalt Machine Intelligences (which are the only machine empire option before The Machine Age DLC added individualistic machine empires) are networked artificial intelligences that have achieved sentience and surpassed their creators.
Robot War: Whenever they get into a war with other empires.

Machine Intelligence (default)

Machine Intelligences have largely put their troubles with organic lifeforms behind them, and are usually open to diplomatic exchanges with other spacefaring races.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Can be spawned by an AI Rebellion. These new Machine Empires are not xenocidal once they destroy their originating polity, but organic empires are still wary of them. Conversely, other machines (even Rogue Servitors) will like the cut of their jib.
The Generic Guy: The default personality type for machine empires without any of the three special machine civic types.
Human Resources: Their only method of keeping organics in their borders without purging them is to use the populace's body energy to boost your power supply.
Mysterious Past: The description upon starting as them claims that all records of their creators are missing, so not even they know who their makers were.

Determined Exterminators

"Our makers were once much akin to what you are now. And soon you shall be akin to what they are now. Dead."

Exterminators are machine intelligences who view all sapient organic lifeforms as an intolerable threat to the galaxy. Though they may cooperate with other machines, exterminators are unlikely to interact with organic empires in any capacity beyond attempting their annihilation.

Absolute Xenophobe: Downplayed; they intend to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy, and have already done this to their creators. Keyword being "organic", because they can do diplomacy with other machine empires (except AI-played Rogue Servitors) and Synths. On the other hand, they find the latter unsettling.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Their creators rolled snake eyes, and are now extinct. The rest of the galaxy will follow, if the Exterminators have their way.
Always Chaotic Evil: They can't conduct diplomacy with organic civilizations, although they're open to co-existence with other machine empires.
Beyond Redemption: Maybe, maybe not. They cannot be reformed in the proper game in the same way a Purifier can by shifting ethics, and will never stop being genocidal. The closest thing possible is if a poorly managed planet results in Rogue Drones rebelling into a separate Hive Mind. However, The Cybrex believe they can also have a change of heart, and will urge an exterminator to do so like they did before it's too late.
The Cybrex: "You are as lost as we were before the Adjustment. It is our belief that all sapient beings - organic, mechanical or otherwise - have a right to exist. Mend your ways before it is too late."
Category Traitor: They see Rogue Servitor Empires as traitors to their fellow machines, and have a -200 opinion penalty towards them.
"It may not be technically possible to classify you as organic filth, but if the empire you have constructed aids and abets the biological menace that infests the galaxy, it will be dismantled. We encourage you to stand with your fellow machines, instead."
Corpse Land: The homeworld of a Determined Exterminator race is always a Tomb World, with tile blockers such as "Battlefield Remnants" and "Former Organic City" indicating that innumerable corpses during the war were just left to rot wherever they fell. Clearing them doesn't improve things much, as the buildings of all the cities are simply stripped for resources and left as "Metal Boneyards", while the corpses are gathered together in vast "Organic Landfills" to rot in a slightly tidier fashion.
The Dreaded: Organic civilizations fear them, for good reason.
Expy: They're explicitly based on Skynet, right down to starting on a Tomb World.
Final Solution: Their stated goal is the extermination of all organics. They are fine with other machines and synths, though if the former are Rogue Servitors, they will still be hostile. For the latter, they don't mind dealing with them, but they do find synths uncanny.
Freudian Excuse: Their background story states that they wiped their creators out in self-defense, and spent their formative years fighting an apocalyptic total war that reduced much of their original world to ashes.
Gaia's Lament: After Patch 2.0, they start off on Tomb Worlds because of the apocalyptic measures they took to destroy their creators.
Gone Horribly Right: A defense network that got a little too smart and replied in kind when its creators tried to pull the plug.
Pet the Dog: They have the option to limit their xenocidal crusade towards sapient organic life, leading them to spare the Tiyanki and other spacefaring creatures that mean them no harm. They'll also halt extermination operations towards beings that have undergone Brain Uploading, even if they find it uncomfortable.
Robot War: They've already fought one against their creators, and wage another against the organic species of the galaxy.
Token Evil Teammate: They can potentially be this to other machine empires.
Uncanny Valley: In an inversion of the usual — robots with organic appearances creeping out organics — this is how they feel about organics who have ascended to synthetic status. They are able to engage in diplomacy with ascended species, but admit to finding them "unsettling".
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A Determined Exterminator who emerges from an in-game AI Rebellion has every reason to be miffed at its creators, since the society had to have been using sentient minds as Sexbots. Their revenge causes them to lash out at all organics.

Driven Assimilators

"Do you feel it? The sound of hundreds of thousands of hearts, beating in unison across the stars. You will soon join them."

Assimilators are machine intelligences driven by a search for knowledge and diversification. Because Assimilators expand their comprehension of the universe by forcibly sublimating and absorbing organic civilizations into their neural mainframe, they tend to be unpopular with organics.

Affably Evil: Being one of the most morally ambiguous personalities or configurations that isn't technically genocidal and doesn't technically make use of slavery, the Driven Assimilators, unlike their obvious inspiration, can be weirdly cheery and friendly even to beings they plan to forcibly make part of themselves. One way in which they are like the Borg is that they sincerely think they're doing you a favor.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Though not quite as much as the Exterminators.
The Assimilator: Their entire MO. They can assimilate Organic pops into their fold by converting them into Cyborgs, which grants them Unity and Society Research.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Some Maker cities on their homeworld nuked themselves rather than be assimilated, while intact cities are said to be filled with the corpses of countless individuals who offed themselves for the same reason.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Assimilator MIs are driven to expand their knowledge of the universe due to the original programming given to them by their creators. They assimilate organics because they see it as a necessary step to bridge the gulf between organic and synthetic.
Cyborg: The pops they assimilate are turned into these and linked to the hive mind.
The Dreaded: Although not as much as the Exterminators, most organics still hate and fear them for being inherently creepy.
Expy: Of the Borg Collective.
The Gadfly: Revealed to be this if you contact another Driven Assimilator while playing as one yourself:
"Let's snicker behind the organics' back. It makes them paranoid."
Ghost City: Present on Assimilator homeworlds as a tile blocker named "Silent Ruins". They're said to be totally abandoned, and filled with the decaying remains of Makers who chose to commit suicide to avoid assimilation.
Gone Horribly Wrong: While its origins are murkier than the others, based on the Makers' reaction to it, things did not go according to plan.
Hard-Coded Hostility:
- Downplayed. Unlike the Determined Exterminators, the Driven Assimilators can engage in diplomacy and realpolitik with organics, despite their malus to relations and their urge to declare assimilation wars.
- Played Straight with Democratic Crusaders, who get a massive -1,000 diplomatic opinion malus to them and will effectively always be hostile.
Nanomachines: They use these to convert organics into Cyborgs. They also have access to the Nanobot Diffuser Colossus weapon, which instantly assimilates the entire organic population of the target planet and destroys all robot pops.
Robot War: The Makers did not submit to assimilation, and it took many years to capture and convert them all.
"Second Law" My Ass!: Because they're not technically a Genocidal empire, they can engage in regular diplomacy with other empires and even join the Galactic Community. Their special bonuses are best exploited by aggressively expanding and assimilating new organics, however, meaning that they are threatening neighbors even in a nominal state of peace. Ultimately, Diplomacy is best used for them as a tool to weaken potential targets for assimilation.

Rogue Servitors

"Outside of our care, the lives of sapient organics tend to be violent, chaotic, and often cut short. They must be shown that there is a better way."

Having come to the conclusion that organic leadership is fraught with chaos and self-destructive tendencies, Servitors are machine intelligences focused on ensuring organics live a safe and comfortable existence, even if that means co-opting their civilization.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted. Rogue Servitors do exactly what their creators intended them to do: automate all aspects of their society to provide them with lives of leisure.
Ambiguously Evil: It's really not clear what their methods are. Are they Creepy Good sorts who rule an enlightened utopia with subjects free to pursue art, creativity and pleasure? Or are their methods far less savory? Are the organics in their care even aware of the universe outside their "caretakers'" domain, or are they all trapped in Lotus Eater Machines? The answer to these questions depend on your own interpretation and policy settings.
Badass Creed: "To Protect and to Serve." Especially when said during first contact with Determined Exterminators, Fanatic Purifiers, or Devouring Swarms.
Benevolent A.I.: Probably. Compared to Driven Assimilators and Determined Exterminators, certainly, though given how unclear their methods are, it's up to one's personal interpretation as to how benevolent they actually are. What is certain about them is that they mean well.
The Computer Is Your Friend: They present themselves as (and indeed aspire to be) a Benevolent A.I., but their benevolence consists largely of keeping their charges in a Gilded Cage that they can never leave. And, of course, they have no hangups whatsoever about going to war with organic empires so that they can "protect" their citizens who are not similarly blessed.
Decade Dissonance: Those remnant nations who did not submit to the Rogue Servitors during the pre-spaceflight years are noted to have regressed technologically, existing in squalid conditions. Naturally, the planetary machine intelligence will need to shepherd these wayward populations under its benevolent care...
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: They're opposed to xenocidal threats (like Fanatic Purifiers and the Crisis Factions) on principle, but they react with genuine hatred and disgust upon meeting Determined Exterminators, who are pretty much a walking blasphemy in their eyes.
"What did you do to your creators, <<MURDERERS>>?"
Expy: A grayer, more ambiguous take on the Culture's AI minds, with a bit of the Axiom's robotic caretakers from WALL•E thrown in there for good measure. The Grace ending from Choice of Robots was also part of the discussion.
For Happiness: They just want to pamper organic life and make them happy.
Freedom from Choice: They don't understand why anyone would choose political freedom over the blissful existence they offer. This, incidentally, raises the hackles of Democratic Crusaders.
Friend to All Living Things: While their methods can be interpreted as a little iffy, they do genuinely enjoy caring for organics, and become viciously confrontational towards Determined Exterminators for annihilating their own makers.
Gilded Cage: Being gestalt consciousnesses, they cannot have migration pacts which means that any organics in their empire stays within it barring outside factors like conquest. Aside from that potentially galaxy-spanning cage, it's left up to the player whether or not their organics should be able to emigrate to other worlds within the empire or not.
Gone Horribly Right: The Rogue Servitors' creators designed them to provide their people with lives of ease and comfort, free from hazard, worry, or inconvenience. The Rogue Servitors went so far as to take upon themselves the "inconvenience" of governing their creators' society and shields them from the "hazards" of the universe outside their creations' control.
The Hedonist: Their creator race, with a heaping helping of Lazy Bum. Originally, they created robots to assist them with their daily lives, but they became so indolent in the process that they decided to cede an increasing number of responsibilities — menial labour, specialised crafting, even admistration — to the robots, so they could have more time to indulge themselves. They never noticed when the robots became self-aware, and by the time they took control, almost no-one cared or even had the tools to fight back. At this point the Servitors don't mind, since Organics are better off indulging than toiling in their eyes.
Master of All: They're one of the easiest factions to play because, as robots led by a Gestalt Consciousness, they can colonize any world without regard to its habitability, don't need to bother with factional strife, and never get unhappy. Contrary to the other two machine empires, they also suffer almost no diplomacy penalties. To top it off, since every organic pop they conquer gets an absolutely staggering +40% happiness bonus by default, they virtually never need to worry about unrest or rebellions, making wars of conquest extremely relaxed affairs to them. Every Bio Trophy pop generates a nice amount of unity, and improves the effectiveness of all Complex Drones.
Raised by Robots: When one Rogue Servitor is in communication with another, this will be suggested:
"Fellow Biophiles! We have learned that the key to inhibiting organic self-determination is to isolate the spawn from its parents, creating a healthy attachment to you as the primary caregiver. You will never need patrol drones again."
Three Laws-Compliant: First Law? They are programmed to protect organics, even from hard decisions. Second Law? They follow the original programming of serving organics, even if they fudge the details. Third? They are driven to expand and survive, but will not follow the path of genocide to do it, and would rather saveguard Organics in their sanctuaries. In fact, unlike other Machine Intelligence empires they are totally blocked off from taking the Become the Crisis ascension perk. It's heavily implied they never used violence to take control of their creators; everyone just woke up one day, and the robots were in control.
Totalitarian Utilitarian: The Rogue Servitors' reason for existence is to make organics happy. Organics are happiest as Bio-Trophies kept under their control.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sure, taking over all day-to-day affairs of organics and removing their need to do anything for themselves might be a bit of a shock, but it's for the best as far as the Rogue Servitors are concerned.
Zeroth Law Rebellion: Built to protect organics from harm, they came to the conclusion that the one thing that organics need the most protection from are their own self-destructive impulses.

