Name: The Serenissima

Preferred Victory: Diplomatic/Expansionist

Affinity: The Great Houses. Each planet must be assigned to one of four Great House or the Imperial House, each House has a bonus to a FIDS value (not influence) and a penalty to all others, the Imperial House grants a bonus to influence and no penalties. The house with the most planets has a bonus to its morale, planets belonging to the other houses (not the most planets) get a malus to their morale. The bonus and malus are based on the difference (e.g. so 1 less then largest is no penalty, 10 less than largest is 50% morale penalty [or bonus if the largest]). If a House (except Imperial) gets too far behind, or too far ahead they could start a civil war. When colonized (or Homeworld) it is automatically assigned to the Imperial House. Switching House control of a planet is a fixed duration (not based on Industry).

Bonuses: 

Fine Print (15% bonus to trade)

The Dust must flow (15% reduced Dust buyout cost)

Machiavellian (bonus to espionage [if in game] / or / decreased mercenary cost [if in game]  / or /  diplomacy bonus)

Dust Addicted (15% Dust Generation penalty)

Automated Warships (20% warship cost increase)

Stagnant Warfare (20% penalty to combat card effects)

Description:

The Serenissima [Serenissima is Italian for Most Serene which is the nickname of Venice] is an ancient and traditional race. With a complicated political system that maintains a delicate balance between the Great Houses and the Imperial House it is a culture of grand majesty fraught with infighting and shady deals. Warfare has been stylized and symbolical while Trade and Diplomacy have become elevated to art form. The Serenissima is a study in contrasts as beautiful as it is deadly, a Serenissima party is one of the most opulent events in the galaxy but it a good idea to prepare anti-poisons before attending.

Food would be great for starting out but the problem is the balance between the houses when you're in the mid-game and late-game. If you switch all your other worlds off of food, if you colonize a world and set it to food it will have no morale because of the difference between the largest house and the food house. You would have to constantly maintain a number of new colonies as food close to the number of Science/Industry/Dust worlds or the morale penalty will be more than the food benefit. If you can maintain a constant rate of growth then it rewards planning, if you miscalculated it will penalize you, and if you have no food worlds than the food house will revolt. That's the intention at least.

Also a food world (or Imperial Bread Basket) would be interesting if you can export or trade food across your empire.