Aspects

Pleogyra, the Innumerable, leader of the Aspects Chorus

Overview

"

The dieback has made us cautious; we must learn to live with less.

"

—Callegyro, the Tireless

Originally a peaceful ecosystem of biomechanical symbiosis, Saiadha’s catastrophic awakening unleashed a dieback on the means of that way of life. Aspects must learn to adapt to a cataclysmically changing world, and establish a new harmonious coexistence by whatever means are necessary.

The Aspects, like their Endless Legend predecessors the Drakken, are an aggressive expansionist faction with diplomatic flavor. The Aspects are the weakest faction in the game at gaining a lead, with the highest expansion costs, poorest economy, and weakest army of any Major Faction. They are still the strongest faction in the game at maintaining one; their Force Peace and pop Influence scaling can comfortably secure an advantage until the end of the game.

Lore

"

Their origins lost to the distant past, the Aspects are a symbiotic species, part machine, part coral, with physically distinct individuals who find blissful union in the Chorus–a mind gestalt where all Aspects can psychically come together. Obsessed with preserving the balance on Saiadha through empathy and understanding, the Aspects’ peaceful existence has been upended by a devastating dieback of their life-enhancing coral fields. Will Saiadha ever see the Illuminated Realm again?

"

The Aspects are a biomechanical faction native to Saiadha. Prior to the Great Dieback, a devastating cataclysm of unclear origin, they were led by a single unifying will, the Chorus, which allowed the coral network to operate in a gestalt sense. In their narration, their ideals of unity, chorus, peace, harmony, and balance blur the lines between politics and biology. Assimilation into the aspects is both cultural, as with other Empires, and biological; Minor Faction villages physically connected to the Coral network are susceptible to instant pacification, and all Minor Factions can be instantly and freely assimilated into or out of the Chorus.

Faction Traits

Name	Type	Effect	Lore
Coral Chorus	Faction Affinity	Aspects plant Coral on the map, granting utility and marginal economic benefits.	No lore currently (same as the faction lore)
Harmonious Tactics	Combat Affinity	Whenever a friendly unit defends, the next friendly attack deals +25% Damage (does not stack). At the end of the Battle Round, if the unit is on a Coral tile, it gains a 10% base max HP shield (does not scale with buffs, including Veterancy)	All Aspects traits and affinities are currently missing lore.
Cohabitation	Trait	All Minor Faction Assimilation is free, instead of just the first. The Population Collection Thresholds are reduced.	All Aspects traits and affinities are currently missing lore.
Cultural Approval	Trait	+5 Approval on Pacified Village	All Aspects traits and affinities are currently missing lore.
Barter System	Trait	Faction does not have access to Dust districts.	All Aspects traits and affinities are currently missing lore.
Force Diplomacy	Trait	Faction can unlock Force Peace and Force Truce actions from the Technology Tree. Also contains Influence buyout.	All Aspects traits and affinities are currently missing lore.
Common Rights	Technology	Unlocks the Common Rights technology.	"It is time to see the worth in every citizen's life." Curator Meng
Fencing	Technology	Unlocks the Language Square technology.	"The hard part isn't the crops, it's the pests!" Anonymous Peasant

Faction Affinity: Coral Chorus

Coral Chorus modifies Aspects' colonization to involve spreading Coral.

Coral is a special tile modification that adds an additional +1 Food to the tile for all Empires. Coral costs Coral Chorus empires 0.5 Movement to traverse, half the Influence cost to plant Foundations on, and 0 Dust to bribe affected Minor Faction villages.

Coral Chorus armies must plant Coral Spores instead of directly founding Camps for a scaling Dust cost (40/100/160/220...), and must then evolve Spores to Camps for the standard Influence cost before they can spend Influence again to attach or found Cities with.

Aspects can use two unique diplomatic actions associated with Coral: the Share Coral Exploitation treaty grants Dust and Influence to both Empires based on the other Empire's exploitation of Coral, and the Embrace Symbiosis declaration allows the other empire to use Coral's movement effects and heal on it.

Coral Spread

Aspects' Coral Spores, Camps, Ministries and City Halls add Coral to all adjacent tiles when created, and will each periodically grow the Coral network (every 7 turns on Normal). Coral prefers to spread towards water, or if no nearby water is available, towards non-Aspect villages or districts. Coral will "burst" on contact with a Village or water, spawning Coral on adjacent tiles.

Coral stops growing in territories corrupted by Doomwraiths, and is immediately destroyed when no longer connected to a Coral Grower.

Unique Technologies

todo; split the affinity techs from the force techs and the bartersystem techs

Population

Population	Effects	Pop Scale Bonuses
Description
Aspect	+1 Influence per Population Type in the same category	5	Ascetic Existence improvement
Strange artificial creatures, blending the organic and the artificial, Aspects nonetheless make diligent, peaceful citizens.
		15	+1 Influence on Aspect Pop
		30	+10% Influence on City with Aspects

Characters

starting hero, hero trees, heroes, notables, notable skills

Military

Aspects' military centers around the Defend mechanic. Combat affinity etc. Todo