Endless Legend
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Endless Legend is a 4X strategy game by Amplitude Studios set on the planet of Auriga. It's also a game with awesome, if vague, lore. It has everything a cliché setting would have, but presents it in a manner that makes everything seem new and amazing. Like Eberron. Auriga was a laboratory of Precursor race of Endless, who left their creations (like magic nanomachines, driders, crazed god-robots, gardens of impossibly huge or burning trees, not!tyranids, ruins, dungeons and uplifted dragons) all over the place. It had some kind of weather control that used to keep the climate optimal, but in the timeframe of the game it got wonky, and in a thousand years Auriga will freeze over. Endgame of all factions is fucking off on a spaceship before that occurs.
The Endless
The first to travel far and wide across the stars of the Galaxy, The Endless are a species whose society developed on a large, cool planet that they called Tor. It was the second largest body orbiting a star now known simply as Prime. Long winters and scarce resources made their development very slow, but eventually they spread out through the Galaxy, while the underwater branch of the Endless left on Tor were busy digging too greedily and too deep. Eventually, careless and extensive digging caused the home planet to go boom, which was a tragedy for the whole species.
A planet named Kyros was so welcoming and good that it was viewed as a paradise by many religions of the Endless. One of especially charismatic and aggressive cults started a war that resulted in release of a grey goo style weapon that destroyed the planet. This event went down in history as The tragedy of Kyros and made Endless become even more hands-off with colonisation and terraforming. They ended up terminating all religions save one. The Tragedy made already disunified Endless drift even more apart in their philosophies and ways, however.
Dust
What started as micro-machines to assist under-oxygenated gills of underwater branch of Endless began to evolve. The nanomachines became ever smaller, ever more mobile, ever more adapted to pulling energy from ambient radiation. Ultimately, they learned to self-network and self-organize, which had the unexpected side effect of creating near-infinite networks of intelligent mechanical nodes.
Therefore, what is now commonly known as "Dust" was a mix of different miniaturized elements that could replicate themselves, self-assemble, and network. Based on technologies of quantum computing and atomic-level miniaturization, Dust was capable of simple physical tasks as well as feats of advanced computing. As large numbers of elements communicated, combined, and interacted, it could even form sophisticated AI systems that were able to achieve advanced levels of reasoning and analysis. Its utility and flexibility became such that Dust was created in enormous volumes and became an integral component of everyday life.
At the time of the Endless Space game, Dust is only known as a rare and priceless resource created by the Endless that appears to give almost god-like incomprehensible powers to its users. For, as the Endless technology to handle it was lost, new races will have to discover the secrets within Dust through experimentation.
On Auriga, in Endless Legend, dust is poorly understood - and incredibly powerful. Capable of anything from facilitating feats of magical might and extending the life of beings which consume it (or very well creating an entire species, ala the Broken Lords) it is the most powerful of all the elements found on the planet. Used as a currency, a material for crafting mighty weapons, and the means by which species such as the Necrophages can become sentient it allows many of the fantastical elements of Endless Legend to exist.
Schism
Eventually Dust technology became so developed and so sophisticated that Endless could temporarily upload their minds into computers, and after some time, even completely disassociate their minds from bodies. Those who left bodies behind became known as the Virtual Endless. Once nothing could kill you, why should life have limits? Indulgence and excess rocketed off the scale as vast swathes of the society experimented with lust, gluttony, sadomasochism, the creation of mutants, living toys, extreme self-alteration... Endless society was already highly diverse from stretching all across the Galaxy, but Virtualisation brought upon a schism like never before. Appearance of indulgent Virtuals wasn't universally celebrated, and groups of those named Concrete Endless preached denial of virtualisation. While one side saw no need to invest in biology research and terraforming as the body was no longer necessary, the other clearly sought further breakthroughs in these areas. Splits of budgeting became movements of secession, and the movements of secession eventually broke into open conflict with each other, known after as Dust Wars, cruel, merciless and apocalyptic as they brought upon the downfall of the Endless species...
