Some lore about each faction in order of appearance. Warning! Long Comment. The Nakalim: The Nakalim developed on a dry planet towards the end of the reign of the Endless. Their reverence for the Lost made them an enemy of the Endless, but the Endless were too wrapped up in their civil war to worry about the Nakalim. Once the Endless fell, they were largely alone in a tamed and civilized galaxy full of the Endless's infrastructure. As a result they grew so rapidly that they over-expanded, and the survivors were driven into hibernation--to wait for their prophecy of the Lost to come to pass. The Umbral Choir: An ancient immaterial creature from the depth of intergalactic space, the Umbral Choir roamed the cold, empty wastes, terribly alone until a great cry of anguish pierced the darkness. Shattering into a choir of echoes, the fractured creature sped towards the source of the space-and-time rending wail--the Endless galaxy--seeking to salve that which was in pain. Unbeknownst to the Umbral Choir, the cry marked the dying scream of the Endless civilization, and as it arrived, millennia later, new life was emerging from the remnants. Still wishing to give peace to any who suffer, the Umbral Choir will remain in the shadows, infiltrating and watching until its is ready to act. The Vaulters: The Vaulters left the planet of Auriga when potentially cataclysmic geo-atmospheric problems were detected. Having left their homes, gods, and many of their people behind them, the dream of regaining these things has gained an almost mythical status. They are a stubborn, resilient people that have spent centuries seeking a home. Stranded on the world of Auriga, they had to survive the harsh climate and even harsher neighbors. In a years-long effort, they managed to repair their ancient colony ship, the Argosy, and once again depart before the dying planet became their grave. Once more among the stars, the people that now call themselves the Aurigans still seek traces of their past as well as a safe place to build their future. The Hissho: Tempered by steel and battle, the Hissho evolved from avian ancestors on their Home Planet of Uchi. Focused on the constant wars between their own tribes, they lived ignorant of the different species roaming the galaxy until they were picked up by the Concrete Endless, augmented in the world of Sykagoja, and then quickly put to the test as gladiators fighting in the decadent arenas of their new masters. How long this period of mindless slaughter for the pleasure of their overlords lasted, none of them could say until the Virtuals devastated the planet, and of this bygone age only memories of slavery and exploitation remain, along with those of glory and adulation. The Unfallen: The Unfallen have only ever known their homeworld of Koyasil, preferring to peacefully study what is near rather than discover what is far. They were content with this slow development that they refer to as the "Long Sleep" - the period from their rise to sentience to the modern era. The modern era was rudely thrust upon them by a galactic skirmish in the skies above, and the debris it rained upon their planet. Seeing fire fall from the skies, and viewing the violence of other species firsthand changed their image of their role in the galaxy. Having an intimate relationship with fire as both Fire-That-Destroys and Fire-That-Renews, they view themselves as guardians of peace and harmony in a galaxy that seems to badly be in need of both. The Riftborn: Hailing from Coroz, an alternate dimension orthogonal to the Endless Universe, the Riftborn would have happily lead out their abstract, timeless existences entirely ignorant of galactic strife, were it not for a breach that precipitated a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Like a poisoned blade slashed deep into clean flesh, the rift acted as a source of terrible disorder in the Riftborn's pristine, geometrical universe. Desperate, unable to halt the disease's advance no matter what they tried, the Riftborn took the last available course of action that might lead to their survival: Together with their strange time-shifting abilities, they stepped into the Endless Universe. Horatio: Incredibly wealthy and only slightly less deranged, Horatio was a trillionaire who left to discover his own star cluster. Finding a planet sprinkled with labs of ancient cloning technology left by the Endless, the boredom soon drove Horatio to create a race of allies, servants, and slaves who were every bit as beautiful as the most beautiful person in the universe - Horatio. Once the planet was repopulated, Horatio the First had only to look up, regard the stars, and realize how much more beautiful they, too, would be if they were filled with...Horatio. The rest, as they say, is history. The United Empire: The United Empire developed from a fleet of Mezari settlers on a temperate, resource-rich world. For decades, commercial and industrial effort went into the conquest and development of the planet. Once the planet was largely colonized and controlled, a more or less inevitable event occurred: The Great Continental War. This planet-wide military conflict occurred at a technological level that might have led to total extermination of life, and the rulers were wise enough to pull back from the brink of this collective suicide. The dominant force at the end of the war, known as the Alliance of Nations, imposed its will across the entirety of the planet through a mixture of rebuilding loans, military threats, and moral persuasion. Advanced space technologies have thus been developed under a single body that put a great deal of effort into it, and space exploration occurred at a rapid rate. The Mezari-now calling themselves Raians-launched manned probes to distant bodies within their solar system, and as technology advanced, the next steps back to the stars were inevitable. The Vodyani: The Vodyani worship the Virtual Endless, and scour the galaxy seeking ancient temples while devouring lesser beings. Victims of a classic cycle of over-industrialization, the Vodyani were saved by technology culled from ruins of the Virtual Endless. These precursors quickly gained an aura of divinity in the eyes of the Vodyani, and are now worshiped as gods. Clothed in their great black suits of borrowed technology, Vodyani leaders pilot their great Arks across the star lanes, seeking other peoples to convert, control, and consume. The Lumeris: The Lumeris are a society that revolves around trade, economic deals, economic growth, and doing business. Expansion and acquisition are the bywords of their culture, and as an amphibious people they are prepared to make money in any environment. Their society is organized around a series of families that have traditionally run different parts of their economy, and the balance of power and negotiations between the families is what drives progress - or blocks it. The Sophons: The Sophons are a curious, peace-loving race whose highest ideals are found in scientific knowledge and technological advancement. Keen to explore and understand the mysteries of the cosmos, they believe the universe is something to intellectually master. Although pacifist in outlook, and despite frail bodies not used to violence, Sophons can construct vessels of devastating offensive capability. The Cravers: Created by the Endless from an insectoid life form, the Cravers are in the purest sense hunter-gatherers who would never have independently evolved the systems and infrastructure needed to raise crops or domesticate animals. Their life cycle is based on consumption, and as such they are capable of digesting any form of plant or animal matter. As their home world is close to being consumed, they must leave in search of further nourishment. For if they do not continue to expand, discover, and exploit new worlds, their society will eat itself to death. Feeding the hive is their all-consuming purpose; the notions of 'treaty', 'trade', and 'peace' do not exist.