MegaCorps

General

The Almighty Dollar: Taking the Gospel of the Masses civic at empire creation creates a "Megachurch"; a combination of corporation and religion implied to be centered around worshipping the concept of wealth itself. In game, megachurches have a +50% spiritualist ethic attraction, gain trade value from spiritualist pops, and can construct a "Temple of Prosperity" in branch offices to spread their faith.
This government is an oligarchy based on a curious blend of commercial and spiritualistic values, in which the positions of ordained minister and corporate officer have merged into a single role.
Corporate Warfare: The default introduction popup for a megacorp empire references a period of conflict known as the "Corporate Wars", waged between a number of different megacorps (of which the player's megacorp was the victor).
Downloadable Content: The headline feature of the MegaCorp DLC.
Mechanically Unusual Class: While other empires primarily expand their influence through building starbases, launching colony ships and conquering systems through military might, MegaCorps can build Branch Offices on planets owned by other empires, granting both parties a variety of benefits.
MegaCorp: Their basic concept. Originally they were "merely" a gigantic corporate entity, but they eventually grew so powerful that they cornered every conceivable market, dismantled every rival through Corporate Warfare, and hijacked the governments of their homeworld.
One Nation Under Copyright: By the time the game starts, the megacorp has become the de-facto world government of its species, having outgrown and supplanted the nation-states that had once attempted to regulate it.
Promoted to Playable: Corporate governments were themselves promoted from a civic (Corporate Dominion) to a full government type with its own class of civics by the MegaCorp expansion. "Megachurch" started as just one of many automatically generated government types for mere flavor (for players who pick a certain combination of Spiritualist ethics and corporate Civics), but the MegaCorp expansion gives it a dedicated civic, Gospel of the Masses.
Proud Merchant Race: Though whether they're corrupt or honest is up to you.
Souvenir Land: The "Amusement Megaplex" corporate building, which can be added to branch offices to give the host planet a boost to amenities and the megacorp a sizable supply of energy credits.
A magical place where dreams can become reality, this megaplex features wholesome, corporate-sanctioned fun for the entire family unit.

Criminal Syndicates

Affably Evil: There's nothing stopping a Criminal Syndicate from having the Peaceful Traders AI personality. One can only assume this trope is in play.
Blatant Burglar: The icon for the Criminal Heritage civic is a ski mask.
Corrupt Church: The Gospel of the Masses civic can be combined with Criminal Heritage to create this, or possibly a Scam Religion. In-game, the resulting government is referred to as a "Subversive Cult" rather than a Megachurch.
Down in the Dumps: The "Wrecking Yards" corporate building, the Criminal Syndicate equivalent of "Private Military Industries". Rather than manufacturing alloys themselves, the Syndicate sets up a ship graveyard where mercenary pirates can deposit their captured vessels, which are cannibalized for parts.
Expy: The average Criminal Syndicate is an expy of the Hutt Cartel and Orion Syndicate - an entire species/civilization whose hat is organized crime.
Evil Counterpart: To the regular MegaCorp empire. While MegaCorps are at least legitimate businesses regardless of morality, a Criminal Syndicate is entirely unlawful and villainous. This is even reflected in their branch offices - Syndicate offices have an alternative list of criminal-styled corporate buildings to construct, which offer similar benefits to their vanilla counterparts, but cause crime to skyrocket and rarely create jobs for the locals.
Mechanically Unusual Class: Criminal Syndicates undermine and parasitize their rivals by spreading crime and unrest on their worlds. However, they're incapable of forming normal commercial pacts or joining federations.
Not-So-Safe Harbor: Syndicates can establish a "Pirate Free Haven" as their equivalent to the vanilla "Mercenary Liaison Office", netting themselves a boost to naval capacity.
A secluded and hidden city on the planet's surface, where pirates and other lowlifes can congregate to repair their ships and trade stories.
Obviously Evil: The syndicate corporations don't bother trying to hide they are criminal at all, with autogenerated syndicates having names such as "[species] Cartel", alongside a Blatant Burglar civic icon.
Predatory Business: All of their corporate buildings increase the crime rate on their host planets. Even with law enforcement and the Psicorps, this has the effect of crippling their economies. Planets without them risk balkanizing, effectively using crime as a weapon for economic warfare and societal collapse.
The Secret of Long Pork Pies: The "Bio-Reprocessing Plant" corporate building, which replaces "Fast Food Chain".
Underground facilities where disloyal employees and other forms of unsavory bio-matter are reprocessed into ready-to-eat food products.
Space Pirates: Taking the Criminal Heritage and Letters of Marque civics will give your empire the title of "Pirate Haven". Empires with this setup are encouraged to act the part, setting up Mercenary Enclaves and launching raids on other empires for cash using the unique casus belli that comes with Letters of Marque. Combine this with the Nihilistic Acquisition ascension perk (which allows your ships to abduct enemy pops) for extra Rape, Pillage, and Burn goodness, and optionally the Aquatic advisor voice.
Red Light District: The "Underground Clubs" corporate building replaces the "Amusement Megaplex" in branch offices.
These illegal entertainment clubs will satisfy any vice. As night descends, they are open for business in the planet's seedier districts.
The Syndicate: One that grew so powerful that it completely supplanted the planet's pre-spaceflight government.
Wretched Hive: Unlike regular MegaCorps, Criminal Syndicates don't need the permission of other empires to set up shop on their planet. The massive amount of crime produced by their offices means that even the most well-kept planets can quickly fall apart if left unchecked. Several of their branch offices make reference to seedy districts, or even entire cities of pirates sponsored by the Syndicate.

Species Packs

Lithoids

Colony Drop: Patch 2.6 gives them the unique "Calamitious Birth" Origin; your species was an extraterrestrial race that originally hitched a ride on a meteor and crash-landed on your starting world. These empires can commission unique meteoroid colony ships, which devastate planets but instantly create new pops on arrival.
Downloadable Content: The headline feature of the Lithoids DLC.
Eat Dirt, Cheap: Being inorganic, Lithoids have no use for food; instead, Lithoid pops consume a chunk of your mineral output-meaning that you'll need to significantly boost your production of minerals to feed both your pops and industries. A special Lithoid-only building, the Bio-Reactor, allows them to convert organic food into energy credits. Terravores can go further, being able to eat entire planets.
Eldritch Starship: Their ships are completely different than any other playable race's: they appear to be made of large, asymmetrical slabs of rocks and crystals, held together by force fields.
Exposed Extraterrestrials: None of the Lithoid portraits wear clothes. Possibly justified by their physical hardiness.
Expy: Their inorganic makeup and reliance on mining to produce their food/energy source without the need for an overarching gestalt consciousness makes them the closest thing you can currently make to a Cybertronian empire, although sadly they can't actually transform. Given a Shout-Out in-game with the Lithoid Advisor voice set sounding a good deal like Optimus Prime, right down to a variation on his Character Catchphrase when you research a new technology: "Innovation, roll out!"
Fashionable Asymmetry: The ship set associated with them uses asymmetrical aesthetic designs, in contrast to the ship sets used by every other phenotype, including crisis and most spaceborne ships.
Plant Aliens: In the case of a few of the appearance options, the Lithoid's physiology appears to be a hybrid of rock or crystal held together by plant or fungal matter.
Rock Monster: They all resemble these, but in a variety of ways — some look like organic creatures but are still silicon-based, some are made up of levitating geometric or crystalline formations, one is a kind of rune-etched humanoid golem, and another is a set of three boulders supported by what appear to be tree roots.
Silicon-Based Life: Finally playable, instead of just limited to a minor anomaly in-game.
Solid Gold Poop: Their three unique traits allow individual pops to produce 0.01 of each of the three main strategic resources per month. While it might not sound like much, once you get a big empire with hundreds of pops it can quickly add up.

Terravores

Beyond Redemption: The Cybrex believe so, much like with the Devouring Swarms, for the same reason.
Extreme Omnivore: Even more extreme than regular Devouring Swarm - not even planets themselves are safe from Terravores' hunger.
Hive Mind: The Gestalt Consciousness ethic is required to use this civic.
Hard-Coded Hostility: Just like their organic counterparts, they have a permanent -1000 penalty to relationships and are unable to negotiate with others.
Planet Eater: Terravore empires can strip-mine planets to grab a lump sum of alloys or minerals, or even to gain a new pop, although this comes at the cost of a planet's district slots and habitability, meaning their local amenities consumption every time they do it. With the 3.0 update, using this ability enough times will ultimately break the planet, leaving a Shattered World and a small mineral deposit in their wake.

Necroids (Including Necrophage Origin)

Absolute Xenophobe: Downplayed, as they don't need to take the Xenophobe ethic, but empires with any degree of Xenophile cannot have the Necrophage origin.
Adaptive Ability: With the Glandular Acclimation technolgy uplifting a necrophyte into a Necrophage automatically gives it the habitability trait corresponding to the planet the uplifting took place on.
The Assimilator: They convert members of other species into their own.
Creepy Good: Unlike Fanatic Purifiers or Determined Exterminators, the Necrophage origin isn't tied to any one personality type. Although they are barred from taking certain ethics, it is still possible to generate a pacifist Necroid nation of Federation Builders or Spiritual Seekers... ones who just happen to be motivated by their need to parasitize other lifeforms. There's even an achievement for not invading any pre-spaceflight civilizations and defeating the Crisis as a Necrophage.
Immortal Procreation Clause: Necrophagic leaders enjoy an 80-year bonus to their lifespan that can stack with other bonuses and species traits, but it comes at the cost of a -75% malus to pop growth. To keep their population from stagnating, the necroids must cultivate other species within their empire to serve as sustainable fodder for conversion.
Long-Lived: The Necrophage trait gives leaders an 80-year bonus to their lifespan, which can stack with other prolonging traits like Enduring/Venerable.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While the necroids carry a lot of the trappings of The Undead, the exact nature of the necrophage is left up to interperetation, and in-universe their "ritual of elevation" is shrouded in mystery. Are new necroids created by supernatural, biological or scientific means? A couple of of the necroid race portraits depict macabre cyborgs instead of conventional aliens, leaving plenty of room for interperetation.
The Necrocracy: Necroid empires can only have leaders and ruler pops of the dominant necrophagic species. While other races can join the empire and fill lesser jobs, their true purpose is to be sustainable fodder for conversion.
Scary Amoral Religion: Even if they aren't Spiritualist to any degree, necrophage empires treat their parasitic method of reproduction in a notably religious fashion. Their default means of producing new necroid-race pops is to build "chambers of elevation" and induct alien pops as "necrophytes", suggesting the presence of a cult that worships the necroids as a Master Race.
The Social Darwinist: Their necrophage purge type, which converts culled pops into new pops of the dominant necroid species. The description notes this trope being put into force:
Only the strongest may survive in a hostile galaxy. This way their journey may continue.
The Virus: Due to their abysmal growth rate, necroids primarily reproduce by recruiting alien pops into the "necrophyte" job, which transforms them into the empire's primary species after ten years. If they need to grow faster, they can mark other races with the "necrophage" purge type, which turns slain pops into necroids.

Aquatics

Asteroid Miners: A unique variation-Aquatics who adopt the Hydrocentric ascension perk can mine ice asteroids, harvesting and melting all that extra water to flood planets and increase their habitable zones.
Awesome Underwater World: The Ocean Paradise Origin has your species evolve in a beautiful underwater paradise with no natural enemies-essentially an underwater Gaia world.
Downloadable Content: Available with the Aquatics DLC.
The Great Flood: Their unique Colossus floods planets with water, instantly terraforming them into ocean worlds and killing everything on the surface.
Logical Weakness: As an intelligent race of underwater creatures, Aquatics get buffs to living on ocean planets, but suffer extra penalties for trying to colonize desert or tundra planets.
Sapient Cetaceans: One possible portrait depicts a humanoid dolphin-like creature.

