Today is some more Stellaris. I did some multiplayer with a friend this time. He has a bunch of mods on that i added. Some serious. Some... not so much. I ended up going with a mod he had that added a Catgirl race for my empire, so you can guess which of the two categories it fell into.
At first i decided to just throw myself into the memey side of it (as you can tell by the default names). But then, i made them a ring world dwelling species and got a little too invested in world building. Now they're a Monarchy led by a female regnant, called a Queen (But, like, in the term for a Non-Spayed Cat, because the empire is kind of like their child), then the heir is a Molly (Which in irl cats is the term for a Spayed cat, which as the heir wouldn't be able to have the 'Child' (Empire). This made a lot more sense in my head the other day at 12 AM when i first made them in the server). I've made them diplomatic and social empire, but with Policies that allow them to invade others if it's for their defense, though even then they're generally pretty nice with all the people the invade. Mostly because they're Xenophiles.
My friend, who is the Mertillian Empire (you can see it in the main screenshot above that big pink one), has some fun lore for his species too. I don't know all of it but they're a fungal race who's a "dictatorship but they elect the dictator based on who can lay the most spores. Their leader is called a spore mother". He's trying to play a fully diplomatic and isolationist empire, but i keep pulling him into my wars.
The first were these guys. They kept getting really pissy with me, and i kept trying to make friends. They eventually got their affinity to start plummeting though for some reason, so i took them along with my friend and made them a Vassal State. The terms are actually pretty innocent. They basically get full sovereignty, i just reserve the right to absorb them into my empire if i want. (honestly though i like them, they're pretty chill now that they stopped being Xenophobic)
These guys just straight up offered themselves as a Vassal State. I said yes, though their terms state that if we go to war they have to help me. In return though i'll do the same thing. I also am allowed to reserve the right to dissolve them into my country though.
All this war prep is for these guys. They've had a big problem with trying to wipe out everyone else. Me and my Friend briefly held them in a federation so they couldn't invade anyone, but we've been gathering allies to help invade them. I intend to make them a Vassal, at least for now, so they don't keep picking fights. Ultimately though me and my friend are debating seeing if we can just take over the map to unify the galaxy for the Crisis. We'll have to see though, i'm not too keen on the idea of absorbing an entire Empire just yet.
Nice! How long are you planning to continue?
Right now my goal is a year. At that point i want to consider if where my life is going if i can keep going, but judging how relaxed my life is, i expect to be able too