Pan-Galactic factions ("<Ethic> Internationals") as a mid-game+ crisis?

[Pancakelord]

So I was screwing around with the console commands trying to work something out and observed this with the "factions.showallfactions" command:

The game (unsuprisingly, in hindsight) has a command to track all factions and their representation in each country.

This gave me an idea for a mid-game event (an alternative to the Khan - or even something that could happen concurrently, for extra chaos):

1. The game could track each ethic, galaxy-wide (as each ethic is aligned with a faction)
2. And when any one ethic grows too large in its support, relative to the support for other ones by the galaxy's non-gestalt pops (with the possible exception of xenophobia, as that is a species-by-species issue)
   • E.g. if there are 1000 [non-gestalt/non-primitive/pre-sapient] pops in the galaxy and the threshold is set to 25%, when 250 pops - anywhere in the galaxy - support a materialist faction, there will be an X% chance every 6m after midgame till the endgame to fire the "birth of the materialist international - founded on rationality and technological advancement".
3. After the mid-game date, it could spawn a new organisation that will push to impose that ethic on all other non-gestalt/non-primitive pops in the galaxy
   • This could be by force (e.g. spawning "egalitarian fleets" and armies from pops deserting their own militaries / Corporate PMCs)
     • i.e. something the player/AI can go and kill
   • or by "peaceful" means (workers/specialist strikes, scientists sabotaging research, assassination of leader pops, terrorist actions, fleet sabotage, slave revolts etc)
   • The exact method used would vary with which of the 7 ethics has formed a pan-galactic faction
     • for example, you wouldn't see many roving fleets if pacifists rise up lol, but you may see protests and strikes by pacifist pops and a higher conversion to pacifism by pops during a "pacifist crisis" and they'd attempt to secede and form their own pacifist "international".
4. Eventually, after some time, this faction is able to secure some land somewhere in the galaxy - either through revolt, uprising, or conquest by (say egalitarian or militarist) forces using scrounged together ships.
5. And after a little more time a leader could emerge - a "Speaker" for this "<Ethicname> international" faction.
6. From here more pops of that ethic from other nations in the galaxy could flock to international space, rapidly growing their numbers and encouraging to attack or coerce other systems into joining them
   • each ethic could have its own flavour here too, spiritualist internationals could call a crusade to purge the galaxy of sin, targeting machine-heavy empires first, etc.
7. Killing the speaker could - much like the khan -
   • kill the movement in its tracks, splintering it into several different "heirs" to the international's ruler title,
   • or there may be a chance it persists and after a period of internal purges and disarray this faction will emerge with a new "speaker"
     • (possibly also flipping its ethics in the process - e.g. an egalitarian international, could flip to an authoritarian international - this could apply to any ethic pair except the xenophile-xenophobe axis i guess... unless a large number of pops in international territory are of one species in which case you might have facists emerging...).

• If you are of the same ethics as the current international, you could send envoys to improve relations with them or lend them support[send them money/materials/troops] to make them ignore your empire to a degree.
• Many megacorps might bias the ethics to make egalitarian internationals more likely to spawn
  • and having shared burdens or being fan-egal could give you extra interactions with the international, perhaps letting you absorb it's successors peacefully once it splinters - making it in your interest to support similar ethic-uprisings.
• If you're an imperial government, you could send your heir off to treat with an authoritarian international, or its successors/splinters, possibly making them a petty king in the process - if this happens, your heir could come back to you and offer themselves up as a vassal (granting you free unification when they ascend on your current ruler's death).
• Other ethics could have their own flavours of this interaction - spiritualists could send Gurus to the Spiritualist international to spread their teachings, if successful some international systems might break away to join you as the "one true faith".

If you haven't guessed by now, much of my inspiration for this - outside of that initial console command - is from the ideas of some pro-communists in the 20th century with their [number] internationals and world revolution.

I think this might be a good alternative mini-crisis as it could come in 7 flavours (each ethic minus xenophobe) with a fair bit of variation to it, and it offers a way to actually weaken other empires (via stealing pops) without direct invasion [but direct invasion is still possible] & shake up empire borders which tend to stagnate around the mid-game.

Further, based on that console command, it doesn't seem like something that is technically impossible for the engine. Much of this would need to be driven by conditional events, without more robust revolution mechanics, I guess.

This would also make ethics attraction and managing your own factions more important (right now you can outright ignore them), but if there was a materialist uprising - and you are not materialist - you'd want to suppress that faction to keep it's negative effects under control in your empire.

What do you think?

 

[Emperor_Vindicare]

I like this a lot, would add more life to the galaxy as entities other than empires are interacting and growing. Would be interesting to see something like a galactic communist revolution, or a 'mandalorian crusaders' faction rise up and turn things on it's head.

 

[shiro the bushi]

I really like this as the end result of each ethic could vary.
Militarists could build a fleet prepping for the "Grand War." this could be a war in heaven, any regular war with an X amount of participants or invasions likes L-gates making them both a hindrance but possibly very helpful.

Spiritualists Could breach the shroud, causing some hard shroud shenanigans, turning random tomb worlds into shrouded or gaias, culling machines.
The Spiritualists have a stronger chance to spawn with telepathy researched somewhere or in nations that accrue Zro.
Finally, a Spiritualists can fracture during Schism, A large conflict of their ideologies. A schism splits between 2 to 4 groups and each group will try to pull people to their side

Xenophobes would probs have the lowest chance to spawn as they're hating other species. though they would be the most dangerous. Forming a new purifier order/death cult "all Xenos must die, including us."
The Xenophobe one allows a Xenophobic nation limited social Interactions so long as one of their race is one their 'Council' though even then they would considered traitors or the like.

 

[Dargaron]

I wouldn't exclude xenophobe "internationals." Take, for example, the conspiracy in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, where a Vulcan, a Human and a Klingon conspired together to sabotage a peace accord between the Federation and the Empire, united (ironically) by their mutual hatred/disdain for one another. I can imagine some form of cabal built around intentionally sabotaging cross-species cooperation because it's seen as a greater threat to their own societies than any particular rival.

 

[Pancakelord]

I wouldn't exclude xenophobe "internationals." Take, for example, the conspiracy in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, where a Vulcan, a Human and a Klingon conspired together to sabotage a peace accord between the Federation and the Empire, united (ironically) by their mutual hatred/disdain for one another. I can imagine some form of cabal built around intentionally sabotaging cross-species cooperation because it's seen as a greater threat to their own societies than any particular rival.

That's a fair point.

I've not seen that one but If the accompanying backstory for the faction is well written, it may make sense for multiple different species to come together - they perhaps might collaborate as the 'lesser evil' to topple their respective xenophilic governments - particularly those with xenocompatibility or in high-tier federations - so they can all go back to living in segregated nations like the "good old days", once the revolution is over.

• Perhaps these international factions could be given custom/tuned personalities & origins to better weight & guide their AIs for their backstory's motives, in addition to event chains.
• Could also have some pretty interesting events for them, like bombing GC meetings, leading to prolonged recesses & reduced DW for any empires implicated in that, or damaging federal cohesion by assaulting foreign envoys.

 

[GHWilliamson3]

I think there could stand to be more interaction and tensions between the ethics rather than the mild opinion hit that it pretty much only manifests as currently. Especially for fanatics. When I'm fanatical X, I don't really feel like I have that many options to be fanatical except to claim systems from opposing ethics -- but I can do that with anyone.