Whoa! thanks so much for this wealth of info on the factions we just checked out. Really gives us a lot more flavor into each faction and wha they are about. 😀
The Cravers are definitely badass, but I think their tale is more a tragic one than one of bloodlust. They fight not because they enjoy it (although many do), but because the alternative is death. As artifical beings, part of their physiology declares that no matter how much they eat, they will always experience the feeling of agonising hunger, even when full (although given their size and metabolism they probably aren't often full). They put so much thought and muscle into machines and weapons to make their gathering of food easier, imagining what a vibrant addition to the galaxy they would be if they didn't have this "curse" is a pleasant thought.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! Endless Space 2 has lots of interesting stuff! I really like the Umbral Choir (Penumbra trailer), they want to get peace but are kinda, forcing it with mind control but I would not call them evil. Horatio is fun and terrible at the same time - the whole faction is all clones of the orginal Horatio, their leader. Call that self-care I suppose! But lumeris might be my favourite, I love the noir vibe with aliens!
Forcing anything, even peace, with mind control doesn’t exactly make you good either 😜 The best villains are the ones who think they are doing what’s best but going about it in the wrong way 😈🤗
Huh, didn't expect a draft for this series too. There is also Endless Legend which is a more medival version of the factions, and if you want to try teamwork in a tower defense style game, there's Dungeon of the Endless. They're all in the same universe but different time periods (We could be wrong, but that's our take). We'll cover the Vaulters below, so expect text! Fun fact if you two consider Dungeon of the Endless you'd draft characters to play. There's even a pug!
Man the Endless Legend music in Vaulters intro feels so nostalgic. Also quite fun how the robot exists at least in EL, Dungeon of The Endless, and ES2!
As one of the weirdos who recommended this, WOOOOO! Playing the Cravers is real fun. There are longer into videos for when each faction starts their campaign.
There is a fun video explaining endless space 2 and the factions by SsethTzeentach, might be worth checking out and see if your opinions change on the factions you picked.
You can watch SsethTzeentach's review of this game, if you want to know more about the races. He is kinda like Max0r, but without the epilepsy kill agents.
I play the more fantasy/scifi themed "Endless Legend" game set in the same universe, and would LOVE to see you do this with that as well. Its got some of the coolest factions. Great video btw. The corporate/mafia fish people are my personal favs.
Beth's team have a metric shit ton of logistical throughput; really really strong. There's some muscle there too, and that actually might be a problem, a lot of those factions are going to have trouble getting along so that money and building tech is prolly gonna be spent trying to keep the backstabbing to a minimum. Ken's team has the opposite problem while there's some building factions in there, the rest are built to win; and while that sounds great on paper, telling a giant tiger armed with laser chainsaws not to eat when he's literally built to feel like he's starving to death RIGHT NOW GODDAMMIT is really really hard, and Ken has two of those. Prolly will not play well together. Also turning everybody into purple eyed zombies will make them get along really great, but then there's that whole loss of personality thing. The three religious factions also have a really hard time being nice to everyone long term. Sseth Tzeentach has a really great write up of all the factions and how to break the game in very short order.
Haha love the breakdowns. And it’s crazy how even not knowing anything about these factions we still tend to draft the same. Bethany with her logic and Ken with giant chainsaw tigers 😂
The riftborn and vodyani have amazing theme music. You hear short bits of it during the trailers but the full stuff is great. The riftborn theme is my personal favourite and has an official video with a 'live' performance: ua-cam.com/video/fM0JHl_EZJ8/v-deo.html
Yaaaaaaa I’ve been waiting for that one. Penumbra even thou look sinister really trying to help, it’s just they are giant hive mind unity, so they don’t really understand how peeps work, so they get rid of their personality and turn them into inside agents, thats the faction espionage was introduced with. Vaulters are from other Endless universe game, Endless Legend, their planet died so the fled away, ship went back online probably bc of dust, it was yellow thing on space shot powerful thing from that universe. Riftborns are my favourites, very tragic story telling, plus they are essentially robots that loaded in conciseness of beings from other universe. Horatio is just a narcissistic man with lots of many and gene mutation, who found clone vats and made race of himself that steals good genes from others plus i believe ruler is not even the original Horatio but rather one of first clones that believes he is original, they also desire to turn everyone into horatio beautifying the galaxy. Vodyani are group of religious vampires the siphon dust from living creatures to fuel themselves using technology of old race that essentially is race of gods in this universe, my second favourite one. The perfection that Sophons created is a giant AI that was telling their whole bit. Cravens were created by god race, just as fighting tool, so they are just world eaters, they even withering their own planets. Lumeris are just a big corporation that wants to rule all the dust. Awakened are empire that went to sleep after “gods” died. Unfollen are bunch of tree people that got giant heart on their world that they connect through space roots to all other planets the expand on. All other races were at least semi straight forward about what they are.
Horatio is basically just one guy who cloned himself into a whole faction. Thats why they all have cone heads. But I can't really say who had the best draft. I really like the Vodyani and Horatio, but my favorite is Penumbra, the Umbral Choir.
If you'd want to have more sense of what is what and who is who, I'd recommend looking at ssethtzeentach video on Endless Space 2. He goes over what each faction does, what they're like and so on in a hilarious fashion. It's fairly fast, but nowhere near Max0r fast.