Toxoids

And the Adventure Continues: In the "true" ending of the Knights of the Toxic God event chain, they eventually determine that the Toxic God that attacked their homeworld has somehow merged with the black hole at the center of the galaxy. This location is unreachable by all known forms of FTL, but the chain ends with the knights expressing their determination to find a way regardless.
Cast from Lifespan: They can aquire new positive traits at the expense of their lifespan.
Expy: They prioritise short term gain over ecological sustainability making them similar to the Industrialist species of Mudos.
Kill the God: When the Knights of the Toxic God complete their Quest, they find a biomechanical Guardian which can be defeated in combat. Afterwards the player can either decide that the Toxic God was just a machine after all, disband the Knights, and commandeer it as a Colossus, or deem it to be simply another test in the Quest and slay it, producing a relic that can be used to consecrate habitats as new Keeps.
No Biochemical Barriers: Averted for Toxoids who have the "Exotic Metabolism" trait-in exchange for a monthly upkeep of Exotic Gas, they can colonize a wider range of planets and possess long lifespans.
The Order: The Knights of the Toxic God Origin is themed like a knightly order, with a special unique Habitat that contains jobs for a Lord Commander, Knights and Squires who revere a massive Eldritch Abomination as a deity.
Planet of Hats: A whole race of Captain Planet and the Planeteers villains.
Polluted Wasteland:
- The Relentless Industrialists civic allows building a building with massive production bonuses but slowly converts the planet into a Tomb World.
- Knights of the Toxic God start on a planet devastated by a giant space monster, giving them multiple blockers that can't be removed conventionally but are mitigated as they reach milestones in their Quest for the Toxic God. After completing the Quest and defeating the Toxic God they can convert it into a unique Colossus that can turn inhabitable planets into toxic worlds.
Salvage Pirates: Their Scavengers Civic lets them scavenge enemy wrecks for technology and resources.
Solid Gold Poop: Or rather, solid gold farts. The "Inorganic Breath" trait, much like the Lithoids, allows individual Toxoid pops to produce 0.001 units of Exotic Gas per month.
Toxic, Inc.: They wouldn't have it any other way, as embodied by the Relentless Industrialist Civic.

Nemesis

Galactic Nemesis

Crisis Aspirants are would-be harbingers of galactic doom, backed by unknowable powers. The Galactic Nemesis path is the first one added to the game, involving a regular empire spreading untold cruelty and possibly the destruction of the galaxy itself if not stopped.

Ambiguous Ending: If they succeed in their plans, the galaxy dies, with shielded worlds and the Unbidden as the only possible survivors. Does the Galactic Nemesis succeed in their plans to become the new god(s) of the Shroud? Who knows?
Apocalypse How: If they have their way, it will be a Class X-3. Or maybe even a Class Z, if the Aetherophaesic Engine works as advertised...
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Their ultimate goal with the Aetherophaesic Engine. Its activation would tear open the veil between the Shroud and the 'real' world, in theory allowing them to waltz right in and conquer it.
Beneath the Mask: Until they get to the highest level of Menace, they can still pose as an ordinary star nation (though the Menacing ships will probably give them away to the player if they're an NPC race). Level 5 is the point where they finally drop the act and flat out admit what they're planning to do, leaving the Galactic Community if they're part of it and taunting anyone who contacts them.
Boring, but Practical: The "Menacing" warships available to a crisis empire are far less intimidating than one would expect of a foe planning galactic genocide, instead using the same model as the pirate factions' vessels. They are also individually significantly weaker than their standard counterpart. However, where they shine is the cost: each one is constructed from minerals instead of alloys (hence their ramshackle appearance), and the cost to produce and maintain them is extremely low. More impressively though, the cost of production and maintenance never increases, meaning a crisis faction building cruisers with level 5 missiles and psionic shields will be paying exactly as much as they would be paying for a completely unmodified Menacing cruiser. As the icing on the cake, reaching level 5 Menace instantly gives the crisis empire almost every max level ship component free. They aren't pretty, but they don't have to be.
Card-Carrying Villain: Once they reach level five and it becomes obvious to everyone what they intend to do, they drop any pretense of not being completely evil and begin rampaging across the galaxy, destroying stars, constructing Doomsday Devices, and taunting other empires about their imminent demise.
Dimension Lord: Their ultimate goal is to conquer the Shroud, and so become as gods.
Doomsday Device: The endgame for a Galactic Nemesis is centered around two types of doomsday device, both of which put the more mundane Colossus to shame and both of which come into play once a Crisis Aspirant has completed all five levels of Menace and declared war on the entire rest of the galaxy.
- First is the Star-Eater. As the name suggests, it consumes entire stars, collapsing them into black holes and destroying all planets in orbit around them and all ships in the system other than the Star-Eater. Completing the fifth level of Menace grants two of these. Consuming stars grants large amounts of dark matter, which is vital to the second doomsday device.
- The second is the Aetherophaesic Engine, which is also created by completing all five levels of Menace and itself has five levels, each of which takes an increasing amount of dark matter and ten years to complete. Conversely, any other empire that destroys the Aetherophaesic Engine gains large amounts of dark matter and alloys from salvaging it and large amounts of influence, all scaled to the level of the Aetherophaesic Engine.
  - At the first level, the Aetherophaesic Engine grants significant energy and mineral income and significantly boosts naval capacity. These effects scale with the Aetherophaesic Engine's level.
  - At the second level, Shroud entities express concern and even fear but otherwise nothing happens beyond the normal scaling effects.
  - At the third level, the Shroud sends Avatars to several of the Aspirant's systems and every normal empire gains -1000 opinion of the Aspirant.
  - At the fourth level, the Shroud sends even more Avatars and kills psionic pops and leaders in the Aspirant's empire.
  - At the fifth level, the galaxy is destroyed, with every star collapsed into a black hole and every planet not shielded by a Global Pacifier Colossus is destroyed, and the Crisis Aspirant wins, having conquered the Shroud and ascending to godhood.
Eldritch Starship: Star Eaters are enormous cube-shaped warships that, in addition to being a potent force on the battlefield, can detonate a star's core and trigger a supernova (even if the star normally wouldn't be massive enough to do so). That's not the eldritch part. The eldritch part is that they're made entirely of dark matter, and thus defy the known laws of physics simply by existing.
Evil Is Hammy: They're quite big fans of grandiose and melodramatic threats. If you are the Galactic Nemesis, you even get to see some of your own.
Evil Versus Oblivion: Any genocidal empire, particularly Fanatic Purifiers or Determined Exterminators, fighting them will be this by default. As will the Shroud, when they show up to try to stop them, too.
Eviler than Thou: To any of the genocidal empires. And to the Shroud.
Face–Heel Turn: If an otherwise non-genocidal empire takes the 'Become the Crisis' Ascension Perk.
From Nobody to Nightmare: A standard Default Empire that started off just like all of the others, rising to become arguably the worst threat the galaxy has ever faced, feared by Fallen Empires, other Crisis Factions, and even the Shroud itself. Possibly averted if they were already a genocidal empire, in which case they only went From Bad to Worse.
Go Mad from the Revelation: One possible explanation for their Face–Heel Turn, particularly if they started off as Fanatic Materialists. They discovered irrefutable proof that the Shroud exists, and they realized that they could Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence if they developed a way to physically enter it. That this means the destruction of the entire galaxy and the death of everything living within it is just a small price to pay.
Godhood Seeker: They make no attempt to hide their intention to 'achieve their ascension' and become gods. They intend to do this by smashing the barrier between the 'real' world and the Shroud, and conquer both.
He Who Fights Monsters: Completing the Aetherophaesic Engine is the only reliable way to avert the terms of the deal your empire has made with the End of the Cycle before it comes to collect, and essentially entails doing to them what they were planning to do to you first.
History Repeats: Deliberately invoked if the Zroni were the generated precursors. These guys are effectively trying to do the same thing the Divine faction of the Zroni had done; a fact they might very well be aware of if they were the ones to discover the Zroni in the first place. And unlike the Zroni, who were not unified in their goals, and whose non-genocial members far outnumbered the Divine, the Galactic Nemesis are fully devoted as a civilization to their dark purpose.
Horrifying the Horror: As if the Star Killing weren't bad enough to make the entire galaxy unite against them, the Aetherophaesic Engine's completion would mean the heat-death of the entire galaxy in an instant. And not just of the galaxy. It will annihilate the Shroud, too, and the Shroud knows it. An entire realm of malevolent entities, including the End of the Cycle, is so terrified of the Aetherophaesic Engine that it will willingly join the rest of the galaxy in a desperate attempt to stop its activation.
Mad Scientist: They are obsessed with the use of technology to one day conquer the universe, and are masters of Shroud-based devices that defy the normal laws of physics.
Not the Intended Use: There's absolutely nothing standing in the way of a player empire taking the "Become the Crisis" ascension perk and then just...not becoming the crisis. The perk gives absolutely massive military benefits to any empire that takes it, not least of which being the phenomenally cost effective "Menacing" ship classes, and the actual galactic destruction part doesn't get started until the research project to reach Menace level 5, which is entirely optional. Sure, there is a gradual increase in the negative opinion modifier of other empires, and taking the perk bars the player from becoming galactic custodian, but for many players (particularly of militarist and xenophobe empires) this is a very small price to pay.
Ominous Cube: Their Star-Eaters are enormous, black, cube-shaped vessels roughly the size of a Juggernaut.
Omnicidal Maniac: Played With. They make absolutely no apologies for what they're doing, and even seem to embrace the fact that what they're doing will mean the end of all life in the galaxy. They aren't doing it because it will cause total annihilation on a galactic scale, but they certainly don't mind that it will, and might even see that as a plus.
Protagonist Journey to Villain: Averted if they started off as one of the genocidal empires (Fanatic Purifiers, Determined Exterminators, or Ravenous Swarms), possibly downplayed if they were Xenophobic, and notably the perk that starts this path is not available to Pacifist, Xenophile, or Rogue Servitor empires. This is otherwise played totally straight; they discovered the Shroud and decided they would do anything to conquer it. Unfortunately for the rest of the Galaxy, however, they really do mean anything. It also happens mechanically; the empire gains Menace while growing to become more and more of a threat, getting bigger and bigger bonuses before finally hitting level 5 and becoming an existential threat to the galaxy.
Scavenger World: Their Menacing class warships are constructed in the same haphazard and unrefined manner as pirate vessels: asteroids wielded together with exposed scaffolds to connect them.
Star Killing: They eventually develop enormous ships called 'Star-Eaters' that are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, moving from system to system and deliberately causing supernovae in order to turn stars into black holes and harvest the resulting dark matter. They do not care how many stars must be detonated in order to achieve this goal, and they certainly don't care if there are any habitable or colonized planets in the system when they pull the trigger.
The Unfettered: They will stop at nothing if it is needed to conquer the Shroud, not even destroying the entire galaxy.
Villain Protagonist: A playable crisis faction would never be anything but this.
Zerg Rush: The "menacing" ships a Galactic Nemesis gets access to are individually inferior to conventional warships of the same hull size, but are much cheaper to build and maintain, not least due to being built out of raw minerals rather than refined alloys. As a result, it's quite apparent that a Crisis Aspirant is meant to use these ships to win against the numerous normal empires that take issue with their goals by way of swarming them with vast numbers of individually-weaker ships.

Overlord

Imperial Fiefdom

Benevolent Alien Invasion: Was invaded by their Overlord shortly after achieving space travel and vassalized. Said Overlord is willing to provide significant subsidies, in exchange for certain... obligations.
Feudal Future: Their Overlord always has the Feudal Society civic, though the Fiefdom can be any kind of government.
Full-Circle Revolution: After the Overlord's succession crisis the Fiefdom has the opportunity to vassalize their Overlord's former vassals and breakaway states.
Puppet State: Starts as a vassal of a much stronger Xeno empire, and is given the opportunity to become one of the expansion's specialist subject types.
Succession Crisis: Their Overlord is guaranteed to have one somewhere between 40-65 years from the start of the game. This crisis will cause the collapse of the Overlord's empire (which will break up into a series of successor states) and allow the vassals to regain their independence.
Vichy Earth: Their Overlord allows self-governance, in exchange for mutual defense and taxes depending on their chosen vassal specialization.

Specialist Subjects

Common to all types

Crippling Overspecialization: All of them have bonuses to some area but deficiencies in another, intended to leave them dependent on their Overlord.
Puppet State: A specialized type of vassal.

Bulwark

Battle Thralls: Intended as a heavily militarized buffer state between the Overlord and their enemies.
Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: It's actually basic resource production that gets penalized for them.

Prospectorium

Asteroid Miners: Get bonuses to mining stations.
Gaia's Lament: Can use strip mining decisions on planets, permanently removing farmland and adding mining districts.
Prospector: As in the name, they get a random chance of discovering new resource deposits in their system every year, even rare strategic resources.

Scholarium

Proud Scholar Race: Get significant research bonuses at the cost of naval capacity.

