Of course, we could be seeing an entirely new human faction.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Sowers do make a comeback from the first game. They do tick quite a lot of boxes that are missing right now in the game. They are a  robotic race (which we don't have yet), they can fit as industrialists because their whole reason for existing is to build infrastructure for the Endless, and they might fit as Ecologists because of their whole terraforming gig and colonising all planets from the get go, but with a FIDS penalty, which gets removed when you research the colonising tech for that planet (which coincidentally is what the Ecologist laws help with in game).

There are a lot of signs pointing towards the Sowers making a comeback of some sort.

If that is true then the final roster for the Major Factions will be : Sophons, Cravers, Humans, Sowers, Lumeris, Vodyani, Unfallen and another new race.  Hopefully, more ES1 races will make a comeback in future expansions/DLCs.

sollitdude wrote:

i found the hissho to be a minor faction. cant blame it. they are territorial insects. shouldnt have even been a major faction in ES1.

Now now, easy on the Hissho please, at least these territorial birds know what honor is, you can't say that for our insectoid Craver friends!

I imagine our little birds are quite devastated by their downgrade.

Personally I loved playing the sowers, terraforming everything to their needs. Too busy to eat :)

They're supposed to be space-bird samurai. While I can see how that would be appealing, honestly they were one of the most bland factions in the game.

If it's a tech, then it's a midgame quest reward. Probably asks you to build something.

Clarste wrote:

I very much doubt the Amoeba will be a Major faction because the Lumeris already took their role as the Pacifist trading faction. Remember that we have 6 basic political parties in this game, and it's incredibly likely that each of them will get a representative Major Faction. Sophons are Scientists, Vodyani are Religious, Cravers are Militarist, and Lumeris are Pacifist. That leaves Ecologists (food/colonization), and Industrialists (industry). I think any returning Faction that doesn't fit into one of those two archetypes isn't very likely to show up at this point. Of the remaining ES1 factions, I think the United Empire would fit neatly into Industrialist, and maybe Sowers/Horatio as Ecologist if they tweak it a bit.

That said, there are 6 parties and 8 factions, leaving two "wild cards". I'm assuming the Unfallen (the faction contest winner) is one of those wild cards, and maybe the last one is a faction that uses the Senate in a totally different way or something. A politics focused Influence faction maybe?

And for the record, one of the Sophon quests involves exploring Harmony ruins, but in that context I think that makes it less likely for Harmony to be a major faction. Since why would their ruins be a rare and weird thing if they were currently round doing stuff?

I think one of the dev diaries mentioned that there were originally 8 political ideologies but two were cut. I suspect that the missing pair had to do with trade (hence why pacifism has a bunch of trade stuff tacked on) and the Lumeris would originally have been related to some free trade political ideology. Then the contest faction would have been the pacifist faction. That would just leave the 8th ideology as some sort of anti-trade or mercantilist party (it's a stretch but the harmony could fit here). I think you're spot on with your predictions about the UE and Horatio/Sowers (come on Horatio!!!!).

The UE is also name-dropped in 'Beds not Bunks' law description:

"The beauty of this piece of legislation is that everyone comes away happy. With lower conscriptions rates enforced, energetic young members of your empire can get down to some good old-fashioned slap and tickle, which is certainly more enjoyable than typical barrack entertainments like the United Empire hazing ritual of munting. Of course, this law comes a cropper when you suffer a ground invasion."

This is particularly promising because this is an entirely new description, not copied from ES1 like the one referencing the Amoeba.

hibbidy_jibbidy wrote:

cant be the only one hoping they come back

They aren't up there with my favorite Endless Legend's factions, but they are probably top 3 for Endless Space. So yeah.

WireWolf wrote:

I can't for the life of me imagine that the Amp would make the Empire into a Major Faction but cut out the Pilgrims entirely. (I still think they'll be made into a Minor Faction.)
And the Vaulters have been mentioned at least once in the lore of one of the Vodayni Heroes (Hell. The Hero is actually a Vaulter.) If the Vaulters somehow aren't made into a Major Faction then I can't imagine them not showing up as a Minor. 

Do we know for sure that the Zolya clan didn't exist within the Mezari pre-Vaulters? While I agree that the hero is most likely supposed to be a former Vaulter, I don't think we can technically rule out that they were actually from a Mezari branch of the same clan.

cant be the only one hoping they come back

Goetia wrote:

vahouth wrote:

RomanLegacy wrote:

As long as we're speculating, I'm not sure that the Empire is going to be in this as the human faction.  Much of the art pieces depict humans as bright and cheery, and I'm not sure that fits with the non-pilgrim non-Horatio humans.  And their aesthetic doesn't match vaulters at all.