Time for a history of the Endless and all the factions! So in the Endless Space 2 universe, much of what occurs is driven by the ruins and remnants of the ancient Endless civilization. The Endless, from a planet called Tor, were one of the first major spacefaring empires to emerge in the galaxy, conquering and spreading throughout. Importantly, they had a unique piece of technology, dust, which had an even more unique origin. Dust is essentially a cloud of nanomachines which is both used as currency and gives people space magic essentially. It’s origin, however, was from planet sized beings known as the Lost. The first dust was harvested from the Lost whom the Endless had slain, with later iterations being the nanomachines created by the Endless to replicate the original. The Endless prospered for many years with these powers, performing all kinds of crazy experiments on both themselves and other species, but eventually there was a schism. Two factions of the Endless arose, the Concrete and the Virtual. The Concrete wished to perfect their bodies using dust and make themselves immortal that way, while the Virtual digitized themselves for immortality. And thus, a galactic war began, ending only in the destruction of the entirety of the Endless, save a few of each faction. Following this, there were other empires, such as the Mezari, an ancient human empire, who rose and fell, leading us to the present. (Cont. in replies)
Now in the present, we have the 12 factions shown in this video along with a 13th faction not shown, the Academy. We’ll start with the Academy then describe them in the order Ken and Beth saw them. To begin we have the Academy, which is a non player faction present in every game. It is led by Isyander, a heretic Vodyani, and is in charge of managing the heroes of the galaxy, the people who have become infused with dust and gained unique powers (most people die from overexposure to dust). Isyander uniquely worships the Lost, and wishes to bring about their revival. First we have the Nakalim, from the Awakening DLC (hence the naming confusion). This was the final major DLC. The Nakalim, while their dlc may have sucked, are still a very interesting faction. They are the remnants of an ancient empire who worshipped the Lost, but were destroyed by the Endless together with their gods. They are awoken by Isyander the Heretic to aid him in his quest to revive the Lost. Their faction in game starts with half the tech tree already researched, but cannot perform more research without recovering their artifacts. They are also able to donate systems to the academy. Next we have the Umbral Choir, from the third major DLC, Penumbra. The Umbral Choir is a hive minded being from outside the Endless Galaxy. After the destruction of the Grey Owl (an event I’ll describe with the Vaulters, and a trigger to many other changes) the Umbral Choir’s attention was pulled to the Endless galaxy, where it seeks to bring peace to the people. However, it does not understand individual will, but is split itself into many thoughts upon arrival. The Umbral Choiris essentially navigating between returning to being a hive mind, or forging ahead into individuals, but regardless retains its purpose to ease suffering and bring peace. In game, it serves as the spy faction, bringing espionage and stealth in its DLC. The Umbral Choir only ever have one system in a special node (asteroid belt, black hole, nebula, or the like) rather than a planetary system which is invisible to everyone else and can teleport if needed. They expand by hiding sanctuaries in other people’s systems and embedding sleeper agents to observe and influence.
Next we have the Hissho, from the Supremacy DLC, which added Behemoths (massive ships which can become super weapons). The Hissho were a faction of bird people taken and enslaved by the Concrete Endless. They were genetically modified and forced to fight as gladiators, gaining their freedom with the fall of the Endless. Their society evolved into a martial one, and one full of blood sacrifice. They are essentially a mix of the imperial Japanese, with the bushido philosophy, and the ancient Mayans. As they still have some remnants from the Endless, on their planet they discovered an abandoned Behemoth, which they reclaim and make use of as their own. In game, they are a military faction, but one with only a few systems. Rather than happiness, they have Keii, which is honor, and can only colonize 3 planets without Keii penalties. As such they make use of their Behemoth, which they start with, to gather resources as well as fighting others to gather more Keii and resources.
Next we have the Vaulters, from the Vaulters DLC. The Vaulters are actually a returning faction from Amplitude’s game Endless Legend. Endless Legend is another strategy game that’s a cross between fantasy (with dust magic) and sci-fi (with the Endless labs). It takes place on the planet Auriga, which is home to an ancient Concrete Endless research lab crisscrossing the whole planet as well as many species whom the Endless brought there and messed with. The Vaulters are the descendants of an ancient Mezari (the human empire) colony ship which crash landed on Auriga. They take refuge in the catacombs and become the Vaulters, until the death throes of the planet force them to flee. Endless Legend takes place at the end of Auriga’s lifespan, when it is freezing over, because Auriga is one of the Lost whom the Endless experimented on. The Vaulters successfully repair their colony ship, the Argosy, and flee the planet together with OpBot, an ancient Mezari robot, who you see in the video. However, the ship is blown off course by the explosion of the Grey Owl, which I mentioned before. The Grey Owl was another crashed ship that gets repaired by one of the other Endless Legend factions, but upon its escape, a dust explosion occurs, flinging the Argosy off course and messing with the universe. The Argosy drifts until the events of the trailer, when it reaches a runic dust field and is repowered. In game, the Vaulters start with no home system, just with the Argosy in that dust field. They are able to instantly colonize planets anywhere with the Argosy once it recharges and are able to build teleporters in their systems. They also get boarding pods to steal ships and can disguise themselves as pirates and make peace with the space pirates. They play as a techy defense focused empire who can also do raids and military. Essentially they’re techno space Vikings
Next we have the Unfallen, the eight base game faction, and actually a faction that was fan created. They are a race of sentient trees who live their lives in stages. The first stages are the saplings, who are growing and learning. The second stages are the active ones who participate in the galaxy. The third stages root themselves in place and essentially return to sleep, becoming ancient elders, but with the Unfallen’s expansion into space, many of them are actually becoming the Unfallen’s starships. The Unfallen are pacifists, who were mostly content with their own planet until they were awoken by the fires of conflict in the galaxy around them. Guided by the heart of their planet Koyasil, who is in truth one of the few remaining Lost, they seek to bring peace to the galaxy. In game they have a unique way of expanding, entwining other systems with vines, connecting them to their home systems. The vines provide buffs to allies and debuffs to enemies. The Unfallen are the diplomacy faction, seeking negotiations and peace, but they do also get massive military buffs if they have allies. Next we have the Riftborn. They are from a universe orthogonal to the Endless universe, one of geometry, order, and sterility. But when the explosion of the Grey Owl occurred, a hike between universes was ripped, and the Riftborn’s universe was corrupted, forcing them to flee to the Endless Universe. Here, they seek to survive, lost in a universe fully foreign to them. They search for the calm of their home universe in the chaos of their new one. Uniquely, due to their otherworldly nature, they have the ability manipulate time (which is why you can hear a watch ticking in their theme) and can create singularities to speed up or slow down time. In game they can place these in systems to aid themselves or harm their enemies. They also do not use food, instead relying in production to build themselves bodies in the new universe. They also gain bonuses on sterile planets, things like lava or barren planets, and get maluses from fertile planets. Their ships are also unique in that unlike other factions they are hyper specialized, being either full defense and support or full attack, with no real in between. The Riftborn serve as a strong industrial faction with a unique population mechanic.