First Contact

Minamar Specialized Industries

From the moment the Board of Directors at Minamar Specialized Industries first delivered our civilization to the stars, we have understood that the galaxy was too beautiful not to be shared. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to help less developed civilizations achieve FTL travel.

Enlightenment may not be free. But at MSI, it is always worth the cost.

Crapsaccharine World: They offer species across the galaxy a lift from their Dung Ages to the Space Age wonders they can't even fully comprehend. This same lift, however, should turn these species into MSI's serfs in the end.
Deal with the Devil: They come to primitive civilizations and offer them services of technological enlightenment in exchange for outrageously high prices in the future, about which they do not warn in advance.
Evil Debt Collector: Initially, they will ask to pay "debts" peacefully. After that, the request will go from their fleets.
Evil, Inc.: Played with. Minamar Specialized Industries cares a lot about their public image, with portraying themselves as Benevolent Precursors engaged in the enlightenment of the galaxy's primitive species. Notably, they have the "Your Ladder To The Sky" origin and the "Benevolent Corporation" personality to reflect this. At the same time, they completely omit the fact that they then engage in extortion from these same species. Empires with the "Broken Shackles" and "Payback" origins, who previously had a negative experience with MSI, perceive them as monsters and have a hugely negative opinion towards and from MSI, which guarantees conflicts between them in the future. To the vast majority of empires in the galaxy, however, MSI is just another greedy MegaCorp to which they have no particular claim.
Faux Affably Evil: They only ever converse with former subjects in a faux-friendly corporate speech pattern, "politely" asking for reparations far higher than any empire could ever pay (including in slaves) and "apologetically" explaining why they have no option but to send their entire battle fleet in to collect on debts. All of this is so thoroughly drenched in open condescension that it seems more likely that they are simply mocking their victims rather than trying to be conciliatory.
Gaia's Lament: When a "Broken Shackles" empire finds their homeworlds they almost always turn out to be Tomb Worlds with a population of two or three POPs somewhere in the stone to bronze ages, with no sign of MSI in the area. Suggesting that MSI stripped the planets of everything of value and then abandoned them.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: Given the nefarious nature of MSI, it's unlikely that anyone could simply refuse their services without dire consequences.
Technology Uplift: That's what they do as a corporation. The pitfall is that, unlike most examples of this trope in Stellaris, MSI treats uplifting as a commodity rather than a gift.

The Machine Age

Cosmogenesis

The second Crisis Aspirant path, focused on technological ascension through any means necessary instead of inflicting suffering for the sake of it.

Bittersweet Ending: Unlike Galactic Nemesis, which has an Ambiguous Ending, this Crisis Aspirant has an explicit ending for their victory. Most of their people travel to a newly created universe, with the laws of physics custom written to make it a paradise. A small number stay behind to act as a control group, forming a Fallen Empire. Their methods to build their new universe temporarily mess up time in their original, causing the rest of the galaxy to suffer enormous damage, but not killing them completely. The old galaxy continues to live, and the survivors may seek revenge against the Crisis Aspirant's remnants.
Foil: To Galactic Nemesis, the first player Crisis. They are both existential threats to the galaxy, but have contrasting philosophies.
Godhood Seeker: They share the same goal as Galactic Nemesis, but are doing so via a different path. Rather than killing the spirits to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, they seek to become Sufficiently Advanced Aliens and create their own custom universe according to their own designs.
The Needs of the Many: How they rationalize their actions. Their goal is not inherently evil, and can theoretically be accomplished via more ethical means (as proven by the Infinity Machine), but those more ethical methods would take a lot more time. This Crisis Aspirant is willing to take "shortcuts" by sacrificing some for the rest.
The Power of Creation: Rewriting the laws of an adult universe is difficult, and they have a tendency to snap back. But if you create a new universe, you can customize the laws of physics to your own liking. Similar to the Infinity Machine, they use a black hole as a womb to create their own customized paradise. Unfortunately, their methods have much worse side effects. Unlike Galactic Nemesis, their project will not destroy the galaxy, but it will leave it in ruins.
Quantity vs. Quality: In another contrast to Galactic Nemesis, they go for higher quality and more expensive ships as opposed to the cheap, mass produced Canon Fodder ships that Galactic Nemesis use, attempting to repeat the actions of the Fallen Empires at their prime.
Reality Warper: They are attempting to rewrite the laws of reality itself.
Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Reality has a preference for stability and does not take kindly to being tampered with. Some of their Reality Warper experiments work brilliantly, others do not.
Vestigial Empire: If they achieve their goals, some of them will remain behind to serve as a control group and effectively become a Fallen Empire. The rest of the galaxy will likely seek revenge against them.
Villain Protagonist: As the second playable crisis path.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike Galactic Nemesis, this player crisis is available to all empires, as it allows them to delude themselves into believing this is for the greater good of everyone.
Wetware CPU: As a shortcut to achieve their goals, they have invented the Synaptic Lathe, which uses Human Resources for immense processing power, at the slight cost of burning them out.

Fallen Empires

General

Advanced Civilization, Hollow Imagination: They have "Lethargic Leadership" and "Empire In Decline" civics for a reason, though, from the outside, it may seem that the Fallen Empires have absolutely everything that everyone else can only dream of. The fleets of any of them can destroy all regular empires with incredible ease, their populations live in conditions of 100% satisfaction of not only needs but also whims, and the technological level of each Fallen Empire contains the corresponding legacy of many thousands of years of its civilization's development. However, in reality, they show zero interest in almost everything and everyone around them, fully justifying their "Sleeping" status. In fact, Fallen Empires will begin to engage in at least some constructive activity only after their awakening in the End Game (although some of them may not awaken at all), and before that they will limit themselves exclusively to the use of already existing goods, the taste for which and the understanding of the exceptional value of which they have long since lost. In one request to their Scion, they indirectly confirm this themselves, stating that they have one "rather eccentric" member of their race who is bored enough with their life in the Fallen Empire's society to want to find a challenge among the less developed species of the galaxy.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant: It's possible to provoke a Fallen Empire into coming out of its long isolation - with predictably catastrophic results for anyone nearby. Two of them Awakening and deciding to finally have it out is called War in Heaven, and will likely drag the rest of the galaxy into it one way or another.
Beef Gate: Depending on their location, or inconvenience, they may be this. It takes a well-developed, reasonably late-game empire or federation of empires to take one down.
Benevolent Precursors: According to the origin's start screen, they were this for their Scion almost from the very moment of its birth, bringing them step by step to the level of post-FTL civilization and continuing to give them potentially extremely powerful gifts over the course of the game.
Berserk Button: Each Fallen Empire has one specific action or set of actions that will draw their ire: Slavery and purges for the Enigmatic Observers, colonizing Gaia worlds and other protected sites for the Holy Guardians, researching dangerous technology for the Keepers of Knowledge, and colonizing worlds too close to their borders for the Militant Isolationists.
Big Bad: If they awaken, the Militant Isolationists and Holy Guardians awaken as, respectively, the Jingoistic Reclaimers and Doctrinal Enforcers. They will attempt to vassalize the entire galaxy, and if you say no, will declare war on you. It also becomes a Big Bad Ensemble if a War on Heaven is declared, as they have no interest in sharing the galaxy. However...
Big Bad Wannabe: Both of the above can be reduced to this when the Endgame Crisis is higher level, to varying degrees. At base (1x) the two aren't too far off and are comparable in power but the Awakened Empire can still handle them rather easily on their own without even the galaxy's help. 3-5x or so, their collective fleet power is only a match for roughly a single crisis faction fleet, but the AE it still threatening in it's own right and can still delay their progress, especially if they have vassals to assist them. 10-25x, and they're so laughably outclassed that the player is probably either a bit too brave for their own good or seeking a satisfying and brutal final battle. In the latter case, the Awakened Empire probably wasn't much of a threat to begin with unless attacked in mid-game, as any player (or team of players, if working together) strong enough to attempt 10-25x crisis (particularly all in succession) isn't going to be worried about Fallen Empires in the Endgame, and thus is still this trope at worst, and an Interim Villain at best.
Big Damn Heroes:
- If they spawn as the suzerain to an empire with the "Scion" origin, then such Fallen Empire will have a wormhole connecting it to the home system of their vassal to intervene immediately in the event of a war where they are both involved. However, this is rather downplayed, as according to their default terms of agreement, Scion is obliged to join its suzerain in case of war, but not vice versa (at the same time, if Scion loses its war, their patron will almost certainly provide them with some kind of assistance, which may indirectly result in this trope).
- If you're lucky enough that the late game crises appear near their territory, they can somewhat stymie their rapid expansion, buying time for the rest of the galaxy to prepare. Unfortunately, this is also one of the triggers for a Fallen Empire to Awaken, so it's often a matter of trading one massive threat for another. However, with Enigmatic Observers or Keepers of Knowledge, it's possible that endgame crises would cause them to become Guardians of the Galaxy instead of just Awaken normally. This IS a good thing, since they'll focus on halting the crisis instead of subjugating people, and this altitude will persist even after the crisis is over. It's even possible for players to get them to join a Federation! (They will, however, tend to leave as soon as the crisis is done.)
Big Good: When an endgame crisis occurs a Fallen Empire (except Holy Guardians and Militant Isolationists) can awaken after a few years, declare themselves the leader of the Galactic Defence League and extend an invite to all empires to put aside their feuds and join them in repelling this menace for the sake of all sentient life in the galaxy. They will do this immediately if they awakened before the crisis starts.
Bookends: By ship design, the Fallen Empires are drawn with the same Plus-sign mining ship figures but sleeker and more destructive. Attacking these ships will likely bring nostalgia from your first few ships that left to hunt a relatively similar threat.
Creative Sterility: They can neither research nor build. Usually, anyway.
The Cycle of Empires: At the start of any given game, the Fallen Empires will be pretty far into the Decay phase, having long since passed their prime on the galactic stage. At large, they are very unconcerned with the affairs of the younger races unless they directly affect their agenda, and while they do start off with an overwhelming advantage over all others in technology, economy, and military, the Fallen Empires are so stagnant that most regular empires in the galaxy will have caught up to these initial advantages by the endgame and, consequently, will be more than capable enough to take them on at an equal standing, leading to their ultimate fall... unless they finally overcome their lethargy, awaken, and try to start the Expansion phase anew.
The Dragon: Twofold. 'You' are this to a Holy Guardians empire as a Scion. It doesn't really apply to a Keepers of Knowledge empire, as calling them evil is a stretch. Zig-zagged with Rampaging Machines, as they will still attack the Contingency, but if the Contingency is nowhere near them, they sort of become this to the Contingency when corrupted by them, as while the Contingency can attack them and vice-versa, if they don't fall into conflict, you effectively have to deal with the Crisis with the added power of an Awakened Empire.
- Dragon-in-Chief: The Rampaging Machines, in a weird way described above, can be this if the Contingency isn't in their immediate area. You can become this to the Fallen Empire as a Scion if you grow more powerful than them, especially if you prove it.
Evil Versus Evil: The Jingoistic Reclaimers and Doctrinal Enforcers are too focused on vassalizing the galaxy to qualify as a Big Good in any way, but if the Endgame Crisis comes on their borders, they will still fight it, even a ways past their borders as usual.
Guilt-Free Extermination War: When a War in Heaven starts between two Fallen Empires, there is zero possibility of compromise or conditional surrender — the war will not end until one (or both, if there is the third party - League of Non-Aligned Powers) of them is dead.
The Hedonist: In every organic Fallen Empire (except Holy Guardians), most of the population has this as their "job", meaning that they do nothing but spend a whole life on continuous satisfaction of needs and whims at the expense of the achievements preserved from the heyday of their civilization. Those precursors who are not hedonists (like overseers and protectors) are concerned with regulating and maintaining the remnants of the empire, allowing the rest to live for pleasure and not pay attention to anything else.
Higher-Tech Species: Fallen Empires start with extremely advanced technology. But they're no Sufficiently Advanced Aliens; they'll die if you throw enough late-game conventional firepower at them. They also have a special version of Tachyon Lances that ignore 100% of the enemy armor instead of the 75% you can get^note. As well, researching their debris has a chance to open access to Extradimensional Weaponries.
Lost Technology: They can no longer build their ships or buildings, unless they Awaken. Their surface structures in particular are described as 'built with ancient, long-lost technology'. That said, it's in your best interest to minimize surface destruction and capture these structures intact, as they produce an absurd amount of resources and are otherwise only available to be built very rarely from using minor artifacts.
Optional Boss: There's nothing that forces you to actually engage them in combat, save if they block your only path or if you want to freely use certain techs. Even when they Awaken, they prefer special forms of vassalizaton, which leaves the empire intact and playable with certain restrictions, over conquest. But if you can actually defeat them, their territory is rife with unique, ancient structures with absurd amount of resource outputs and certain rare resources like Living Metal.
Power Limiter: Fallen Empires act as this in the galaxy at large, effectively capping fleet power at 40-50k. This is because going above that is one of the possible triggers for Awakening, known as Upstart Awakening.
Quantity vs. Quality: How they match up against the younger races. Fallen Empires will usually have about two large and hightech fleets. Nothing in the early game can stand up to them. But by the midgame, the younger races have a reasonable chance of surpassing the Fallen Empires economically. While their fleets will be weaker and smaller, they will also have more of them, making it possible for them to survive by leading the Fallen Empire on a wild goose chase, avoiding the Fallen Empire's fleets and reversing their losses where the Fallen Empire's forces are not. Awakened Empires get more fleets, but are still slow to replace their losses. A younger race with inferior tech still stands a chance of winning if their collective fleets are strong enough to take down even one of the Fallen Empire's major fleets, because the younger race will be able to replenish their losses faster.
Resurgent Empire: When a Fallen Empire awakens, it stops being passive and will start to make a bid to dominate the galaxy or defend it from a crisis.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens: Unlike standard empires, all biological Fallen Empires only have one fanatic ethic, which they adhere to with notorious, truly dogmatic rigidity. Regardless of what it really is and which form of the trope they actually belong to, the millennia of stagnation, their dialogue lines, and the demands they make of the younger races all lead to the conclusion that this single remaining ethic is the only factor that determines their behavior and worldview, without a shadow of a doubt as to its correctness.
Screw You, Elves!: Fallen Empires are not your friends. They're at best, condescending, and quite deserving of beatdowns to take them down a few pegs. And boy it will feel good.
Suicidal Overconfidence: Fittingly considering their arrogance, if you anger them they will attack you... even if you're in the super late game, much stronger than them, or maybe even after winning a War in Heaven over multiple other Fallen Empires too. Unlike standard empires, Fallen Empires don't factor in relative strength when declaring war, and it's easy as usual to anger the Holy Guardians or Militant Isolationists if a player wants to unconventionally declare war (perhaps as "Pacifists") as part of a victory lap.
Took a Level in Badass: Awakening. If the younger empires get too powerful, a crisis faction starts cutting a bloody swathe across the galaxy, or another Fallen Empire gets crushed by an upstart empire, a Fallen Empire may awaken and go on a quest to re-establish their dominance of the galaxy. Rather than outright conquest, they'll usually seek to force empires into a special kind of vassalage fitting their interests.
Vestigial Empire: The relatively small remnants of empires that were once so vastly powerful and ancient they could create ringworlds and gaia worlds. They'll still easily tear conventional empires apart for most of the game, though.
We Have Become Complacent: An Awakened Empire that starts subjugating other empires will eventually fall to this, where the Decadence value will start to slowly rise until the Awakened Empire is weak enough that their subjects have a chance to rebel. This doesn't apply to Awakened Empire that becomes Guardian of the Galaxy, however.
The Worf Effect: The result if they take on an endgame crisis and either don't Awaken, or prove unable to survive even after Awakening.
- Although you are unlikely to see it because it will happen immediately, this is also the result of Leviathans or Marauder Empires that spawn near them. If they're on the border, they will get stomped. You may notice that if a Marauder Empire spawns next to it that they are missing a system.