Factions of Endless Legend
Wild Walkers
Your usual wood elves that have HUGE ears with Native American vibe... that used their druidic talents of animal empathy and stone and wood-shaping to build a fucking awesome industry and build masterpieces of architecture. Their talents revolve around The Sharing - animal empathy that they can use to subdue animals, see through their eyes, feel their emotion, or turn into them. The Sharing isn't safe, however: those who Share oftem can fall into explosive, uncontrollable rages.
Changing of their ways didn't go without pain: a tribe of rebels who dislike cities and say that Gaia will abandon the Walkers for forsaking their tradition rises against the king, but the rebellion is quickly suppressed.
Broken Lords
They are vampire aristocracy combined with Rubric Marines: they are spirits encased in armor that have to eat souls or consume Dust to survive. Before the incident that made them abandon flesh, they were either mutated Concrete Endless or humans of the Roving Clans. As Auriga dies, as she always does, it becomes more and more clear that the Lords of the Amber Plains find it more and more difficult to produce dust and they struggle with how to handle creation of this life giving substance. Many of them see nothing wrong with simply taking living creatures and draining them of life, but the more noble and honourable of them seek other methods to sustain themselves without being genocidal maniacs.
The Broken Lords are incredibly wealthy, requiring Dust as the currency of the setting to literally buy their own population - this raises some interesting questions about their society and how its built up: Do they straight up create new broken lords from the dust or do they just resurrect some of their dead brethren?
Ardent Mages
Originally one of Roving Clans, they are Rage mages of the setting. They derive power from disassociating mind with body (that reminds you of someone, eh?) by going through pain and suffering. BDSM wizards are always glad to sacrifice a limb or two for more power and knowledge. Incredibly focused on gathering new knowledge and developing a greater understanding of dust magic and the world around them, the Ardents are willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals.
For example, the Ardents can facilitate their own production of resources through the construction of huge floating pillars that affect the land around them - in many cases, the Ardents happily strap their own people to these pillars in order to increase their power.
Vaulters
The "main character" of the series. People that crashed a spaceship on Auriga and lived through numerous cataclysms in underground vaults and tunnels, those created by the Endless or newly dug. Vaulters forgot most of their technology, and so they run around in power armor and armed with crossbows. They worship science and metal. They experimented on one of their clans and expelled it when it revolted, thus creating another faction - The Forgotten.
The Vaulters still tell stories of the sky they came from, and for that reason one of their major motivations is to recreate the ship that they crashed on and return to the stars from whence they came - being the canon 'winners' of Endless legend, this creates a great deal of (justified)Rage.
Cultists of Eternal End
Two robots (The Queen and The Unspoken) created by the Endless that weren't shut down properly and went mad from waiting millennia in the darkness. They now hate everything the Endless created and strive to bring Eternal End on all of the Auriga. They build up only one city and from there send preachers, who use charisma and mind control to turn less civilised minor factions into zealous mobs, eager to serve the Queen and to destroy her enemies.
Beings of immense power, the Queen and the Unspoken mindbreak those around them to force them into cooperating - denying their original purpose of uplifting other species and doing a better job of ruling the galaxy than the Endless did. They do make for some incredible characters though, such as Urol the Speaker who was so affected by the psychic raging of The Queen that her subjects could not communicate well, his mind was wiped clean and he could only think of the languages of Auriga.
Drakken
A race of skulky lizardmen that was uplifted by Endless into huge, proud and obedient dragons to serve as stewards of Auriga and fend off the Allayi. They are diplomancers of the setting: they have the most influence on international affairs, contacts with everyone from the turn 1, and their diplomacy does work as mind control.
There is a distinction between winged and unwinged Drakken, and the largest of them are closer to the more traditional winged monsters - though rather than a huge need for hoarding wealth, the Drakken scorn gold and advances of science in the face of history, knowledge of factions and historical artefacts. They're also a quality over quantity kind of race - bringing a few incredibly powerful units into battle rather than the hoards or glass cannons of other races.
Necrophages
Another species native to Auriga, uplifted by the Endless as well. Carnivorous locusts with low intelligence and iron guts, the Necrophages can't be at peace with anyone and get food from killing enemy units. They carry disease on their blades and jaws, and they are coming to your neighborhood to lay eggs in your sorry hind-leg ass.