Next we have Horatio, the most perfect man in existence. Horatio was a megalomaniac and egotistical Mezari trillionaire who believed himself to be the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. So he set out and discovered an ancient Endless gene and cloning lab and is now setting out to make the universe full of the most perfect thing, himself. In game, Horatio is a snowball faction, starting weak and getting progressively stronger. They have expensive ships due to expensive taste, but they have the special ability of being able to steal the traits of other pops, splicing them into their own, and making themselves more perfect. (Also there is a Horatio dating sim and you should totally play it)
If possible I'd like to make a request or recommendation for a reaction. It's called "The Nightmarish Worlds of Bloodborne 2 [Art Competition]" by VaatiVidya. It was a competition he set up with a $2.5k reward where the applicants submitted fan-art for what they'd like to see as a sequel for Bloodborne 2. The responses don't really give any spoilers for the original Bloodborne game, & was an excellent outlet for those of who want a sequel. If you guys want to watch something with beautifully haunting art & just enjoy some wonderful examples of fan creativity I highly recommend it.
I love all of the endless games an endless face too I like the Horatio and vaulters. One thing I like about the game's history is that the humans are not the New kids on the block they're really really ancient and have a lot of subfactions
The Horatio faction is basically a human dude with a skull deformity who found an antique alien cloning facility and decided that the universe would be better if anyone was like him . And so he decided to create millions of copy of himself and planned to turn all other sentient race into Horatio.
Endless Space has really cool lore. My favourite faction is Horatio- an empire made entirely of clones of a single man- Horatio. An egotistical multi-trillionare who believes he's perfect, and so is the only person who should exist :P
Cool! Are you planning to do a reaction to Riot's Valorant music videos? They have three videos "REVELATION", "Die For You" and "Fire Again" and they are all very cool!
The "Wakanda Vibes" on the Hissho (Supremacy expansion) are close, they're more like scifi Aztec-Samurai bird people. My favorite faction to play, personally.
I don't fully remember the details, but the ""conehead" one was about Horatio and Horatio is kind of the manifestation of vanity and ego, essentially. Every member of that race is a clone of Horatio, or something like that, because that's his idea of perfection, himself. That may not be precisely right but it's the gist. I need to pick up ES2 again, it's a fun game. Also, the Vaulters are very powerful. I think Ken won, the Cravers + Vaulters are a strong couple of drafts.
Fun fact: game is your typical 4x game. Aka go to cosmos and expand empire. Game has also really messed up IT like Horatio killing each other for power. Cravers EATING enslaved races as "ability", Vodiani sucking souls (this is acually their loading screen) or building your own planet killers AND star destroyers to kill bilions. Not to mention one politic policy is castration of other races that is not your main one, I forgot to mention that. On Steam store 7+ rating by the way. Fun for familly
Some lore about each faction in order of appearance. Warning! Long Comment.
The Nakalim: The Nakalim developed on a dry planet towards the end of the reign of the Endless. Their reverence for the Lost made them an enemy of the Endless, but the Endless were too wrapped up in their civil war to worry about the Nakalim. Once the Endless fell, they were largely alone in a tamed and civilized galaxy full of the Endless's infrastructure. As a result they grew so rapidly that they over-expanded, and the survivors were driven into hibernation--to wait for their prophecy of the Lost to come to pass.
The Umbral Choir: An ancient immaterial creature from the depth of intergalactic space, the Umbral Choir roamed the cold, empty wastes, terribly alone until a great cry of anguish pierced the darkness. Shattering into a choir of echoes, the fractured creature sped towards the source of the space-and-time rending wail--the Endless galaxy--seeking to salve that which was in pain. Unbeknownst to the Umbral Choir, the cry marked the dying scream of the Endless civilization, and as it arrived, millennia later, new life was emerging from the remnants. Still wishing to give peace to any who suffer, the Umbral Choir will remain in the shadows, infiltrating and watching until its is ready to act.
The Vaulters: The Vaulters left the planet of Auriga when potentially cataclysmic geo-atmospheric problems were detected. Having left their homes, gods, and many of their people behind them, the dream of regaining these things has gained an almost mythical status.
They are a stubborn, resilient people that have spent centuries seeking a home. Stranded on the world of Auriga, they had to survive the harsh climate and even harsher neighbors. In a years-long effort, they managed to repair their ancient colony ship, the Argosy, and once again depart before the dying planet became their grave. Once more among the stars, the people that now call themselves the Aurigans still seek traces of their past as well as a safe place to build their future.
The Hissho: Tempered by steel and battle, the Hissho evolved from avian ancestors on their Home Planet of Uchi. Focused on the constant wars between their own tribes, they lived ignorant of the different species roaming the galaxy until they were picked up by the Concrete Endless, augmented in the world of Sykagoja, and then quickly put to the test as gladiators fighting in the decadent arenas of their new masters. How long this period of mindless slaughter for the pleasure of their overlords lasted, none of them could say until the Virtuals devastated the planet, and of this bygone age only memories of slavery and exploitation remain, along with those of glory and adulation.