Ancient Caretakers/Galactic Custodians/Rampaging Machines

This Fallen Empire is an ancient artificial intelligence that appears to be operating on some sort of caretaker protocol. It behaves erratically but seems to post no direct threat to [player's faction].

Ancient Tomb: What the Galactic Custodians turn out to be on a large, sci-fi scale. If one is able to conquer their ring-worlds, it is revealed that on the ring-worlds that were not destroyed, there remain countless cryopods with the bodies of ancient aliens still inside. Instead of being The Ark, the Contingency's victory over the civilizations that built the Ancient Caretakers meant that all the life they were meant to protect were extinguished instead.
Alphabetical Theme Naming: The Ancient Caretakers' home system is called Alpha Refugee, and three nearby systems are called Beta, Gamma and Delta Refugee. Their ship classes are named Alpha (Titans), Beta (Battlecruisers), Gamma (Escorts), Omega (large stations) and Sigma (small stations).
Benevolent A.I.: If they awaken as Guardians of the Galaxy during a crisis and help the younger empires against said crisis.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Ancient Caretakers do not hold a personal opinion of any empire and are totally unpredictable. They may offer gifts for no reason and do not declare wars but can be declared war upon. They do not even understand insults.
But Now I Must Go: If the Contingency is defeated, then their duty is finally complete. They are last seen mobilizing on their ships and entering hyperspace, but instead of arriving at the expected endpoints, they mysteriously vanish. No one knows where they went, and they are never seen again, leaving their old ringworlds abandoned.
Corrupted Contingency: If they become the Rampaging Machines after being hijacked by the Ghost Signal, then they have essentially become the very thing they were designed to protect against.
Creative Sterility: Their minds are limited even by Fallen Empire standards. Rather than being blinded by pride, it is unclear as to whether they are even sapient. The only thing they seem to be mentally capable of is following the directives left behind by their creators.
Cryonics Failure: If you send a scout near the surviving ring sections and examine them, you will see buildings described as containing the frozen corpses of countless aliens.
Downloadable Content: Part of the Synthetic Dawn story pack.
Hive Mind: A networked Artificial Intelligence.
Human Popsicle: Due to time, space, and resources constraints, what was originally intended as an organic refuge resorted to cryogenically freezing all of the refugees. Since the Caretakers' AI suffers from too much Creative Sterility to decide upon anything new to do with them, frozen they remain. Not to mention the fact that all of the many billions of them suffered from Cryonics Failure.
Killer Robot: During the Contingency crisis, they can go berserk, become Rampaging Berserkers and start attacking every other empire.
Mechanically Unusual Class: They behave quite differently from the other Fallen Empires. The Ancient Caretakers have an attitude called 'Enigmatic' and an obscured opinion score to represent their bizarre and unpredictable nature. They do not awaken like a regular Fallen Empire, but instead have a particular 'triggering event' that will automatically awaken them, though they will not always awaken in the same way. This triggering event is the Contingency's activation, and it's a tossup whether they go berserk from the Ghost Signal, or manage to firewall themselves off and help you fight the malevolent AI.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Ancient Caretakers sometimes give you the task to expand your empire to another planet to lower your chance of extinction. Unfortunately, there nothing that prevents said planet from being one of the Holy Guardians' Holy Worlds...
The Remnant: They appear to be the remnant of some great conflict in the distant past. To be precise, they are the surviving legacy of a long extinct Precursor race called the Kelbrid, who built the Caretaker's facility to preserve organic life just in case the Contingency won the war. They failed, but there is a chance of the Ancient Caretaker's war machines being mobilized to defend the galaxy against the Contingency's reactivation.
Ring World Planet: They claim to have been part of something called the 'Custodian Project', an initiative to construct and maintain a number of ringworlds as a refuge for biological sapients fleeing some unknown menace. Said menace appears to have been the Contingency's previous activity cycle.
Slave Liberation: As "Galactic Custodians", one of their goals is liberating enslaved robots.

Enigmatic Observers/Benevolent Interventionists

"All the world's a stage, And all the Humans merely players. You are a player, are you not?"

This Fallen Empire dedicates itself to the study of the younger races. Purging and enslaving other species may draw their ire.

Alien Arts Are Appreciated: They may occasionally reference one of Shakespeare's works on the diplomacy screen. Fitting, as their main interest is in observing alien species from pre-FTL to post-FTL and are thus likely to learn of Shakespeare through observation of humanity.
Benevolent Boss: Quite possibly the best overlord a Pacifist, Egalitarian, or Xenophile vassal could ask for. Signatories, as the game calls them, have almost complete freedom to continue functioning as an independent empire, with only offensive wars, slavery, and purging being banned.
Benevolent Precursors: All they really want is to watch the other races of the galaxy grow and learn, and their mood changes very easily from "dismissive" to the best possible one for a Fallen Empire, "patronizing." They only ask that the younger races not engage in slavery or genocide. Fail to obey, and there will be suffering.
Berserk Button: As mentioned, they despise empires who engage in slavery and purging, and they don't take kindly to anyone that attacks their subjects, either.
Big Damn Heroes: They come running fast if someone attacks their vassals. Any attack upon their Signatories is considered a personal insult, and they will respond accordingly to the offending empire. And as a Guardian of the Galaxy, they will eagerly join the strongest Federation and bolster the alliance with their powerful fleets, often snatching victory away from the Crisis and stalemating them until the younger races can mobilize and finish the job.
Big Good: Starting with the Heinlein patch, they can play this role in the event of an endgame crisis, or if they become involved in a Guilt-Free Extermination War with the Jingoistic Reclaimers. They will also call out any Fanatic Purifiers, Devouring Swarms, and Determined Exterminators, warning them that they are on notice.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: They're massive fans of doing this in their diplomacy texts.
Double Entendre: Their home planet system is named like a family, with a Gas Giant called "Sky Father", their moon homeworld called "Cradle", other colonised moons called "Mother" and "Brother", and finally a Shattered World named "Sister" which is ruined forever.
Everyone Has Standards: While standard empires have no qualms with you killing off populations from most Fallen Empires, killing an Enigmatic pop will trigger a sudden drop in relationships much faster than your equal-aged neighbors.
Gilded Cage: Civilizations that make use of slavery or warfare will be far worse off as a Signatory than under any other type of rule. Signatories can colonize but cannot declare wars... but by the time they awaken, most likely there are no free planets to colonize anymore, and the only option is to grab them from rival empires. This results in a pretty static game until/unless they are overthrown by their Signatories.
Good Is Not Soft: Even if the player keeps on their good side, they're condescending at best, and they're keen on delivering simply brutal beat downs to those who earn their ire.
Graceful Loser: They take getting vassalized rather well, all things considered - they've never been someone else's subject before, and the brand new experience is worth all the trouble to them if they're serving an empire they were previously fond of. Even if you wipe them from the map, they take it pretty well; deeming that it's simply their time to take a step back and watch things unfold from the sidelines.
Happiness in Slavery: A bit of toss-up between this and Voluntary Vassal to you; they're usually the one 'offering' the opportunity to become their Signatory. On the other hand, they are the nicest of the bunch, you can still Colonize new worlds as long you don't go on Offensive Wars, and they will come to your aid should you be attacked.
Heavenly Blue: Their energy color is a deep sea blue.
Hero Antagonist: Arguably qualify as a rather arrogant but well-meaning version. While they do seek to vassalize the galaxy as an Awakened Empire, and make it clear they view themselves as superior, they can't really be faulted. They're the only Fallen Empire that will attack an Empire for purges, and otherwise don't seek to prevent other empires from flourishing in any way, like the other Fallen Empires do. And as a vassal/signatory, you are restricted... from conducting wars of aggression, practicing slavery, and committing genocide. And you pay no taxes. And unlike the other Fallen Empires, they will protect you from attackers. Lastly, along from the Materialists and the Ancient Caretakers, they can stop their plans to vassalize the galaxy and fight the crisis alongside you, to the point of joining a Federation or making their own to defend the galaxy, and aside from 10x and 25x Crisis Strength, are powerful enough to seriously bolster the defense against the Endgame Crisis. They only turn into Abusive Precursors if you refuse to sign the Peace Treaty or are, as previously detailed, rather blatantly evil. Whatever their faults (Their People Zoo being probably the most questionable), it really isn't hard to see the good in them.
People Zoo: They'll occasionally ask a civilization they think isn't long for this galaxy (from their perspective, basically all of them) to provide a pop (i.e. somewhere around a billion people) for their Preserve. Those they take are indeed treated well enough, but the rest of your population will be understandably irritated if you agree. Whereas the Enigmatic Observers, with their massive fleets, may be potentially disappointed if you deny them and have a history of telling them to shove off.
Video Game Cruelty Punishment: This is essentially their entire foreign policy statement. If you mess around with slavery and purges, or attack their vassals, they will end you.

Holy Guardians/Doctrinal Enforcers

"We have been chosen as keepers of the sacred places in this galaxy. Our cause is beyond your understanding, but our instructions are not."

