I'm going to be making many thread where all rank from favourite to least favourite (Or vice versa) aspects of all factions, from theme song to intro to endings.

So let us start with intros

My list goes

9: Sophons: Funny but a bit plain

8: United Empire: I'm over the pretty overused dystopian communism type themes, but regardless created a good atmosphere

7: Unfallen: Creates a good feeling that the Unfallen were just unaware of everything even themselves,  they're slow peaceful beings, hence their intro is also pretty lacking in excitement but fits their races personality perfect.

6: Horatio: Beautiful intro getting into the mind of a megalomaniac if again doesn't really hype you up to play him just admire his insanity.

5: Lumeris: Great intro, introducing you to how things work behind the scenes of the Lumeris Society and how this new recruit could shake things up with his more reckless behavior.

4: Cravers: Really pumps you up, the first person shooter part was fantastic

3: Riftborn: Abstract art plus beautiful piano piece creates a sense of hopelessness, right from the start you know what your mission is, survive this new universe.

2: Vodyani: Wonderful art, a powerful intro that gives backstory on the race and how they came to be. Followed by an amazing bass accompanied by a wonderful shot of their fleet flying overhead

1: Vaulters: Feeling OP bots pain in having failed his people just to see he was given another chance, beautiful nostalgia powered intro

1. Horatio (The scene where he exits the door with all Horatio reflections merging into one truly personifies the faction. And the narration, shiny stuff, sparkles and overall fabulousness of it was great. Perfect for a narcissist.)

2. Riftborn (Really beautiful the way this was done. For some reason, I always feel the sadness, desperation and determination of the Riftborn when it goes "willing to do anything to save our own")

3. Craver (we need that Endless universe FPS game now!)

4. Sophons (E.N.F.E.R narration was cool. Also, it showing how the Sophons put the plans to build it and it narrating its own story while its creators look on)

5. Vaulters (Nostalgia! yay! and Opbot!)

6. Vodyani (Uniquely done. Does not stand out too much, maybe the soundtrack was good?)

7. Unfallen (Just is not comparable to the trailers above. Normal one I guess?)

8. Lumeris (High point of the trailer was the 'kid' misusing Dust :P But pretty much the trailer is sitting around the table and talking. Not much into that)

9. UE (Propaganda video. Get enough of those in the real world!)

9: Vodyani - I feel a bit like the Unfallen about them, except that it's even less memorable.

8: Lumeris - The story is good, but the intro isn't cinematic enough.

7: Unfallen - While relatively good at showing who they are, this faction is just too much EL-esque for me. Ents in space. The intro is about ents in space. It works, but it's not very exciting.

6: Sophons - quite funny but a bit too cliché. I always wish we would see more of their inventions.

5: Vaulters - it makes me feel relieved. Not really a fan of EL though, and their intro doesn't make me understand what they are about.

4: Riftborn - I like the abstract look of the origin universe, it feels fresh. It's the opposite of the United Empire, which is a very well done take on a common trope. The Riftborn feels original.

3: United Empire - very cool "dystopia" feeling, very well done and designed. More subte than the Sophons.

2: Horatio - it's just between the familiar and the fondamentaly alien. It portrays very well the "uncanny valley" aspect of the Horatio, how they are monsters and genius in the same time. Their intro is very rich.

1: Cravers - there's jsut something powerful to it. However I would probably love it less if it wasn't for their musical theme and how well the sound is done in their intro. Very inventive too.

I also took the liberty to rank them depending on how everyone did so far (1 point for 9th rank ; 9 points for 1st rank), here's the result:

1 - Horatio with 63 points. Very popular by a huge margin, their intro is simply perfect at protraying their mad genius.

2 - United Empire with 54 points. Very good at doing a classic thing. Portrays the United Empire very well.

3 - Vaulters with 52 points. They're new and there's nostalgia involved, but I must admit it also plays nicely with our feelings.

4 - Vodyani with 50 points. Kinda surprised by that one, I guess I should rewatch it. ... Done it. Well, the music is nice, and I get the fresco feels original to some, but I've seen it in too many video games to feel impressed. The story itself is a the typical religious faction... I still find it wuite underwhelming compared to what the Vodyani are in game - that is space vampires.

5 - Cravers with 49 points. Kinda surprised too, I guess that it's maybe too "simple". But it's still very good at portraying what this faction is about (contrarily to the two above imo).

6 - Riftborn with 43 points. We're approaching the less popular intros with the Riftborn. Sadly the people who ranked them the lower didn't provide many arguments, but my guess is that it has something to do with them not being (relatively) humanoid and also not corresponding to a common trope. No matter what you do, the majority of people will prefer the humanoid aliens, and we don't see anything to identify with in their intro.

7 - Sophons with 39 points. They're simply a bit too cliché, on the other extreme of the spectrum. Humanoid goblins in space, pseudo-mad scientists, intelligent AI... We've seen that too many times to be impressed.

8 - Lumeris with 30 points. Everyone seems to agree that while their faction story is nice, their intro isn't very good. We would have expected something about the faction rather than the beginning of their story, I think. And it's not even great at starting the story. The first time I saw it I needed to read the story to understand what I just saw.

9 - Unfallen with 23 points. They fall far behind, and I think that's because of a combination of being a dull faction ("our ents are different!") and a quite stoic intro. Their gameplay is very unique and distinctive though.