The Unfallen: The Unfallen have only ever known their homeworld of Koyasil, preferring to peacefully study what is near rather than discover what is far. They were content with this slow development that they refer to as the "Long Sleep" - the period from their rise to sentience to the modern era. The modern era was rudely thrust upon them by a galactic skirmish in the skies above, and the debris it rained upon their planet. Seeing fire fall from the skies, and viewing the violence of other species firsthand changed their image of their role in the galaxy. Having an intimate relationship with fire as both Fire-That-Destroys and Fire-That-Renews, they view themselves as guardians of peace and harmony in a galaxy that seems to badly be in need of both.
The Riftborn: Hailing from Coroz, an alternate dimension orthogonal to the Endless Universe, the Riftborn would have happily lead out their abstract, timeless existences entirely ignorant of galactic strife, were it not for a breach that precipitated a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Like a poisoned blade slashed deep into clean flesh, the rift acted as a source of terrible disorder in the Riftborn's pristine, geometrical universe. Desperate, unable to halt the disease's advance no matter what they tried, the Riftborn took the last available course of action that might lead to their survival: Together with their strange time-shifting abilities, they stepped into the Endless Universe.
Horatio: Incredibly wealthy and only slightly less deranged, Horatio was a trillionaire who left to discover his own star cluster. Finding a planet sprinkled with labs of ancient cloning technology left by the Endless, the boredom soon drove Horatio to create a race of allies, servants, and slaves who were every bit as beautiful as the most beautiful person in the universe - Horatio. Once the planet was repopulated, Horatio the First had only to look up, regard the stars, and realize how much more beautiful they, too, would be if they were filled with...Horatio. The rest, as they say, is history.
The United Empire: The United Empire developed from a fleet of Mezari settlers on a temperate, resource-rich world. For decades, commercial and industrial effort went into the conquest and development of the planet. Once the planet was largely colonized and controlled, a more or less inevitable event occurred: The Great Continental War. This planet-wide military conflict occurred at a technological level that might have led to total extermination of life, and the rulers were wise enough to pull back from the brink of this collective suicide. The dominant force at the end of the war, known as the Alliance of Nations, imposed its will across the entirety of the planet through a mixture of rebuilding loans, military threats, and moral persuasion.
Advanced space technologies have thus been developed under a single body that put a great deal of effort into it, and space exploration occurred at a rapid rate. The Mezari-now calling themselves Raians-launched manned probes to distant bodies within their solar system, and as technology advanced, the next steps back to the stars were inevitable.
The Vodyani: The Vodyani worship the Virtual Endless, and scour the galaxy seeking ancient temples while devouring lesser beings.
Victims of a classic cycle of over-industrialization, the Vodyani were saved by technology culled from ruins of the Virtual Endless. These precursors quickly gained an aura of divinity in the eyes of the Vodyani, and are now worshiped as gods. Clothed in their great black suits of borrowed technology, Vodyani leaders pilot their great Arks across the star lanes, seeking other peoples to convert, control, and consume.
The Lumeris: The Lumeris are a society that revolves around trade, economic deals, economic growth, and doing business. Expansion and acquisition are the bywords of their culture, and as an amphibious people they are prepared to make money in any environment. Their society is organized around a series of families that have traditionally run different parts of their economy, and the balance of power and negotiations between the families is what drives progress - or blocks it.
The Sophons: The Sophons are a curious, peace-loving race whose highest ideals are found in scientific knowledge and technological advancement. Keen to explore and understand the mysteries of the cosmos, they believe the universe is something to intellectually master. Although pacifist in outlook, and despite frail bodies not used to violence, Sophons can construct vessels of devastating offensive capability.
The Cravers: Created by the Endless from an insectoid life form, the Cravers are in the purest sense hunter-gatherers who would never have independently evolved the systems and infrastructure needed to raise crops or domesticate animals.
Their life cycle is based on consumption, and as such they are capable of digesting any form of plant or animal matter. As their home world is close to being consumed, they must leave in search of further nourishment.
For if they do not continue to expand, discover, and exploit new worlds, their society will eat itself to death. Feeding the hive is their all-consuming purpose; the notions of 'treaty', 'trade', and 'peace' do not exist.
Whoa! thanks so much for this wealth of info on the factions we just checked out. Really gives us a lot more flavor into each faction and wha they are about. 😀
The Cravers are definitely badass, but I think their tale is more a tragic one than one of bloodlust.
They fight not because they enjoy it (although many do), but because the alternative is death. As artifical beings, part of their physiology declares that no matter how much they eat, they will always experience the feeling of agonising hunger, even when full (although given their size and metabolism they probably aren't often full). They put so much thought and muscle into machines and weapons to make their gathering of food easier, imagining what a vibrant addition to the galaxy they would be if they didn't have this "curse" is a pleasant thought.
Damn, that’s a horrible curse 😨
Sethtzeentacht's video on endless space 2 gives a good overview. The Awakening and Penumbra were DLC names.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! Endless Space 2 has lots of interesting stuff! I really like the Umbral Choir (Penumbra trailer), they want to get peace but are kinda, forcing it with mind control but I would not call them evil. Horatio is fun and terrible at the same time - the whole faction is all clones of the orginal Horatio, their leader. Call that self-care I suppose! But lumeris might be my favourite, I love the noir vibe with aliens!
Forcing anything, even peace, with mind control doesn’t exactly make you good either 😜 The best villains are the ones who think they are doing what’s best but going about it in the wrong way 😈🤗
Umbral Choir is fiction that don't need any military ships thought entre game, if you careful enought and picking right technology in right time.