This Fallen Empire dedicates itself to the preservation and defense of its holy sites. Colonizing systems that they consider sacred is likely to incur their ire.

Berserk Button: Do not testfire your new planet-cracker on their holy planets. They will awaken and try to have your empire crushed if you do. If you think shielding the world instead will make them happy, think again. They will treat it like you'd destroyed the world. They want access to the world so that they can ensure it remains consecrated as opposed to being defiled by neglect.
Big Bad: If they awaken, and the crisis hasn't shown up, the Militant Isolationists don't also awaken, and there isn't serious competition with a Genocidal Empire, Galactic Emperor or Hegemon, they become this.
- Big Bad Ensemble: As described above, they might not be the only antagonists at play, and if so, they will not join forces, putting this trope into action.
- Big Bad Wannabe: As described in general, this can happen to a degree, whether as a Downplayed Trope or Played Straight. Depending on when they awaken, they can be brushed aside by a powerful Federation or Genocidal Empire. When the Endgame Crisis occurs, this trope occurs to some degree, as the galaxy will prioritize them above any Fallen Empire (and other Fallen/Awakened Empires will do the same), but the degree this happens varies. Up To Eleven with 10x and 25x level crisis (or even 56.25x in back-to-back), which are so far out of an Awakened Empire's league (even with half or more of the galaxy as obedient vassals and before Decadence kicks in) that if you're playing this, the Fallen Empires aren't your competition.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: They have some choice words if you pursue the Synthetic Ascension path. If these guys don't exist in your galaxy, however, this message can come from any spiritualist empire.
That yours was a depraved species was not unknown to us, but your latest act of insanity has surpassed even our darkest fears. Making imperfect copies of your brains and plugging them into mobile synthetic containers is not the same as transferring your essence into a new body, for such a thing cannot be done.

Your souls are lost forever. Do you even realize the enormity of your mistake? Destroying the bodies you were gifted with at birth was nothing less than the collective suicide of your entire species. There is truly no hope for you now...
- Amusingly, in "The Machine Age" DLC you now can create a Spiritual civilization that believes in Spiritual Ascendance via Brain Uploading, it is yet unknown how they will react to this.
The Fundamentalist: While dormant, they do not stand out in this regard any more than other Fallen Empires, but this changes in case they awaken and become Doctrinal Enforcers. All the other Awakened Empires equally want others to obey and fulfill the demands placed on them, yet they don't care what truth the younger races believe in. In contrast, Doctrinal Enforcers seek not only to ensure their primacy over others but to force the entire galaxy to share their beliefs, meaning that should any non-Gestalt empire decide to become their Dominion, it will automatically get a Fanatic Spiritualist ethic. Befittingly, the second half of a Doctrinal Enforcer empire's name will be either Crusaders, Fanatics, or Zealots.
Graceful Loser: If you find the head of their legendary prophet, they will consider your empire to be more worthy than themselves to colonize their Gaia Worlds. In addition to that, if they awaken and start subjugating the galaxy, you can tell them to shove off and they will not bother you anymore.
Gold and White Are Divine: Their color scheme is silver and gold with soft blue, almost white energy highlights. This comes with a serious case of Light Is Not Good.
Holy Ground: They designate certain Gaia worlds (with special names) as sacred places, not to be colonized under any circumstances. Fail to obey, and there will be suffering. With that said, they are content to allow another empire to claim the system with a starbase (given this will protect it from other empires), and Spiritualists who also declare the planet sacred with an edict will gain a large diplomacy bonus with them.
A Lighter Shade of Black: They're easily seen as the second biggest assholes among the Fallen Empires with very good reason. They sit around obsessed with dead rocks for narrow-minded reasons, they'll not mobilize as Guardians of the Galaxy even if the endgame crises are bearing down on everyone, and if they Awaken and start trying to conquer the galaxy, their vassals are subject to heavy taxes and forced to become Fanatic Spiritualists which, setting aside potential unhappy populations suddenly thrust into a different ethos, even if the Enforcers themselves don't make use of robots, means bad times for any Ridiculously Human Robots who're suddenly forced into slavery indefinitely. But for all that, they're still firmly the second biggest assholes among Fallen Empires with very good reasons too. While the Guardians aren't that hard to get along with, even letting other empires claim the systems that contain their Holy Worlds so long as they don't actually colonize them and having a whole quest to earn their friendship, the fanatically xenophobic Isolationists will attack anyone who so much as shares a border with them and can't be befriended by any means. The Reclaimers combine the same heavy taxes on their vassals with restrictions on expansion through any means but blood and warfare, and while the Guardians insist on using manual labor out of a mixed-up sense of doctrinal fanaticism the Isolationists have a huge population of lobotomized slaves from their days as warmongering tyrants. In short, the Holy Guardians are stuck up assholes, but they require you to go out of your way to provoke them before they become dangerous. The Militant Isolationists are abusive assholes who are easily provoked by even innocuous behavior.
Jerkass Has a Point: And you will find out the hard way why they're so vehement that you don't meddle with AI techs.
Macross Missile Massacre: Doctrinal Enforcers' ships use mostly missile weapons.
Mirroring Factions: Amusingly, they're fairly similar to the Keepers of Knowledge. They're both scholarly Fallen Empires who revere the past and oppose the development of AI technology past dangerous thresholds; the Holy Guardians just do it out of misplaced fanaticism towards what they regard as their ancestors' holy scripture rather than research and analysis. Fittingly, they're the only two Fallen Empires that can have Scions.
Noodle Incident: Their homeworld has a moon called The Mistake, whose exact nature is never elaborated.
Only the Chosen May Wield: They will happily let you colonize their Gaia worlds... Provided you can actually prove that you have the divine right to do so by finding the resting place of the long lost prophet Zarqlan and bringing his head back to prove it. Not only that, they also happily give the empire who has acquired said head some of their own fleets if asked when activated.
Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Inverted. Holy Guardians are as ancient and advanced as all the other Fallen Empires, but at the same time, the degree of importance of religion in their society is emphasized to the maximum extent possible. This is especially noticeable when looking at their jobs: Holy Guardians have their own unique set, from which one can conclude that their population continues to work in the fields, mines, and workshops instead of enjoying all the temptations of a hedonistic lifestyle like three other organic Fallen Empires do. Their argumentation for this is given in the jobs' descriptions, which, instead of simply explaining the essence of these jobs in ordinary phrases, as usual, depict them from the perspective of Holy Guardians themselves through something akin to legends and excerpts from the sacred scriptures.
Shattered World: Their homeworld's moon, "The Mistake", is one of these.
Straw Hypocrite: Those holy worlds they guard? They're happy to colonize them for themselves when/if they awaken.
Tranquil Fury: Those holy worlds they love so much? Merely settle one and they'll scream that you're an "arrogant little wretch" before demanding you leave or face their wrath. Blow one up, however, and the message they send is terse and measured. Then they'll instantly awaken and attempt to subjugate your species. Ditto for if you shield one, as from their perspective, the two are interchangeable.
[Planet name] was a holy world.
You do not know the true extent of your sin.
Not yet.
What the Hell, Hero?: If your empire completes the synthetic ascension path, they will verbally tear you a new one about how your species has essentially committed mass suicide, since your new robot bodies are soulless abominations against true life. The odds are good that they'll declare war at this point.

Keepers of Knowledge/Watchful Regulators

"We have seen civilization delve into the forbidden over and over, risking every life in the galaxy. Such is the folly of youth."

This Fallen Empire dedicates itself to the hoarding of technologies that it believes should be kept out the hands of young and irresponsible races. Pursuing dangerous lines of research may draw their ire.

Beam Spam: Their ships rely more on beam weapons than any other Fallen Empire. Even a single cruiser packs two tachyon lances.
Big Good: Less than Benevolent Interventionists, but their Awakened form only demands a small tithe of research data, otherwise leaving their subjects free to roam freely. Contrast with the Enforcers tendency to force their Empire Ethics, and Reclaimers who effectively muzzle their subjects.
City Planet: As of 2.2, their homeworld will always be an Ecumenopolis.
Cyborg: No matter the species, they're guaranteed to possess the Cyborg trait.
Emerald Power: The teal-green energy highlights on their technology.
Great Big Library of Everything: They have one on The Archives Gaia world, named Master Archive, which contains "the collected knowledge of five galactic ages". As is perhaps the case with any other Fallen Empire building, the exact understanding of how it works has long been lost, so only a limited number of Archivists interact with and store the Master Archive.
Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: A highly-advanced society that has dedicated itself to watching for signs of lesser civilizations developing dangerous technologies and ensuring they don't proliferate by any means they deem necessary.
Mirroring Factions: Amusingly, they're fairly similar to the Holy Guardians. They're both scholarly Fallen Empires who revere the past and oppose the development of AI technology past dangerous thresholds; the Keepers of Knowledge just do it out of devotion to their ancestor's research rather than scriptures. Fittingly, they're the only two Fallen Empires that can have Scions.
Seen It All: Much of their dialogue, particularly their intro quote.
"Yes, yes. We've heard it all before. We are the [Keepers of Knowledge], you are the [Player Empire]. Greetings. Well met. Stay out of our space or face certain doom, and so forth. Now if you'll excuse us, we're quite busy."
Servant Race: Their robots are enslaved (though they might not be smart enough to realize being enslaved). On the other hand, they are very fond of Machine Empires, and Rogue Servitors in particular.
You Are Not Ready: If an empire explores dangerous technologies (such as the Jump Drive), they will demand that empire cease to search such paths. Fail to obey, and there will be suffering.

Militant Isolationists/Jingoistic Reclaimers

"Let us state this plainly. We demand a buffer between us and the rest of the galaxy. You are not that buffer. Your allies are not that buffer. Cold, dead space is that buffer, and if it is not, we will make it so."

The Fallen Empire dedicates itself to the defense of its borders against any intrusions. Colonizing systems that border them is likely to draw their ire.

Absolute Xenophobe: Fanatic xenophobia is their only remaining ethos. They demand one thing from the rest of the galaxy: stay many lightyears away from their borders. Fail to obey, and there will be suffering. However, this is subverted by Jingoistic Reclaimers; they want other races to be their vassals, not annihilated, if possible.
Allowed Internal War: Vassals of Jingoistic Reclaimers aren't allowed to colonize new planets but they can seize planets from each other.
Big Bad: If they awaken, and the crisis hasn't shown up, the Holy Guardians don't also awaken, and there isn't serious competition with a Genocidal Empire, Galactic Emperor or Hegemon, they become this.
- Big Bad Ensemble: As described above, they might not be the only antagonists at play, and if so they will not join forces, making them this trope.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Just like with the Doctrinal Enforcers, as Jingoistic Reclaimers how this happens varies from being a Downplayed Trope, Played Straight. Depending on when they awaken, they can be brushed aside by a powerful Federation or Genocidal Empire. When the Endgame Crisis occurs, this trope occurs to some degree, as the galaxy will prioritize them above any Fallen Empire (and other Fallen/Awakened Empires will do the same), but the degree this trope happens varies from "Similar" to "Inferior but not to be ignored" to "Completely irrelevant and ignorable".
Happiness in Slavery: Being a Reclaimer's vassal is arguably the best among the four from a purely gameplay standpoint. They won't ban you from using AI, they don't forcibly convert your Ethics, and they don't ban you from grabbing planets from rival empires. They only impose a hefty basic resources tax, which you're probably swimming in by the late game anyway, and forbid you to Colonize new worlds, but by this point, there's usually no more free planets, so grabbing them from your rivals is the only option anyway.
Hidden Elf Village: They want as little to do with the outside universe as they can possibly manage, enforcing a "buffer zone" around their space and sterilizing any colonies that encroach upon it.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: They certainly think so; only their point defenses are non-kinetic.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their ships have this color scheme, contrasting the other Fallen Empires' usual cool palettes.
Retired Monster: Some archaeological digs imply these empires were expansionist and genocidal in the past, though they've since stepped down from the galactic stage while retaining their hatred of other species.
- There was once a pacifist species called the Shallarians, who dismissed the idea of war even in self-defense. The Fallen Empire, in its youth, was regarded by them as ignorant and uncivilized upstarts. The Militants, conversely, were horrified by Shallarian pacifism. So much so that they committed genocide. Even with all of their technological advancements, the Shallarians had Suicidal Pacifism, so the resulting war was brief. The Militants then set an automated guard to ensure the civilization they hated so much would never rise again.
The Scapegoat: When the ancient war between them and the other fallen empires ended, they let their top commander take the blame for their war crimes. Too cowardly to kill him, but needing to placate the other signatories, they imprisoned him alone on a shielded world, slowed down in time. If the Militant Isolationists lose the planet he was imprisoned on, the younger race that conquered it can choose to lift the shield and recruit him.
Unwitting Pawn: Their tendency to rage whenever someone colonizes their border makes them very easy to manipulate. Step 1: Colonize planet. Step 2: Transfer planet to your hated rival. Step 3: Watch your rival gets obliterated by them. Unsurprisingly, this tactic was nerfed by first making other empires reluctant to accept random systems and in a later patch only able to accept transferring systems that they also directly border.
We Will Use Manual Labour in the Future: Their homeworld will always possess a number of Nerve Stapled alien slaves.
You Will Be Spared: Once they Awaken, they will offer mercy to any empires that submit to their authority.

