Faction Traits

-DESERT PREFERENCE: Start with Desert colonization

-MADE OF DUST: Grow population with dust instead of food

-DUSTITE AFFINITY: Cannot declare war against other factions, cannot research military technologies until meeting a warlike nation

-GALACTIC NETWORKING: Can build a very expensive building once in their empire which allows them to map the galaxy all at once

-KNOWLEDGE OF THE VIRTUAL ENDLESS: Once the Galactic Networking building is built, get a massive research bonus on basic technologies

-GOD-LIKE SHAPE SHIFTERS: Can create and control a religious faction in a selected empire at the cost of population

Backstory

Formulations of Dust, the Dustites were once a great administrative force of the Virtual Endless, that is until both disappeared. Now, eons later, the enough Dust has been awoken elsewhere in the galaxy to warrant a return. By passing energy from each Mote of Dust to form a galactic communication web for Dust and, if harnessed correctly, a massive computer. Having been made only to perform computations, these apparitions have no concept of war and very little tact. In the past, stray Dustites had been sighted all throughout the galaxy; each time hailed as gods with the power to manipulate the Dust to its will. Each time a sole Dustite would rise, shaped like the locals, so would it run out of energy and slowly die if not cared for, usually via offerings. Now, rising again, the Dustites must rebuild, recharge, and regrow to be independent of mere offerings and to charge their galactic tendrils for use beyond the distribution of energy.