Huh, didn't expect a draft for this series too. There is also Endless Legend which is a more medival version of the factions, and if you want to try teamwork in a tower defense style game, there's Dungeon of the Endless. They're all in the same universe but different time periods (We could be wrong, but that's our take). We'll cover the Vaulters below, so expect text! Fun fact if you two consider Dungeon of the Endless you'd draft characters to play. There's even a pug!
Thanks for giving us more info on this game and the related games 😀
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames Totes Magotes!
Yes, I am so happy to see people react to this game series! I wonder if you would reach to the Endless Legend version as well?
We can add it to our request list 🙂
Man the Endless Legend music in Vaulters intro feels so nostalgic. Also quite fun how the robot exists at least in EL, Dungeon of The Endless, and ES2!
that's fun, I checked just yesterday if you guys had made a reaction to this.
One day off but we got there 🙂
Nice! I was wondering when this would happen. I'm excited to watch your reactions for this.
As one of the weirdos who recommended this, WOOOOO! Playing the Cravers is real fun. There are longer into videos for when each faction starts their campaign.
Thanks for letting us know there are more faction videos to check out that are longer 🙂
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames No problem!
I’m so happy to see you react to all of these! I love this game and it gets not nearly enough love
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Ssethtzeentach's review of Endless Space 2 is the next best video to check out for a review about this game.
Like other people are saying. Reacting to Ssethtzeentach's review on this game would be delighful.
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There is a fun video explaining endless space 2 and the factions by SsethTzeentach, might be worth checking out and see if your opinions change on the factions you picked.
Thanks for the recommendation 😀
You can watch SsethTzeentach's review of this game, if you want to know more about the races. He is kinda like Max0r, but without the epilepsy kill agents.
Haha, have heard of that channel so we will have to check it out at some point 🙂
WOOOOOOOW didnt expect this, thank you
I play the more fantasy/scifi themed "Endless Legend" game set in the same universe, and would LOVE to see you do this with that as well. Its got some of the coolest factions.
Great video btw. The corporate/mafia fish people are my personal favs.
We will add it to our request list 🙂
Beth's team have a metric shit ton of logistical throughput; really really strong. There's some muscle there too, and that actually might be a problem, a lot of those factions are going to have trouble getting along so that money and building tech is prolly gonna be spent trying to keep the backstabbing to a minimum.
Ken's team has the opposite problem while there's some building factions in there, the rest are built to win; and while that sounds great on paper, telling a giant tiger armed with laser chainsaws not to eat when he's literally built to feel like he's starving to death RIGHT NOW GODDAMMIT is really really hard, and Ken has two of those. Prolly will not play well together. Also turning everybody into purple eyed zombies will make them get along really great, but then there's that whole loss of personality thing.
The three religious factions also have a really hard time being nice to everyone long term.
Sseth Tzeentach has a really great write up of all the factions and how to break the game in very short order.
Haha love the breakdowns. And it’s crazy how even not knowing anything about these factions we still tend to draft the same. Bethany with her logic and Ken with giant chainsaw tigers 😂
The riftborn and vodyani have amazing theme music. You hear short bits of it during the trailers but the full stuff is great. The riftborn theme is my personal favourite and has an official video with a 'live' performance: ua-cam.com/video/fM0JHl_EZJ8/v-deo.html
Thanks for sharing the link 🙂
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames no worries, here's the Vodyani one as well just in case. ua-cam.com/video/12x8EANwK-I/v-deo.html
Yaaaaaaa I’ve been waiting for that one. Penumbra even thou look sinister really trying to help, it’s just they are giant hive mind unity, so they don’t really understand how peeps work, so they get rid of their personality and turn them into inside agents, thats the faction espionage was introduced with. Vaulters are from other Endless universe game, Endless Legend, their planet died so the fled away, ship went back online probably bc of dust, it was yellow thing on space shot powerful thing from that universe. Riftborns are my favourites, very tragic story telling, plus they are essentially robots that loaded in conciseness of beings from other universe. Horatio is just a narcissistic man with lots of many and gene mutation, who found clone vats and made race of himself that steals good genes from others plus i believe ruler is not even the original Horatio but rather one of first clones that believes he is original, they also desire to turn everyone into horatio beautifying the galaxy. Vodyani are group of religious vampires the siphon dust from living creatures to fuel themselves using technology of old race that essentially is race of gods in this universe, my second favourite one. The perfection that Sophons created is a giant AI that was telling their whole bit. Cravens were created by god race, just as fighting tool, so they are just world eaters, they even withering their own planets. Lumeris are just a big corporation that wants to rule all the dust. Awakened are empire that went to sleep after “gods” died. Unfollen are bunch of tree people that got giant heart on their world that they connect through space roots to all other planets the expand on. All other races were at least semi straight forward about what they are.
Oh wow, Horatio was not who we thought they were 😳
I would definitely recommend endless legend as well!
Horatio is basically just one guy who cloned himself into a whole faction. Thats why they all have cone heads. But I can't really say who had the best draft. I really like the Vodyani and Horatio, but my favorite is Penumbra, the Umbral Choir.
Omg i love that you reacted to endless space 2, if you could react to endless legend and humankind, that would be amazing
Non-Craver made, Craver approved Soylent Green...
**Shakes head in disgust**
Never expected ES2, a nice surprise
I gotta ask. Have you seen Ssethtzeentach's review on Endless Space 2?
The lore of this game is really good and deep, so I’m sad that no one pays attention to it
We hadn’t heard much about it but someone had suggested it and made a good pitch that piqued our interest 🙂
Great video as always. Are you guys going to react to the Vermintide/Darktide trailers?
If you'd want to have more sense of what is what and who is who, I'd recommend looking at ssethtzeentach video on Endless Space 2. He goes over what each faction does, what they're like and so on in a hilarious fashion. It's fairly fast, but nowhere near Max0r fast.
After Max0r we feel like we can handle any speed 😂
Yessss! I've been waiting for this. Didn't expect a draft but it'll make it fun.