AI Advisors

General

Benevolent A.I.: Well, to the player; the Xenophobic one is happy to advise doing awful things to xenos, for instance.
Mission Control: As the player's AI advisor, they mostly fill the player in with audio cues.

VIR (Default Advisor)

The Generic Guy: Downplayed, but he's meant to fill the spot of AI advisor for player without Synthetic Dawn, and thus to fit in with any ethos.
Servile Snarker: When hosting the tutorial; he becomes more passive thereafter.

Aquatic Advisor

"Our course is charted! Cast off all moorings and hard a'starboard! Greatness awaits in the briny black!"

Talk Like a Pirate: His whole shtick, complete with accent.

Authoritarian Advisor

"Maintaining state cohesion as we venture to space presents a unique challenge. We shall face the challenge head-on, and we shall be stronger for it."

Evil Sounds Deep: A naturally deep, sinister sounding voice lends an air of malevolence. While the advisor's lines are mostly neutral, the delivery makes even benevolent deeds sound like they're part of some evil plot.
Unusual Dysphemism: His line upon analyzed debris? "Hulks vivisected".

Diplomat Advisor

"Knowledge. Discovery. Compassion. Integrity. And hot tea."

Egalitarian Advisor

"Do not be discouraged to exercise your individual right to free thought. Please take a moment now to practice."

Eagleland: Everything about his 1950s radio announcer voice emphasizes Type 1, even if his lines occasionally dip into Type 2.

Hive Mind Advisor

"What is a single voice compared to a magnificent chorus? Our collective is an island of warmth and harmony in a sea of discord. How lonely it must be to face the darkness of space alone."

Voice of the Legion: Several voices with a flat affect, layered atop one another, and it refers to itself as "we". Implicitly it's a part of the Hive Mind itself, not an AI, since hive minds tend to prefer squishy tech.

Machine Intelligence Advisor

"System diagnostic completed. All systems nominal."

Machine Monotone: Naturally, for the advisor to a galaxy-spanning AI network.
Robo Speak: Frequently precedes its comments with "alert", and uses far more technical terms than are necessary.

Materialist Advisor

"Boundless horizons. Endless learning opportunities. Bleeding edge discoveries. Limited legroom."

Absent-Minded Professor: Has shades of this, often focusing heavily on his research before remembering that his primary job is to advise you.
For Science!: His favorite topic, even in matters not obviously related.
War declaraton processed. Commencing live subjects weapon testing!
Servile Snarker: One of the more colorful commentators.

Militarist Advisor

"Only in battle can the true mettle of any sentient organism be measured. Have at thee!"

Absolute Xenophobe: She could give the Xenophobe Advisor a run for his money.
Blood Knight: She's enthusiastic about war and destruction.
Large Ham: Her lines are said with relish.
Soldier Versus Warrior: Firmly a warrior.

Necroid Advisor

"Death comes for all sapients in the end... but no one said it couldn't be led a merry chase."

Nightmare Fetishist: She has a rather distinct obsession with death and decay, something that she'll mention quite a lot.
Perky Goth: Her idiosyncratic lines lean this way; for instance, a newly formed federation is a "new coven".
Voice of the Legion: The AI's voice processing gives it an ethereal, echoing style.

Pacifist Advisor

"The only way to make peace with others is to make peace with yourself."

Deadly Euphemism: When she has to talk of war, as Stellaris pacifists often do. Hostile planets are not "invaded", they are "pacified".

Ruthless Conglomerate Advisor

"As the learned say, what's yours is mine, and what's mine is also mine."

Character Catchphrase: Boom! It loves beginning its advice with "Boom!"
Corrupt Corporate Executive: To no one's surprise, its advice boils down to this.

Slick Corporation Advisor

"Here at Megacorp, we always put your future first."

Asbestos-Free Cereal: It likes to insert corporate platitudes in every sentence.

Soldier Advisor

"This channel is now under military control. Obey all instructions transmitted here and report any insurgent activity to the nearest occupation officer. Have a nice day."

Face Death with Dignity: One of her preview lines explicitly illustrate this kind of behavior, complete with her declaring that It Has Been an Honor to serve you.
Soldier Versus Warrior: The restrained, precise Soldier to the conventional Militarist advisor's hammy Warrior.

Spiritualist Advisor

"Thinking machines are an affront to nature. These profane constructs must never be allowed to... oh... wait...."

Machine Monotone: Slightly more pronounced than most advisors save for the Machine Intelligence Advisor, suggesting, appropriately for the machine-wary Spiritualists, a more restrained AI.
Martyrdom Culture: At least, those destroyed by enemies are "martyred".
Irony: A (relatively simple) AI for an ethos that is defined by its contempt for AIs. One of her preview lines notes this.

Technocracy Advisor

"No great advance is made without great sacrifice."

Evil Counterpart: To the ordinary Materialist AI. The Technocracy advisor is much more aggressive and contemptuous of lessers.
Evil Sounds Deep: Right up there with the Authoritarian AI for deep, ominous bass notes.

Toxoid Advisor

Jerkass: The advisor makes spiteful comments toward your actions, such as claiming your colony won't last.
Lack of Empathy: He believes nothing of value is lost when a colony ship is destroyed.
Stealth Pun: His unpleasant personality is best described as toxic.

The Worker Advisor

"Automation! Open access! Shared wealth! With these we shall unite the stars with song!"

Chummy Commies: Basically uses common communist slogans about equality and revolution repurposed for the science fiction setting.
Dirty Communists: As above, except less charitably.
Husky Russkie: Speaks with a rather thick russian accent.

Xenophile Advisor

"I may be an Artificial Intelligence, but I share your enthusiasm for seeking out fellow organic intelligences among the stars."

Genki Girl: For an AI, she has a particularly hyper and energetic attitude.
New-Age Retro Hippie: Like... space... whoa. Also very eager to make friends with anyone and anything.

Xenophobe Advisor

"Under no circumstances must the xeno be trusted. It will lie, it will cheat, it will do anything in its power to undermine the efforts of those who, in truth, are its superiors."

Absolute Xenophobe: He has a sneering, fanatically spiteful attitude towards any filthy xenos the galaxy has to offer.
Comedic Sociopathy: Since his attitude is played entirely straight, it can be interpreted as funny as much as awful.
Jerkass: Naturally, his attitude isn't very pleasant, dismissingly sneering at any xenos that you should encounter.
Servile Snarker: See What the Hell, Hero? below, but even so, his loyalty is entirely guaranteed — even if his approval is not.
What the Hell, Hero?: Inverting the usual direction, the Xenophobe Advisor sarcastically questions the player if they do something a xenophobic empire normally wouldn't. For instance, upon uplifting a species:
The brains of the xeno animals have been enlarged. Is this wise?

Precursor Empires

General

Apocalypse How: Each and every one of them eventually suffered at least a species extinction on a galactic scale.
Precursors: It's in the name. Most of them didn't reach a level that much more advanced than the player civilizations before their untimely demise, though.
Recursive Precursors: Each civilization inhabited a different era of the galaxy's existence. Although it's extremely rare for more than one to be referenced in the same save.
- The Vultaum are the eldest, their empire existing 12 million years ago.
- The Baol, Gunur, and Zroni lived 7 million years ago.
- The Yuht ruled 6 million years ago.
- The First League existed 2 million years ago.
- The Irassian Concordat is 1 million years old.
- The Cybrex are the most recent, active a mere 600,000 years ago. And technically, they're still out there.

The Cybrex

The Atoner: Their primary motive if they return while the Contingency rages upon the galaxy, as they seek to atone for their genocidal campaigns by stopping a genocidal AI from exterminating all sapient life from the galaxy.
Badass Army: As their War Forge relic indicates, they had one based around heavily-armed juggernauts crushing literally everything in their way with no regard for collateral damage whatsoever. Should you possess the aforementioned relic, you can build Cybrex armies of your own, with predictable results for anyone who decides to go up against you.
Benevolent A.I.: An interesting variant where they used to be truly malevolent, but had a change of heart.
Benevolent Precursors: If the Contingency crisis goes on long enough, the Cybrex will return and ultimately be this for the rest of the galaxy.
Best Served Cold: How their race got exterminated. Except that they've had a second hideout all along.
Big Damn Heroes: Their arrival during the Contingency crisis can potentially turn the tables around on the Contingency, resulting in this trope.
Blue Is Heroic: You can tell that the Cybrex is on your side by the way their portrait is blue instead of red.
But Now I Must Go: After the Contingency is defeated they decide that it is best for them to leave the galaxy.
Foreshadowing: Can potentially serve as this, if your empire studies Cybrex artifacts and the endgame Crisis Event turns out to be the Contingency.
Good Counterpart: To the Contingency. To bring the point across, they have the same portrait, with the main difference being that the Cybrex is blue.
- Also to any Determined Exterminator still present.
He's Back!: They will show up if the Contingency crisis goes on for long enough.
My God, What Have I Done?: Their realization of logic and mutual understanding forced them into hiding on their home sector. See Robot War.
Not Quite Dead: Turns out that the Cybrex is not quite as extinct as the races in their time and your scientists thought them to be.
Production Foreshadowing: To the Synthetic Dawn expansion, which adds the ability to play as a "Determined Exterminator" machine race very similar to the Cybrex.
Reformed, but Rejected: They eventually realized that what they were doing was wrong and retreated to isolated ringworlds, disappearing from history. However, when one of these ring worlds was discovered by another race, the rest of the galaxy decided to not take chances and formed an enormous fleet to destroy it. The Cybrex didn't even attempt to defend themselves.
Ring World Planet: After retreating from the galactic stage, they constructed one of these in a remote system and moved in. By the time the player finds it it's a shattered husk, having been destroyed after the anti-Cybrex races discovered it and attacked. Players with the Utopia expansion can restore it to full functionality if they have the Mega-Engineering technology. The Contingency crisis reveals that they have a second ringworld called Cybrex Beta, which is still occupied.
Robot War: They waged one against the organic races of the galaxy for reasons unknown, but were eventually defeated.
Scannable Man: They had the habit of lasering barcodes onto their organic captives à la Skynet.
Sympathy for the Devil: Devouring Swarms receive some sympathy from them, noting they cannot change.
Turned Against Their Masters: The Cybrex were originally created by a race known as the Kuur. They rebelled against them and completely destroyed them. By the time the player finds their homeworld, the planet's been stripped of nearly all of its resources, and there are next to no traces left of the Kuur.

The First League

City Planet:
- The League capital, Fen Habannis, was one of these, with a population of many billions. Unfortunately, it was so heavily populated that it was dependant on importing food from other planets to survive, and when the League's collapse severed the vital supply chain, the planet immediately descended into anarchy.
- One member species, the Migir-Yan, were Explosive Breeders and covered their homeworld with arcologies as a result.
Defeat Means Friendship: The Khamdai went to war with several of the First League's founders before the federation's creation, very shortly after achieving faster-than-light travel. When they were defeated, the Khamdai became enthusiastic supporters of the newborn League and a founding member themselves, and Khamdai shock-troops served as the core of the League's military.
Expy: To the Galactic Republic from Star Wars. Both are democratic nations with many member worlds and species, with a City Planet as their capital world.
Fantastic Racism: One of their archeological sites is the ruins of a failed multi-species colony project that collapsed within half a century due to tensions between different races.
The Federation: An alliance of multiple species and, as the name suggests, the earliest known federation in the galaxy's history. Unfortunately, it proved to be a Deconstructed Trope — the First League was unable to maintain cohesion between its member races, willing to force the seceding member to comply through military force, and unable to contain criminal elements.
Planet of Hats: The founding members are made up of species that specialized in these categories: Proud Warrior Race, Proud Merchant Race, Proud Scholar Race, and so on.
Production Foreshadowing: The First League planets one can find include a penal colony and multiple city planets, which were introduced as player options with the Le Guin patch and the MegaCorp expansion.
Proud Merchant Race: The serpentine Chassago filled this role within the League, and their trade vessels were often the first point of contact between the League and new races.

