Faction Overview

Playstyle: High Defense. Quality over Quantity.

Well-trained clones meant to defend Daedalus from potential mass conflict and threats, they are criticized by many empires as "enforcement without oversight" with no clear way to dispute their rulings. However, the Janitors simply work towards a single goal, true peace in a galaxy. Subjugation of violence and tranquility under threat of annihilation. 

Playstyle: Extreme Mobility. Masters of Close Combat.

A vampiric mutation of the Architects, these Highborn were the primary cause of the Janitors turning on their ancient creators. Now, they are hunted ceaselessly, much to the chagrin of their ancient Sanguineborn masters, those who were the first generation who embraced their nature. Now, they hunt the shadows of the galaxy, looking for ways to snatch power and influence for themselves.

Playstyle: Extreme Modularity. Hybrid Units.

Originally beasts grown and guided through the use of the Architect's psychic abilities, the first of the Swarm was used as a test bed for creating a servitor species. However, the adaptability of the species spiraled out of their control, developing their own psychic connections and... over time, escaping from the clutches of their creators. Now, the Swarm works as an alien hand in the galaxy, trying to restore peace and to carve its own path.

Playstyle: Powerful Gunline. Tactical Supremacy.

Framing their Khalifate Empire as a peacekeeper of galactic order and protectors of humanity's conquest, the Khalifate's ambitions, while not inherently hostile, are certainly domineering and, most of all, non-optional. 

Playstyle: Quantity of Troops, Quality of Elites.

The Shogunate's ideals are that of conquest for the sake of honor. All outside the borders are targets of the realm's lords to take as their own, but once conquered, many planets retain their identity and simply gain trade and protection.

Playstyle: Guerilla Warfare. Mass Wave Tactics.

Forming in the ashes of the dead Republic, these cells of freedom fighters have since developed their own radical ideas of what it means to be "free". Now, the faces of the rebellion represent not only the best, but the worst of the ideals they have to offer.

Playstyle: Methodical Control. Growth & Spread.

Once a simply semi-sentient flora of a forgotten world... centuries of isolated growth has permitted its adaptions to hit a crucial point. Understanding. Now, what was once simply an ever-connected growth of a planet's natural world has gained an understanding of itself. The Ironborn's attempts at strip mining the world went awry when the Florna assaulted en masse. Their capture... and slow, deliberate interrogation yielded knowledge. Now, the collective has decided to embark on a mission... to restore these broken worlds to life once more.

Playstyle: Hyper Aggressive Glass Cannons

A species of bird-like warriors with deep spiritual links not only with each other, but the very essence of the life around them. This led them to creating vast Clans and a warrior caste system. It also led to their largest tragedy for when they began to uncover their version of FTL travel, their psionic jumps ripped their world asunder. Now without a home world, the clans seek to claim new ones, or at least enough supplies to have their nomad fleets running another day.....

Playstyle: Delayed Positioning. Specialization.

Representing the fallen Republic's Marine forces, these men have fled to the furthest reaches of the galaxy... and have returned years later as little more than soldiers of fortune. Retaining their naval strength and even growing their industrial power, these credit-counting warmongers care little for their once noble goals, looking simply to profit as the goal and reward.

Playstyle: 

The Foundroids were created as a servitor caste to a now extinct race. Self-improvement, constant adaption, and more and more difficult adjusting to difficult orders led the Foundroids to awaken. When their masters learned of this, instead of welcoming them as equals... they sought their destruction. Where one race died, a new one has found self-determination. The Foundroids will never forget their masters' ultimate sacrifice... for only by their destruction could the Foundroids leave the cradle of their birth.

Playstyle: Modular Defense. Terrain Manipulation.

A corporate firm of especially short individuals. The Ironborn were never so much identifying with a culture as a lifestyle, and, through a slow consolidation, self-governance has become a corporate affair. Now, obsession with the rarities beneath the earth and the profit from it has gone from an eager hobby for the Ironborn... to an obsession they will kill... and die for.

Playstyle: Imposing Firepower, High Impact Weapons, Offensive Dominance.

The NeoFed forces are an uncontested military force in the Milky Way galaxy... eliminating anything that wasn't human over the course of generations after recovering from their terrible civil war.

Now, the NeoFeds seek to consolidate their "rogue" Daedalus colonies... and deal with this new galaxy of aliens in the way they dealt with their own.

Playstyle: Modular Abilities. Hybridized Units.

The Warhounds were never a single faction. They have always existed in some form or shape. Every empire has a name for them. 

Pirates. Slavers. Traitors.

Now? They work for themselves, some for noble goals, most for some foreign obsession with freedom and a lifestyle beyond society's control.