THE SOLEMN

The Solemn are animated remnants of their race, replications inside automotons to preserve the intellect and ability of the individual they were modeled after, or at least serve as an imitation. When disease and famine swept their world by storm and eradicated all life in a matter of days, these frail and limited imitations of their original forms were the last of the legacy their masters possessed. Their appearances are akin to a bipedial machine with a central eye displaying their "emotion" and the rest being totally utilatarian in design. Now they exist as a small congregation of memories of their creators, unable to to let the legacy of their living race go, and unable to replicate them. The few that were created with exceptional resemblance to the ingenuity they strived to remember now lead the rest in a search for any traces of their race, while the rest live in mock examples of the lives they remember. Their precariously small numbers makes every "life" of theirs precious, and they fear any and all confrontation with the unknown. But their struggle to recreate their race has them beset on all sides and dangerously close in proximity to other races.

GAMEPLAY

-In terms of 4x design, the closest they come in the Endless series is to the Cultists from EL without any focus on warfare. Outside of the Endless series, they're a good comparison to Venice and other small civs from Civilization 5.

-Food is unessential to them, much like the Broken Lords of EL, they have no need or want for it. And in this case, likely don't generate any of it at all.

-Limited to no ability to expand, either as a result of food inefficiency or because of the extremely small stature of their population. 

-The pacifist nature of them does not lend itself to their policy of defense, what little they have they are willing to bolt down and hold to the last. Their ships are focused on keeping out others and not so much taking things. And likely more health to their means of defense as well.

-The focus of their quest is to search far and wide for their heritage, either a means to replicate their race or the sole survivors of their race in some remote region of the universe. 

-Diplomacy and picking and choosing friends is a must have, and they'd need a way to gain more incentives with other empires through influence. Since you're so tiny, it's about making sure you have someone else to throw a stick for you or hold down a larger enemy while you keep your head low.

-Minor factions are extremely important to them, not only because of their search to revive their race but because of the limited scope of their military units abilities.

-Their Heroes focus on buffing the fleet's ability to defend itself and sustain fire, as well as repair to keep them in the ability to keep up their defense. Their Administrators focus on generating more gold and generating more Influence to keep up their requests to foray into the lands of others.