😁 we like to mix it up 🤗
Obligatory "Please Watch Ssethtzeentach's review of Endless Space 2" comment
yes Seth's Video explains everything
Your comments during reaction are always so UA-cam!
(Se the youtuber Rtgame for context)
I remember buying Endless Space 1 a long time ago on a whim, expecting it to be a generic space strategy game. I was so glad to be wrong.
Time for a history of the Endless and all the factions! So in the Endless Space 2 universe, much of what occurs is driven by the ruins and remnants of the ancient Endless civilization. The Endless, from a planet called Tor, were one of the first major spacefaring empires to emerge in the galaxy, conquering and spreading throughout. Importantly, they had a unique piece of technology, dust, which had an even more unique origin. Dust is essentially a cloud of nanomachines which is both used as currency and gives people space magic essentially. It’s origin, however, was from planet sized beings known as the Lost. The first dust was harvested from the Lost whom the Endless had slain, with later iterations being the nanomachines created by the Endless to replicate the original. The Endless prospered for many years with these powers, performing all kinds of crazy experiments on both themselves and other species, but eventually there was a schism. Two factions of the Endless arose, the Concrete and the Virtual. The Concrete wished to perfect their bodies using dust and make themselves immortal that way, while the Virtual digitized themselves for immortality. And thus, a galactic war began, ending only in the destruction of the entirety of the Endless, save a few of each faction. Following this, there were other empires, such as the Mezari, an ancient human empire, who rose and fell, leading us to the present. (Cont. in replies)
Now in the present, we have the 12 factions shown in this video along with a 13th faction not shown, the Academy. We’ll start with the Academy then describe them in the order Ken and Beth saw them.
To begin we have the Academy, which is a non player faction present in every game. It is led by Isyander, a heretic Vodyani, and is in charge of managing the heroes of the galaxy, the people who have become infused with dust and gained unique powers (most people die from overexposure to dust). Isyander uniquely worships the Lost, and wishes to bring about their revival.
First we have the Nakalim, from the Awakening DLC (hence the naming confusion). This was the final major DLC. The Nakalim, while their dlc may have sucked, are still a very interesting faction. They are the remnants of an ancient empire who worshipped the Lost, but were destroyed by the Endless together with their gods. They are awoken by Isyander the Heretic to aid him in his quest to revive the Lost. Their faction in game starts with half the tech tree already researched, but cannot perform more research without recovering their artifacts. They are also able to donate systems to the academy.
Next we have the Umbral Choir, from the third major DLC, Penumbra. The Umbral Choir is a hive minded being from outside the Endless Galaxy. After the destruction of the Grey Owl (an event I’ll describe with the Vaulters, and a trigger to many other changes) the Umbral Choir’s attention was pulled to the Endless galaxy, where it seeks to bring peace to the people. However, it does not understand individual will, but is split itself into many thoughts upon arrival. The Umbral Choiris essentially navigating between returning to being a hive mind, or forging ahead into individuals, but regardless retains its purpose to ease suffering and bring peace. In game, it serves as the spy faction, bringing espionage and stealth in its DLC. The Umbral Choir only ever have one system in a special node (asteroid belt, black hole, nebula, or the like) rather than a planetary system which is invisible to everyone else and can teleport if needed. They expand by hiding sanctuaries in other people’s systems and embedding sleeper agents to observe and influence.
Next we have the Hissho, from the Supremacy DLC, which added Behemoths (massive ships which can become super weapons). The Hissho were a faction of bird people taken and enslaved by the Concrete Endless. They were genetically modified and forced to fight as gladiators, gaining their freedom with the fall of the Endless. Their society evolved into a martial one, and one full of blood sacrifice. They are essentially a mix of the imperial Japanese, with the bushido philosophy, and the ancient Mayans. As they still have some remnants from the Endless, on their planet they discovered an abandoned Behemoth, which they reclaim and make use of as their own. In game, they are a military faction, but one with only a few systems. Rather than happiness, they have Keii, which is honor, and can only colonize 3 planets without Keii penalties. As such they make use of their Behemoth, which they start with, to gather resources as well as fighting others to gather more Keii and resources.
Next we have the Vaulters, from the Vaulters DLC. The Vaulters are actually a returning faction from Amplitude’s game Endless Legend. Endless Legend is another strategy game that’s a cross between fantasy (with dust magic) and sci-fi (with the Endless labs). It takes place on the planet Auriga, which is home to an ancient Concrete Endless research lab crisscrossing the whole planet as well as many species whom the Endless brought there and messed with. The Vaulters are the descendants of an ancient Mezari (the human empire) colony ship which crash landed on Auriga. They take refuge in the catacombs and become the Vaulters, until the death throes of the planet force them to flee. Endless Legend takes place at the end of Auriga’s lifespan, when it is freezing over, because Auriga is one of the Lost whom the Endless experimented on. The Vaulters successfully repair their colony ship, the Argosy, and flee the planet together with OpBot, an ancient Mezari robot, who you see in the video. However, the ship is blown off course by the explosion of the Grey Owl, which I mentioned before. The Grey Owl was another crashed ship that gets repaired by one of the other Endless Legend factions, but upon its escape, a dust explosion occurs, flinging the Argosy off course and messing with the universe. The Argosy drifts until the events of the trailer, when it reaches a runic dust field and is repowered. In game, the Vaulters start with no home system, just with the Argosy in that dust field. They are able to instantly colonize planets anywhere with the Argosy once it recharges and are able to build teleporters in their systems. They also get boarding pods to steal ships and can disguise themselves as pirates and make peace with the space pirates. They play as a techy defense focused empire who can also do raids and military. Essentially they’re techno space Vikings
Next we have the Unfallen, the eight base game faction, and actually a faction that was fan created. They are a race of sentient trees who live their lives in stages. The first stages are the saplings, who are growing and learning. The second stages are the active ones who participate in the galaxy. The third stages root themselves in place and essentially return to sleep, becoming ancient elders, but with the Unfallen’s expansion into space, many of them are actually becoming the Unfallen’s starships. The Unfallen are pacifists, who were mostly content with their own planet until they were awoken by the fires of conflict in the galaxy around them. Guided by the heart of their planet Koyasil, who is in truth one of the few remaining Lost, they seek to bring peace to the galaxy. In game they have a unique way of expanding, entwining other systems with vines, connecting them to their home systems. The vines provide buffs to allies and debuffs to enemies. The Unfallen are the diplomacy faction, seeking negotiations and peace, but they do also get massive military buffs if they have allies.
