We’ve covered the core mechanics of Ideologies in our previous diaries. Today, we’re looking at a society with room for more opinions, a Civic devoted to self-improvement, and some leaders with very little interest in compromise.

If you missed the earlier diaries, they’re worth a read for some background. Otherwise, let’s jump in.

The Great Mosaic​

Not a pre-scripted empire, just for demonstration. Also a different Inquisitor ship photoshopped in as a teaser.

The third and final Origin for Willpower is also its most straightforward: Great Mosaic.

One more Civic. A few more opinions.​

With so many Civics to choose from in Stellaris, sometimes you just want one more. Great Mosaic puts you in charge of an ethically diverse society and gives you an additional Civic from the start of the game. Bringing everyone’s hearts and minds into alignment will be a little harder, but you’ll have more tools to shape your empire. And yes, Galactic Administration will let you hold four Civics at once.

Like Prosperous Unification, Great Mosaic is a mechanics-focused Origin. There’s no dedicated narrative or follow-up event chain: the focus is on what you build with that extra Civic.

Faction distribution at game start.

~10 years later.​

The top bar of the Factions panel shows recent gains and losses in Pop Ethics, making it easier to see which beliefs are gaining ground and which are losing it.

This empire is of course a Fanatic Spiritualist, and with that comes a new Fanatic Spiritualist Civic: Path of the Self.

Path of the Self​

Cultivate a better version of yourself.​

Path of the Self lets your empire pursue spiritual perfection, building up bonuses through repeated cultivation. The type and magnitude of your cultivation is up to you.

Cultivation in action.​

The Spirit Cultivation Situation begins at game start and repeats throughout the game. Complete a cycle, choose a bonus, and begin again. Each cycle of spiritual improvement requires more progress than the last.

Cultivation approaches.​

Choose to focus on the Mind, Body, or Spir-... Nerve Stapling. Nerve Stapling always does the trick.

Cultivation of the Mind will result in Unity, Happiness and Stability improvements. Cultivation of the Body will result in various improvements to your leaders. Nerve Stapling can do both.

Cultivating the Mind or Body can be hastened through focused Meditation, dedicating entire colonies to the effort.

Meditation: A dynamic Planetary Decision​

You'll want to be careful which colonies you designate for Meditation, as it will double the Amenity or Housing usage of all meditating Pops.

Meditation is also useful without a special cultivation approach, as it increases Ethics Attraction and Ideological Reach (for empires with an Ideology.)

Cultivation of the Body​

Most Cultivation bonuses stack, though some have a maximum. The bonus to Effective Councilor Skill level can only be selected once. When an option stops appearing, you’ve cultivated that aspect of yourself as far as it can go.

Highly cultivated.​

You can find your accumulated Cultivation bonuses alongside your other Faction modifiers.

Several spiritually inclined Civics also unlock special Cultivation options. Our example empire is a Death Cult, so we can even cultivate the effectiveness of our own sacrifices. Self-improvement takes many forms.

Codifying our Death Cult​

Now that we’ve worked on ourselves, let’s give the rest of the galaxy something to believe in.

Our empire has both Death Cult and Imperial Cult, giving us two special Tenets to choose from.

Not one, but two special Tenets.​

Empires that adopt this Ideology will also gain the ability to sacrifice their own Pops, just like you taught them. Come on, everyone’s doing it.

Because our Ideology is Spiritualist, it’s referred to as a Religion. Religions use the same mechanics as other Ideologies, with only flavor differences such as Churches for their Ethical buildings.​

Ideological Paragons​

Once you’ve built your Galactic Hall and adopted an Absolute Ethic, Ideological Paragons may offer their services.

These powerful leaders embody the most extreme ethical alignments, and their loyalty has limits: adopt any degree of their opposing Ethic, and they’ll leave. Even regular Materialism is enough to send the Spiritualist Paragon packing.

Sybanus, the Spiritual Scientist.

Show us the way.​

Of course, there is one Ideological Paragon for each Ethic. Each uses a variant of an existing Stellaris portrait. I will now attempt to photoshop them all together.

Dinner at this house would be super awkward.

NEXT WEEK

Next week, we'll show off some of the Inquisitor shipset. After that, it's probably time to dig into the Ambition.

See you then!