The Collective started off on a humid jungle planet with immense life diversity. Thousands of years of war and suffering ended when weaker species seen as pawns and collateral damage banded together to form Collective and quickly wiped the world of any conflict. In their attempt to be different than those that tormented them, collective integrated them into itself and has kept  this tradition ever since.

Collective works by absorbing and assimilating new encounters through relationships formed, always evolving itself with the better properties of the new contact. Collective sees war just as a different kind of relationship, one which it does not prefer but certainly does not shy from. 

Collective society is ruled by meritocracy,  always trying to have right tool for the job and it's people reflect this in their ever swirling whirlpool of cultural amalgamation.  Their military is costlier to create and maintain but recovers better from combat.

Gameplay wise collective would treat other factions and minor factions (if they are a thing), as a resource that gets mined through turns where you maintain a relationship (from the moment you discover them). Closed borders would essentially block this gain while peace, war and alliance has differing amounts of progress. Bonuses acquired are decided the moment resource bar completes and are unchanging, according the other parties highest empire production value of FIDSI (a general idea. i believe a different multiplier for each is in order since they get produced at hugely different rates), collective units start off %10-15 weaker but each completed relationship gives them a permanent %5 unit buff and they gain access to unique (1 per empire) buildings as they build up more and more relationships. 

While their combat units cost  %15 more to produce and have a slight penalty to upkeep, after each combat surviving units heal %25 of damage received.  

As for an image, think of various different species but similar (all from same planet) people, their military reminiscent of roman legions, with some mismatching looking advisor/heroes (example: apparent carnivore race with sharp teeth and huge claws as a cool headed diplomat)

Gameplay wise collective would treat other factions and minor factions (if they are a thing), as a resource that gets mined through turns where you maintain a relationship (from the moment you discover them). Closed borders would essentially block this gain while peace, war and alliance has differing amounts of progress. 

As for minor faction relationships while i don't know how they would be in Endless Space, in Endless Legend terms think of pacification and quest completion for minor factions adding progress towards next wonder unlock and next unit boost while assimilation granting a steady income of progress. 

You are encouraged to be pacifists as it will confer the most progress towards your unique strengths while war slows it down considerably. While i agree it seems it would play out to be somewhat militaristic after a while, i believe endless legend to be as such game play wise. Maybe they could have a wonder victory through their questline?

carolean7 wrote:

I'm definitely on board. In fact it is similar to my submission, specifically how they get bonuses from having other factions in their empires. Though I like how your faction is instead a collection of multiple species that have banded together. The name is good too because you expect something borg-like but instead get a diplomatic and highly diverse faction.

What do you mean by "maintain a relationship"? Do you mean having the minor faction in one of your systems, or just discovering their existence?

Also, how are they encouraged to be "diplomatic pacifists" beyond the lore?