Created by a biological weapon, the Necrophages who are sentient are slowly fading back into the madness of the old times - losing what little grasp on their own minds they have and returning to the simple beasts they had been before immersing themselves in dust to gain greater perspective. In their main campaign quest, they see no hope of surviving this end of Auriga - and instead focus on hiding millions of eggs far beneath the surface in hopes of rising again.
Roving Clans
Former relatives (or allies?) of Broken Lords, they are nomadic traders that control the market of Auriga and can exclude anyone they dislike from using it. While being nomadic, they still manage to have cities, carried on backs of giant Setseke beetles. With a society focused on mobility and being able to move across the world, every unit of the roving clans has cavalry speed, and their mighty beetle cities can relocate with minor penalties if needs be.
As the people who see dust most as currency, their mercantile nature prejudices them against war, and for this reason they cannot declare it. However, their natural guile predisposes them towards finding other ways to strike at their enemies and thus they can hire mercenaries to conduct their wars for them entirely anonymously.
Allayi
Fluffy shifter bat-moths and natives of Auriga, and, possibly, creators of The Guardians. They get more powerful in winter, while everyone else gets weaker. They're incredibly in tune with the nature of Auriga and seek to heal her. As highly religious fluffy bat-men, they gain a great personal understanding of Auriga and her seasons.
Worshipping Auriga however comes with a price - specifically, specialist pearls created by the planet's long winters - which they use both to expand their cities with magical Garths, and to gain the blessings of Auriga herself through a temple (though this can be constructed and used by all races). Some of their units also require these pearls to be created.
Morgawr
The Endless created in their time many races and lab experiments - the Morgawr are one of the few that truly terrified them. Locked deep in undersea facilities for millennia, the Morgawr are a creepy psychic fish hivemind with the only dedicated naval units in the game. Their main goal is to escape the chains that bound them and to survive no matter what. Hivemind isn't actively the best term for them though - to justify Morgawr heroes in game, they're only a 'hive mind' in that they all have a telepathic connection to one another while still being individuals. It just makes them much more likely to act in concert.
Capable of exercising their psychic might to mind control their enemies, the Morgawr are an incredibly dangerous enemy entirely capable of turning that previously easily ignored minor faction army a province away into a major thorn in your side.
The Forgotten
Created by the Vaulters during horrific experiments on their own people, the Forgotten are the bitter mutated remnants of an outcast clan. Adept in espionage and stealth, they excel as assassins and spies - preferring to kill from the shadows and steal what they cannot gather or research themselves.
Decorated with tattoos and piercings, the Forgotten do everything they can to both disassociate with the vaulters who cruelly created them as well as hide their true form. Their abilities in this latter regard go so far as to allow some of them the ability to transform into mist at will, making them incredibly hard to hit and exceptionally good at hitting.
Minor factions
Less ambitious and less technologically and culturally advanced than major factions. Their role is to pester major factions with wandering units when unpacified and provide work force, nice benefits and unit designs when pacified and assimilated.
- Ceratan - driders
- Bos - centaurs
- Hurnas - inuit orcs
- Kazanji - fire worshippers who look like demons
- Eyeless Ones - nice psionic Giger aliens
- Sisters of Mercy - warrior cleric nobles
- Delvers - barbaric dwarves
- Jotus - two-headed ADHD gnolls
- Urces - ogres who value sheep highly
- Silics - ancient crystal men, probably as old as the universe
- Nidya - bird people
- Haunts - angry AIs with greatswords
- Geldirus - big sabertooth wolves
- Gauran - fluffy minotaurs
- Erycis - hydras
- Dorgeshi - offshoot of Roving Clans
- Fomorians - robotic looking caretakers of the Endless's naval facilities, former jailers of the Morgrawr, incredibly annoying pirates.
Endless Legend on tabletop
Anons attempted to create some homebrew tools to play in this setting on tabletop, but, since lore is quite piece-by-piece, it's slightly troublesome.
- D&D 5e: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HyYiuuklb
- 3.PF:
- Savage Worlds: https://pastebin.com/1yA2nTEe