Think the Upside-Down

Biography:

The Shadows are not truly of our universe – residing alongside our dimensions but just beyond that imperceptible veil.  They travel unseen – watching and listening as they seek out the warmth of living worlds that whisper with the thoughts of sentient life.  Such worlds who’s gaze they fall upon – slip slowly into corruption.  The touch of the Shadows seeps into reality and the worlds become dark and twisted places of death and suffering.  

Political Ideology:

They hear only the silent echoes of their own thoughts

Gameplay:

The Shadows are a corrupting influence from beyond.  They spread by corrupting worlds with the energies of that other place – the dark mirror of our universe.  Corrupted planets give birth to the Shadows and it is through these planets that they can be fought.  Their warfare is one of unseen terraforming, villigance is key lest their hold become too great, but typically their power level is forgiving enough to allow their touch to be felt first (losing a world).  Eventually all factions can develop their science to the point where they can perceive and destroy the Shadows directly, at which point the game changes.   The Shadows can from then on communicate and engage in diplomacy with any faction with that level of technology.  The Shadows can do this themselves as well, gaining technology to the point they can communicate with our plane of existence, which also opens up diplomacy.  Other than this – most of the unique tech for the Shadows would be terraforming related.  Think a cross between Sowers and Cravers – Sowers in relation to their terraforming focused gameplay and Cravers in relation to their economic and production game.

Faction Affinity/Bonuses/Traits:

I leave this to the development team – those that have a far better grasp of the systems and subsystems that will be in the new game.  

Ooooooh. Cool. Got a great "Stranger Things" vibe going here. I've seen a dev post from previous that states that two factions can't control a system simultaneously, so I'm curious about the specifics for how these "terraforming battles" would play out? I understand the resistance to get specific, but it would help in this case to understand how exactly the Shadows would play out. Keep it up!