"But I really don't see a credible way to invent a faction with Emiscary-defined evil as its fundamental motivation and basis of its decision-making; I don't see how an entire culture could evolve with that as the central tenet of its behavior."

You kinda stumbled on a workable explanation with the Sith. It's easy enough to imagine how a society guided by cruelty, capriciousness & decadence could function if you assume it's only being *run* by overtly malicious parties. Going back to a previous example, the Skeksis manage to rule an entire planet (albeit unsustainably) despite being totally uninterested in the day to day logistics of running an empire by dint of outsourcing every job they don't want to do to slaves and/or serfs.

If I was asked to pitch my notion of what a capital E evil faction in Endless Space would look like (which I basically have at this point) I'd point back to the suggestion of bringing back the Morgawr. I'd just suggest making the following tweak: assume that at some point after cracking space flight the surviving Morgawr amalgamated into a handful of hyper powerful psychic gestalt beings who decided to turn their terrifying powers to the end of amusing themselves by toying with, enslaving and wiping out whole civilizations just because they can. I mean when literally every being you meet is potentially just a puppet, at some point you're going to start plucking & snipping their strings just for fun.

And for the record said concept ties back to Hannibal quite neatly- specifically the Mads Mikkelson version. Admittedly he manipulated people's minds with gaslighting, cinematically fudged psychiatry & various drugs- but in principle he was basically someone who mucked around with people's minds & ruined their lives for fun. Give him psychic powers & he basically turns into what I described above and could very easily run an empire via masses of lobotomized slaves.

(This incidentally is why characters like Charles Xavier scare the hell out of me on principle lol.)

I never felt Morgawr to be evil, more like victims of Endless' experiments. I mean, they are evil, but not what-you-define evil. They are paranoid, they are vengeful, they are sinister. But in no way their quest line give me impression of them doing what they are doing for fun (maybe little) or "just because they can".

I'm discussing the possibility of adapting them *into* outright villains in Endless Space, and specifically outlined how to do it. Splitting hairs about how they're the margarine of evil in Endless Legend is kind of a non-sequitur.

Their *only* stated goal was to become powerful enough that they can't be subjugated again. My point was: once they've done that, what do mind control happy bioweapons do next? Unlike the Cravers they don't have appetites that necessitate aggressive expansion lest they face starvation, nor do they have an ingrained imperative to destroy (because they're an imperfect weapon that were impossible to control and thus impossible to program). So, what are eldritch abominations with psychic powers likely to do? I submit the answer is simple: throw their weight around because they can.

"What benefit would they get out of this?"

That strikes me as something of a silly question, but I'll address it anyways.

Right off the bat, are you familiar with the phrase:

"To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." ?

Well, as it goes with hammers, so it goes with mind control. When you *can* manipulate, exploit & generally toy with any living thing you come across the temptation to do so is more than a little strong. There are any number of manipulators, propagandists & intelligence operatives throughout history that would be more than happy to extol the enjoyment they got out of manipulating people through indirect channels- imagine how much joy a particularly callous being would get out of turning others into psychic hand puppets. Especially if (like the Morgawr) you distrust & disdain every species but your own as a rule.

And that's just the fun aspect, there's also the fact that... well, I'll use a rather colorful quote to illustrate the practical aspect:

"Slavery gets shit done."

Having *millions* of mindless slaves to do your bidding goes well beyond being convenient into the realm of the wildly desireable- albeit highly immoral.

Slowhands wrote:

. . . 

I suppose you could use Stalin as an example as evil (he killed 5-10 million people [directly or indirectly]), but he was one leader of a country and you can pretty much roleplay that country in the United Empire. On the other hand, if you view the US as a massive, evil, military-industrial complex built on world domination, you can also roleplay the UE that way...

. . . 

-Slow

Just gonna make a quick comment about "an example of evil" from history; don't mean to get into politics or anything (as that is not the purpose of these forums), however, in my view a more "evil" historical example would be Mao Zedong, as one of his signature reforms, the Cultural Revolution is believed to have exterminated approximately 45million people within China, with extensive records showing that much of the genocide was on the basis that many Chinese were not "useful" to his vision of China. Thought I'd point that out, considering many of Western societies often hold up Hitler, Stalin, etc as the worst of the worst, but seem to forget/are ignorant of the atrocities committed by Mao that arguably place him as the most horrific leader ever seen. 

delraith wrote:

Man, just give it up. Amplitude obviously likes depth in their lore, and that is tough to cultivate with "bad person is bad because they are bad." Generally speaking, it would appear that most people favor depth too. 

