Lore:

Power. Greed. Fear. There are many different reasons for factions to set out and conquer the stars. For the Eronym, that reason is pleasure. They strive for the ultimate (mostly physical) unification. Any race is welcome to join the Eronym and it has led to an amassing of wealth and scientific knowledge from across the galaxy. This pleasure seeking ideology has also driven research towards a strong understanding of xenobiology, with many of the faction’s citizens wearing cybernetic augmentation to allow for interspecies breeding and pleasure.

While there are always those who are curious as to what it would be like to mate with an alien, there are also those who are strongly against the decadent indecent lifestyle of the Eronym, branding supporters of Eronym as sexual deviants and traitors of racial purity.

“Love Yourself, Love Everyone, Love Everything.” - Eronym Motto

Affinity/Gameplay:

The bonuses for Eronym are themed around population and approval rating (breeding and pleasure) (minor shared bonus with allied race, decrease to non-allied race). 

Minor versions of the bonuses are shared as an incentive to ally with Eronym.

But it's a double-edged sword: citizens can be distracted at work due to too much flirting and sexual tension.

+ Bonuses to approval rating (as well as for ally planets adjacent to influence – incentive to ally with Eronym, everyone loves being near the life of the party)

+ Population bonus on planets (Eronym have a wider pool of willing breeders) (allied planets adjacent to Eronym influence also get a population boost)

+ Decrease approval rating for enemy planets fighting Eronym in gravity well (don’t shoot the love spreading hippies)

+ Tech bonus on xenobiology/interspecies HR (or similar themed tech in new tech tree - will need play balancing for tech tree)

+ Reduced penalty to approval rating for expansion and population

+ Science research bonuses (or cost reduction)

-/+ Decrease productivity in industry of planets under Eronym influence (allies and enemy planets in adjacent influence) (everyone is too busy flirting)

- Higher cost of ships (unproductive workers, but ships also have all the fittings - life of luxury and pleasure of the senses)

+ Higher HP ships (while the workers can be distracted and slow during construction, every Eronym knows if they build a luxurious ship they'll get to play on it)

- Ships are slower (cruise on the love boats are never fast)

Comment: Not sure whether the adjacent influence is something that would work from a game mechanic point of view and what is being developed. Wishful thinking perhaps :)