Biography
The Armilla are one being, a hyper-intelligent superorganism living beneath the crust, around the core, of their home planet. Armilla ships contain no organisms. Instead every ship (heroes included) controlled by a different node within the home planet superorganism via quantum entanglement. Armilla settlements are entirely mechanical, operated by further nodes.  As such, food on colony planets is irrelevant to the development of the colony itself. The Armilla can however retrieve food from these colonies and send them home or use this food in trade deals to improve diplomatic relations. Armilla colonies are built largely beneath the crust of their planet (or within the lower atmosphere in the case of gas giants). Because of this Armilla systems lost to invaders are tainted goods. The remains of Armilla technology, buried deep within the planet out of reach, leech the scientific potential of the planet from those who take it over.

The Armilla's strength weakens as their forces get further away from the superorganism. As such, they don't like to pick fights. If diplomacy fails however the Armilla will put up an incredible defense of their home planet. After all it is both the brain and the heart of their entire civilization. 

Gameplay Effects

Population Bonus-The Armilla home system improves very quickly. Every addition to the population of the planet brings an immediate increase to the innate science, dust, industry and food production of the planet as well as giving the usual advantages. While the home system benefits greatly from increasing its population the Armilla population bonus does not apply to colonies.

Bring home the bacon-As Armilla colonies are managed externally their population does not increase with food production but with industry production, as the self-replicating robots on the colony need no food. The food production of Armilla colonies need not be wasted however. Ships with the Harvester trait can pick up an amount of accumulated food from colonies and deliver it to the Armilla home system for an immediate boost to the capital's food surplus. Keen to forge good relations with the other factions within the galaxy the Armilla can also send Harvester ships bearing food to other players' colonies and can then offer the immediate boost to food in trade deals.

Home is where our heart is-The military power of Armilla units deteriorates as the distance from the home system decreases. The closer the ship is to the capital the more nodes can be set to bolstering the ship's armoury. (Pedantic lore justification:While the ship's 'captain' communicates via quantum entanglement, more complex operation must be controlled by more conventional, slower methods). Armilla ships stationed at the home system itself provide a substantially better than average defense, making the Armilla home system a lucrative yet very well-defended target. Ships several hundred light years away from the home system fare much worse. Even the strongest of Armilla ships may suffer in battle against much weaker enemy ships if the battle takes place around a distant system. Going on the offensive is rarely in the interest of the pacifistic Armilla.

Somewhere deep inside-The Armilla may struggle to defend their distant colonies. However, losing a colony is not a total loss. A large portion of the science produced by a planet that was at any time owned by the Armilla is leeched by the home system. The percentage of the science leeched depends on the amount of time that the Armilla were previously in control of the planet. (A colony captured by the Armilla that was then quickly taken back leeches little to no science as there was not enough time to build up the network of machines within the core.)