Name: 

The Pod 
 

Biography: 

It is not known what it was originally a natural phenomenon or a runaway experiment of unknown civilization. The Pod homeworld was completely destroyed by dust. It was a terrible disaster but it created an amazing evolution.  Perhaps dust converted their world slowly enough so that they could adapt consume dust as food and as a living environment. Later for many eons they slowly evolved in the world of Dust Nebula. In those days they had only one song — Song of Dream. Their birth, their lives and death passed in one world, but one day their natural curiosity pushed them beyond the world they knew and they saw the new world — the world full of stars. Song of Dream has ended. 

The Pod prefer peace and harmonic coexistence with other life forms. They prefer diplomatic maneuvers above rage of war. Being a living ships by nature allows them to see magnificence of the universe in person. Modern DNA studies show that the ancestors of The Pod are marine mammals. Perhaps their joyless and curious character is the inheritance from their ancestors perhaps not. But like their ancestors eons ago their Song guide them in the path. 

 
Gameplay: 

Homeworld: Asteroid

Natural wonder: sort of Dust Nebula 
 

Leadership: Whale All Mother 

Racial Affinity: Song instead of political ideologies. Unlike the political ideologies a song changes more dynamically e.g. each turn depending on the player's actions, random events, technology unlocked,  diplomatic actions etc. Themes instead of Laws. Theme does not require a slot and are automatically applied with appropriate Song. 

Whale All Mother (e.g. Player) can change preferred Songs with cost of  Influence. 

Example of Songs and Themes:  

Song of Peace (Pacifist) 

• Increase  Approval 
• Improve diplomatic relations 

Song of Nature (Ecologist) 

• Increase  Approval but decrease  Industry 

Song of Cognition (Scientist) 

• Increase  Science 

Song of War (Militarist) 

• Can buyout  warships for  Population decrease 
• Reduce  Approval decrease from creating warships 

Song of Creation (Industrialist) 

• Increase  Industry 

Song of Dream (Religious) 

• Increase  Approval but decrease  Science 

Starting songs I think are Song of Peace and Song of Cognition. 

Faction Traits: 

• Om nom nom (Use  Dust instead of  Food, in the case of the victory in space battle they receive some dust from destroyed ships of both sides)
• We are the Ships (Can buyout  civilian ships for  Population decrease)
• Zero-G born (Cannot ground invade, removal of ground anomalies effect, have less resource gathering from planets)
• Humane Weapons (reduce damage done by weapon modules)
• Natural Spacefarers (Have sort of ES1 Blockade Breaker trait and can withdraw from battle with zero or minimal losses)

Faction Technologies:

• Warp Drive
• Colonize Asteroid

I see the key faction gameplay as follow:  

•   Dust instead of  Food  
•   Ships <=>  Population balance 
• Songs instead of political ideologies  

Opening game: quick exploration and expansion through ships <=> population balance.

Middle game: creation of alliances and/or trade treaties needed because there will be the lack of resources. We can use for the trading and/or  treaties the greater amount of colonized systems.  

Late game: according to current Songs diplomatic, economic or science victory is possible. Expansion, supremacy or wonder victories are less possible to my mind. 

Some clarification: 

The Pod or A Space Whales are mammal species adopted for the living in Space. They are symbionts with dust. They possess evaluated warp and propulsion drives, which allow them to move freely in the interstellar space and maneuver around celestial bodies. The standard species are a simultaneous hermaphrodites. Typically when they find a mate one acts as a male and the other acts as a female. But they may practice self-fertilization in hard times. Maybe they may have bonus from creation of the colony by two colony ships simultaneously  ? 

As a living space ships whales are at the beginning of the game can colonize asteroids only. In fact, the colonization of the planet in the early game is just a living ships fleet in orbits around the planet. Standard specimens are able to dive into the atmosphere to collect dust. Whale themselves are not able to land without hard augmentations. I see it that way: mining complex for the resource is a hard augmented whale,  in accordance its creation reduces Population and Approval. In the late game, robots or minor factions may be used for the extraction of resources and gaining bonuses from ground Anomalies and Wonders. 
Warships are hard augmented specialized cyborgs, their creation decreases Approval. Being in a space battle they feel the pain and see the brutality of war personally, that is why they use less-lethal weapons.

Sorry Friend, but "Space whales", was already posted by someone else...

See: The Balinar