I am sorry you are in the minority here, but there's lots of talking around in circles going on this thread.

He said, the day after one of the devs responded personally & stated he was open to having his mind changed.

Apart from everything else lemme ask you something, what's scarier: an outside aggressor who comes for you because some trumped up freudian excuse and/or sociopolitical impetus compelled them to- or one that does it just because they want to? And I quote:

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you were home."

-Dollface, The Strangers

"I don't really believe in motive Syd. I mean did Norman Bates have a motive? Did they ever really decide why Hannibal Lector likes to eat people? Don't think so. See it's a lot scarier when there's no motive."

-Billy Loomis, Scream

"It's always built up to be something bigger than it is. Everytime someone writes about a murder they always look for some apocalyptic reason for the killing. I bet there are dozens of murders on that computer with no tangible reason. I mean let's face it, some people kill other people- full stop."

-Mr. Fleming, The Interview

"This isn't happening to you for a reason- well one reason: I enjoy it."

-Ramsay Bolton, Game of Thrones

That's why they would need to play differently than they do in Endless Legend. Instead of mind control being their main ability (it should still be one though), perhaps curses shoudl be their primary ability. Like I said about the Grey Owl, we are never told who flew it. It is sorta hinted at in the Vaulter comic that the Necrophages got it, but it definitely wasn't the Vaulters. But if it was the Morgawr who got it, you could say some survived and absorbed the some of the Dust. After all they were created by a lost (Auriga) and even the Endless didn't understand them and they couldn't control them. Plus the Morgawr somehow survived being locked up for centuries after the Endless left Auriga, which leaves the question how did they eat.

The Morgawr in Endless Space 2 would have a very unique design, like organic ships (they did have living ships in Endless Legend). Now unless Amplitude wants to design a completly new evil faction (which requires a lot more work), they could just bring back the Morgawr since they fit the evil bill perfectly. Like I said earlier the Morgawr do not care if other people want freedom and equality for everyone. The Unfallen for example want peace and harmory for the galaxy, to the Morgawr's mindset this means "This means others are our equals which means we are not free. Must have total freedom over everyone!" They remind me of the Reapers in that they refuse any other option but their own.

I dislike Morgawr, either for their design or their background. Luckily, their traits were mostly absorbed by UC, so with any luck - they have died off on Auriga.

Anyway, we don't know for certain, who flew the Grey Owl- Awakening is  provding a piece of information.

Vaulters are pretty crafty - they repaired Argossy, their forefathers aquired said Dust Crystal, they have also two alternative routes - be it Foundlings (portal tech) or Bereaved (probably ragtag spaceship repair gone-right, o na smaller scale than Argossy - that those of their race left stranded on Auriga used. 

There's only so many fresh and innovative ways you can play a race i ES2 constraints. 

I would rather see Original Kapaku (offensive terraformation) or Allayi (Auriga reborn! Auriga protect att all cost tall empire) make a comeback from EL or just straightforward evil edgelord Kazaji-wannabes, a foil to Kapaku goody two-shoes (they only need thermal energy, I think ES had automatons using Dust for growth). Different strokes for different folks anyway.

Okay, I'll break my lurking streak for a moment to talk about the Morgawr, as they bring up a very interesting case, especially after Slow pitched in.

Their character motivation still isn't the OP-defined "evil." They're cruel in a very similar way that other factions are in both Legend and Endless Space: their pasttime is not kicking puppies for the sake of it, but rather taking any route necessary to ensure that they will never be imprisoned again. Thus, the problems that Slowhands mentioned are still present, because they're justifying their actions rather than reveling in them.

They might be the closest thing to OP's desired "pure evil" because they're so unapologetically devious, but they very much justify their actions as necessary steps to take out of fear, not because they enjoy being bad.

 EDIT: That being said, it would be pretty rad for a Lovecraftian space demon to wander around special nodes or something, akin to Temptest's sea monster. I can't see any viable way of making a whole faction, but a single entity is a very different story.