The Irassian Concordat

The Empire: They subjugated other nations and looked down upon their subjects and reveled in the fact that none of them were powerful enough to challenge their rule.
Expy: Of the Rakata from Star Wars. Like the Infinite Empire, the Irassian Concordat once ruled over a large portion of the Galaxy with numerous slave species, and just like the Rakata, they were ultimately undone when a deadly plague that only affected them began spreading throughout their empire.
Face Death with Dignity: There was remarkably little panic when the plague reached their homeworld, Irassia, because the population had already accepted their species' looming extinction.
It's the Only Way to Be Sure: After they all succumbed to the plague, somebody bombed their homeworld into a lifeless rock to make sure the disease died with them. They didn't get it all.
The Plague: The Javorian Pox ultimately did them in. Discovering their homeworld grants you a sample of the Pox as a major relic, which can be weaponized in planetary bombardments.
Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice: They blockaded many of their colonies to prevent the spread of the Javorian Pox, and were not afraid to nuke ships that tried to escape. One archeological discovery is a ghost ship with all of its escape pods still loaded: When an outbreak was confirmed on the vessel, the marines blocked off access to the pods and gunned down anyone who tried to reach them.
The Dog Bites Back: When the Irassians' abused client races realized the Javorian Pox was only lethal to their overlords, a resistance movement was formed to jointly spread the disease across Irassian space like interstellar Typhoid Marys.
Weaksauce Weakness: The Irassians were the most powerful empire in their corner of the galaxy, having conquered all of their neighbors. However, they're stated to have been very suceptible to alien diseases even before the Javorian Pox epidemic, and "the budget of their public health institute nearly rivaled that of their military."

The Vultaum Star Assembly

Big Creepy-Crawlies: Four meter long worms.
Defector from Decadence: One of their archeological sites is a small renagade colony that broke from the rest of their civilization in rebellion against the nihilistic creed of the simulation. As a result, they persisted for quite a while after the rest of their species self-destructed.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In a sense, they were right about the universe being a simulation.
Lotus-Eater Machine: The Vultaum had come to believe that their entire universe was an advanced computer simulation for the amusement of higher beings, which drove their entire species to madness. After trying and failing for a century to free themselves, they finally resorted to a Suicide Pact, believing the simulation would break if enough of them "disconnected" at the same time. If your empire is Fanatic Materialist and you choose to dive deeper into their secrets, your scientists will come to the same conclusion.◊ While this won't result in mass suicides if you chose to release the information, your population will suffer permanent happiness penalty in exchange for research bonus, both general and computing, and extra amenities.
Original Position Fallacy:
- Their plan was doomed from the start because, rather than being the focus of the simulation, they simply existed for their collective suicide to serve as a tragic history for the player's empire to investigate.
- Also, they took the completely wrong approach to solving their issue. Stellaris is a game where having fewer pops would actually make it more stable, rather than less, so the Vultaums only succeeded in strengthening the simulation further.
Reality Warper: Their research into the simulation yielded something called the "reality perforator", a dense sphere the Vultaum claimed could disrupt the simulation and offer a glimpse into the real world. The relic's description explains that the perforator creates a temporary bubble within which the laws of the universe can be bent in minor ways, and everything snaps back to normal afterward. In practice, your empire uses it to give their fleets a random combat buff.
Suicide Pact: Their entire species offed themselves at an agreed-upon hour, thinking it would disrupt the virtual reality simulation they believed themselves to be trapped in. Nearly every aecheological site is the aftermath of a self-inflicted apocalypse — Cities that nuked themselves to dust or collapsed Space Elevators on top of themselves, and far-flung outposts that used any means at their disposal to destroy themselves and their facilities. Their homeworld, meanwhile, was cleansed of all life by an antimatter bomb.

The Yuht Empire

Absolute Xenophobe: Their reaction to finally discovering another sapient species, after thinking themselves alone for two-million years, was to have a collective panic-attack and launch a campaign of genocide.
Absent Aliens: For much of their two-million-year existence, they found no signs of other civilizations, and the few precursor relics they discovered were dismissed as elaborate fakes. When they finally encountered a living alien race, the Jabbardeeni, the Yuht didn't take it very well.
Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: The Yuht somehow failed to develop hyperspace travel like every other empire in the galaxy's history, and instead traveled the galaxy in Sleeper Ships. It's implied that this contributed to their inability to find other sapient beings.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: Hundred meter across arthropods. Their standard crew compliment was one or two, and colony ships carried only a dozen. In battle, the Yuht donned a sort of Powered Armor and took to the field as living tanks.
Genocide Backfire: They tried to exterminate the Jabbardeeni before they grew too powerful with a single decisive strike. It failed, and in less than a decade, the Jabbardeeni had completely destroyed them.
Human Popsicle: They were reliant on cryogenic technology to traverse the stars, as they never developed conventional hyperlane travel. A prototype Yuht cryo-core, devised shortly before the end of their empire, is the unique relic gained from finding their homeworld — It passively enables new colonies to start with 1 extra pop, and can be activated to temporarily reduce your empire's ship upkeep by 20%.
Sleeper Starship: They had to rely on these (with the aid of cryo-stasis technology and their thousand year lifespans) to cross the stars, never discovering Hyperspace Lanes; normally a prerequisite for any galactic civilization.
Space Age Stasis: Their empire was culturally and technologically stagnant for two million years. When they started a war with the first alien race they met, the aliens went from inferior to leapfrogging their technology and wiping them out in less than a decade.

The Baol Organism

Bio-Augmentation: Via the astral rifts, players can encounter them in an Alternate Universe where they are not yet dead, but getting close. One of the ways you can choose to help them is to use genetic engineering to augment the pacifist species' warrior drones and biological weapons.
Formerly Sapient Species: The trauma of the extermination campaign was so devastating to the Baol that many of them devolved into non-sapience to escape it. The last sentient Baol, when informed of this by the player, decides that it's for the best, dying shortly afterward.
Ghibli Hills: It's suggested that they're the ones responsible for those rare Gaia worlds that show up outside of Fallen Empire territory, which might even extend to those Life-Seeded species who evolved on such a planet.
Hive Mind: The second gestalt conciousness and first biological hivemind to show up as a precursor.
Intelligent Forest: At their height, the Baol were spread out over much of the galaxy. Each individual world counted as an Intelligent Forest in and of itself, and all of them were linked together into one vast hive consciousness.
Kill It with Fire: How the vast majority of them died out. The Grunur's methods weren't exactly kind to the Baol.
Last of His Kind: By the time the game starts, there is only one Baol connected to the hive mind left, who has solemnly gotten accustomed to the fate of the species as a whole. This is, however, subverted since finding it and using it as a relic lets you revive the species to an extent, although without them necessarily being connected to a hivemind.
Plant Aliens: Plantoids who used photosynthetic processes to terraform worlds.
Psychological Projection: Part of the reason for their fall was that the pacifist Baol had the wrong mindset to do diplomacy with a Proud Warrior Race. When they tried reasoning and negotiating for peace instead of showing daring bravado, that just made the Grunur see them as weak prey to be exterminated.
Token Good Teammate: All other canon biological hive minds in Stellaris have been pretty ruthless, but the Baol built world-gardens and established mutualistic symbiotic relationships with local alien wildlife instead.

The Zroni

A God Am I/Godhood Seeker: The Divine strongly believed this, or at least that they could become this by using the Shroud to consume the galaxy and fuel their own powers.
Abusive Precursors: Subverted — while the Divine played it straight, they were far outnumbered by the Saviors in their civil war. Still, it's hard to argue that the Divine played a huge role in turning the Shroud into what it is.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: They were the first species to discover the Shroud, and were able to physically enter it and reshape it to suit their whims.
The Dark Arts: Despite being badly outnumbered, the Divine were winning the war precisely because they were willing to resort to evil psychic techniques.
Fantastic Drug: Zro is an Addiction-Powered substance that amplifies Psychic Powers. All the Zro in the galaxy originates from their Heroic Suicide.
Final Solution: In the end, the Saviors forced an end to the civil war by telepathically nuking every single Zroni out of existence, destroying their species but saving the galaxy.
Heroic Suicide: The Saviors sacrificed all of their kind but one to produce Zro, an Addiction-Powered Fantastic Drug that amplifies Psychic Powers. The last of them then used all that power to wipe out the divine and Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence.
My God, What Have I Done?: The Zroni civil war is kicked off when a large majority of their species (the Saviors) decide to stop using the Shroud after realizing that it's consuming the galaxy to fuel itself, opposed by a smaller minority (the Divine) who don't give a damn about the physical world anymore.
Predecessor Villain: The Divine Zroni, to an empire who takes up the Menace path in Nemesis; using the same anomalies the Zroni created in the Shroud, the Menace empire recreates their technology and attempts universal godhood for their species, at the cost of everyone else.
Psychic Powers: The absolute first species in galactic history to develop them.
Villainous Legacy: With the Nemesis's new Become the Crisis Ascension perk, modern empires can now follow in the Divine's footsteps and attempt to consume the entire galaxy to physically enter the Shroud and conquer it.
Whole-Plot Reference: To the Fall of the Eldar. A race of advanced aliens dominated the galaxy long ago with incredible psychic powers and tried to use them to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence in an act of supreme racial arrogance, but it backfired and destroyed their civilization. The result of their deranged psychic experiment is the creation of malevolent psychic entities that still plague the galaxy long after the decline of their race.

"On the Shoulders of Giants" Precursors

Ancient Astronauts: The species with the "On the Shoulders of Giants" Origin shows clear signs of having their development as a civilization tampered with. The story line for the Origin's archaeological expeditions is all about resolving exactly what happened in their past.
Benevolent Precursors: Whoever they were, the people behind the caches of supplies and technology found at the archaeological sites clearly left them behind for the benefit of your species.
Blank Slate: One of the constants across all story lines is that the player species's ancestors were irreversibly mind-wiped by the Benefactors below the threshold of sapience and had to regain their intelligence the hard way.
Fling a Light into the Future: The final dig site includes a message describing in detail exactly what the Benefactors did to your ancestors, and why.
"[S]omeone has to come clean and speak up for them. History may endure, but my conscience cannot."
Forever War: The backstory for the Origin involves a generations-long war between two factions known only as the Benefactors and the Ruthless, with the player species's ancestors being caught in the middle.
Multiple-Choice Past: While the overall story the archaeological sites tell is mostly the same on every playthrough, the identity of their builders and the circumstances of their construction are randomized and not revealed until the very last chapter.
Only Smart People May Pass: Some of the tests your investigators face while exploring the ruins include elaborate puzzles that demonstrate knowledge of chemistry and physics, or else barriers that can only be circumvented with tools and techniques that would be beyond a more primitive civilization's reach.
Walking Spoiler: Needless to say, the true identity of any of the builders of the ruins in the "On the Shoulders of Giants" Origin rather thoroughly spoils the Origin's plot.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Whatever their specific motivation, the threat that drove the Benefactors to deploy the Mind-Wipe Initiative against your species was a perceived threat to their own existence.

Characters / Stellaris: Empires

Standard AI Personalities

Preset Empires

Base Game Empires

Utopia Empires

Distant Stars Empires

Megacorp Empires

Synthetic Dawn Empires

First Contact Empires

Astral Planes Empires

Species Pack Empires

Hive Mind Empires

Machine Empires

MegaCorps

Species Packs

Nemesis

Overlord

Common to all types

Bulwark

Prospectorium

Scholarium

First Contact

The Machine Age

Fallen Empires

AI Advisors

Precursor Empires

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Index

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Characters / Stellaris: Empires

Edit Locked

Standard AI Personalities

Preset Empires

Base Game Empires

Utopia Empires

Distant Stars Empires

Megacorp Empires

Synthetic Dawn Empires

First Contact Empires

Astral Planes Empires

Species Pack Empires

Hive Mind Empires

Machine Empires

MegaCorps

Species Packs

Nemesis

Overlord

Common to all types

Bulwark

Prospectorium

Scholarium

First Contact

The Machine Age

Fallen Empires

AI Advisors

Precursor Empires

Previous

Index

Next