Which are those pieces of art? 

I've seen one with the Sophon in the lab where the humans are clearly Pilgrims, and the population growth screen where a Vaulter woman is seen. In the same screen there is another woman with no tattoos visible and my guess is that she could be UE.

I think amplitude uses a lot of art pieces of generic humans that aren't part of any faction. For example, Frogsquadron wrote this in the art and screenshots thread

AFAIK, any human that is not tatooed is UE.

Besides I kinda think that the ships fighting the Sophons here, are more UE than not. ;)

I can't for the life of me imagine that the Amp would make the Empire into a Major Faction but cut out the Pilgrims entirely. (I still think they'll be made into a Minor Faction.)
And the Vaulters have been mentioned at least once in the lore of one of the Vodayni Heroes (Hell. The Hero is actually a Vaulter.) If the Vaulters somehow aren't made into a Major Faction then I can't imagine them not showing up as a Minor. 

vahouth wrote:

RomanLegacy wrote:

As long as we're speculating, I'm not sure that the Empire is going to be in this as the human faction.  Much of the art pieces depict humans as bright and cheery, and I'm not sure that fits with the non-pilgrim non-Horatio humans.  And their aesthetic doesn't match vaulters at all.

Which are those pieces of art? 

I've seen one with the Sophon in the lab where the humans are clearly Pilgrims, and the population growth screen where a Vaulter woman is seen. In the same screen there is another woman with no tattoos visible and my guess is that she could be UE.

I think amplitude uses a lot of art pieces of generic humans that aren't part of any faction. For example, Frogsquadron wrote this in the art and screenshots thread

"As for the humans, I don't want to throw off your speculation, but I think these humans are serving the same purpose as the humans in many Endless Legend illustrations: an "agnostic" race that won't detract from the piece's intent or what it's meant to showcase."

Personally, I suspect that the Pilgrims and Vaulters in those screenshots are just easter eggs and they won't be returning as factions (at least not in the base game).

Oh? Did the Dev's say somewhere we're only getting a single human faction? 

WireWolf wrote:

I think we might see both the Mezari/Vaulters AND the UE as playable factions.
The Horatio and Pilgrims will probably be minor factions.

I mean think about it. Out of the 8 original Endless Space Factions three of them were human factions. (The United Empire, the Pilgrims and the Horatio.) And after this we get an additional two human factions later on. (The Sheredyn and the Vaulters.) I think it's incredibly probable that we'll get two human factions. 

We don't doubt that. But for now, we're only getting one with the base game.

I think we might see both the Mezari/Vaulters AND the UE as playable factions.
The Horatio and Pilgrims will probably be minor factions.

I mean think about it. Out of the 8 original Endless Space Factions three of them were human factions. (The United Empire, the Pilgrims and the Horatio.) And after this we get an additional two human factions later on. (The Sheredyn and the Vaulters.) I think it's incredibly probable that we'll get two human factions. 

RomanLegacy wrote:

As long as we're speculating, I'm not sure that the Empire is going to be in this as the human faction.  Much of the art pieces depict humans as bright and cheery, and I'm not sure that fits with the non-pilgrim non-Horatio humans.  And their aesthetic doesn't match vaulters at all.

Which are those pieces of art? 

I've seen one with the Sophon in the lab where the humans are clearly Pilgrims, and the population growth screen where a Vaulter woman is seen. In the same screen there is another woman with no tattoos visible and my guess is that she could be UE.

Horatios I haven't seen anywhere. No eggheads to be seen.

As long as we're speculating, I'm not sure that the Empire is going to be in this as the human faction.  Much of the art pieces depict humans as bright and cheery, and I'm not sure that fits with the non-pilgrim non-Horatio humans.  And their aesthetic doesn't match vaulters at all.

The Vaulters exist in the new timeline as well. We just don't know if they are NPC's/Minor/Major Faction.

They should definitely be in, at least as a minor race.

There are only 3 more major factions to be included besides the community faction, and unfortunately I cannot see all 3 of them being from the previous game. 

My guess is UE or Pilgrims, Sowers and maybe Amoeba. Every other race could be either a minor faction or extinct. :(