Next we have the Riftborn. They are from a universe orthogonal to the Endless universe, one of geometry, order, and sterility. But when the explosion of the Grey Owl occurred, a hike between universes was ripped, and the Riftborn’s universe was corrupted, forcing them to flee to the Endless Universe. Here, they seek to survive, lost in a universe fully foreign to them. They search for the calm of their home universe in the chaos of their new one. Uniquely, due to their otherworldly nature, they have the ability manipulate time (which is why you can hear a watch ticking in their theme) and can create singularities to speed up or slow down time. In game they can place these in systems to aid themselves or harm their enemies. They also do not use food, instead relying in production to build themselves bodies in the new universe. They also gain bonuses on sterile planets, things like lava or barren planets, and get maluses from fertile planets. Their ships are also unique in that unlike other factions they are hyper specialized, being either full defense and support or full attack, with no real in between. The Riftborn serve as a strong industrial faction with a unique population mechanic.
Next we have Horatio, the most perfect man in existence. Horatio was a megalomaniac and egotistical Mezari trillionaire who believed himself to be the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. So he set out and discovered an ancient Endless gene and cloning lab and is now setting out to make the universe full of the most perfect thing, himself. In game, Horatio is a snowball faction, starting weak and getting progressively stronger. They have expensive ships due to expensive taste, but they have the special ability of being able to steal the traits of other pops, splicing them into their own, and making themselves more perfect. (Also there is a Horatio dating sim and you should totally play it)
If possible I'd like to make a request or recommendation for a reaction.
It's called "The Nightmarish Worlds of Bloodborne 2 [Art Competition]" by VaatiVidya.
It was a competition he set up with a $2.5k reward where the applicants submitted fan-art for what they'd like to see as a sequel for Bloodborne 2. The responses don't really give any spoilers for the original Bloodborne game, & was an excellent outlet for those of who want a sequel. If you guys want to watch something with beautifully haunting art & just enjoy some wonderful examples of fan creativity I highly recommend it.
I suppose Ssethtzeentach has a great video on this game. You should checkout more videos from him.
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I agree on the cravers they are my favorite
Happy Wednesday
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I love all of the endless games an endless face too I like the Horatio and vaulters. One thing I like about the game's history is that the humans are not the New kids on the block they're really really ancient and have a lot of subfactions
Eu gosto do video de vocês, acompanho vocês aqui do Brasil, obrigado! ☺
🇧🇷 🤗🥳
@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames 😍
Don’t let anything fool you, the Empire (the humans who like the color red) are objectively the best civilization to play as gameplay wise
My advice: watch SsethTzeentach Endless Space 2 review, the video is great,funny and gives you more insight into the factions.
First Stellaris, now Endless Space! Yaaay! Have a like!
The Horatio faction is basically a human dude with a skull deformity who found an antique alien cloning facility and decided that the universe would be better if anyone was like him . And so he decided to create millions of copy of himself and planned to turn all other sentient race into Horatio.
You should react to ssethtzeentach he did the review to this game its and it's very funny
Endless Space has really cool lore. My favourite faction is Horatio- an empire made entirely of clones of a single man- Horatio. An egotistical multi-trillionare who believes he's perfect, and so is the only person who should exist :P
Probably the most infuriating game I've ever played.
Still love it though
Haha, know that feeling well 😜
yes
I sent a link for you guys!
Cool! 💯💯
my biggest criticism of endless space is how exactly do they expect us to play the other factions when the United Empire exists?
Add Mandaloregaming's homeworld reviews to your list, they'll knock your socks off.
Just watch SethTzeentac Review of the games, since his review is quite fun especially for endless space
Cool! Are you planning to do a reaction to Riot's Valorant music videos? They have three videos "REVELATION", "Die For You" and "Fire Again" and they are all very cool!
you should check o0ut ssethtzeentach's video on endless spoace 2 , its great and really funny
absolutely react to ssethtzeentach's video on this game.
The "Wakanda Vibes" on the Hissho (Supremacy expansion) are close, they're more like scifi Aztec-Samurai bird people. My favorite faction to play, personally.
I don't fully remember the details, but the ""conehead" one was about Horatio and Horatio is kind of the manifestation of vanity and ego, essentially. Every member of that race is a clone of Horatio, or something like that, because that's his idea of perfection, himself. That may not be precisely right but it's the gist. I need to pick up ES2 again, it's a fun game. Also, the Vaulters are very powerful. I think Ken won, the Cravers + Vaulters are a strong couple of drafts.
Hi guys, you're ok, can you react to the fan live action : dbz the light of hope ? That will be very cool
2nd
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@@DefinitelyNotDefinitiveGames I just Love how you guys reply to me xD
It means so much for me
Fun fact: game is your typical 4x game. Aka go to cosmos and expand empire. Game has also really messed up IT like Horatio killing each other for power. Cravers EATING enslaved races as "ability", Vodiani sucking souls (this is acually their loading screen) or building your own planet killers AND star destroyers to kill bilions. Not to mention one politic policy is castration of other races that is not your main one, I forgot to mention that. On Steam store 7+ rating by the way. Fun for familly
If you're looking for more videos on endles space 2, i highly recommend the review by "ssethtzeentach"