I decided to try making a meme empire in Stellaris and it worked out unexpectedly well.
The empire was Fanatic Xenophobe + Authoritarian, which gives a combo of cheaper system-claiming outpost starbases, faster pop growth, and more Influence points every month. In combination with the first choices in the Expansion Tradition, I was able to support 3 science ships exploring and 3 construction ships claiming what got found. (Factions kicked in right when I needed more Influence points.)
With default closed borders, I was able to wall off a decently large chunk of the galaxy, having only four chokepoints to fortify against filthy outsiders.
The Xenophobe / Authoritarian domestic side was also unexpectedly easy to manage, and here's where we get into the meme part of the empire.
The empire's origin was Synceitic Evolution, and as a xenophobe that means the servitor species will be enslaved. The primary race will behave as normal for a xenophobe.
The primary species I made was the beefy-looking green humanoid, known as the common space orc.
The servitor species was, of course, elves. Their traits were Fast-Breeding (+20% pop growth rate, to represent that the elves are being bred often), Communal (-10% housing cost, which represents that they're basically body-pillows for their orc masters), and both of the bad-as-leaders traits (Slow Learners and Fleeting) which didn't matter because slaves are never leaders. However, note that using all 4 trait slots meant no easy gene-modding. I'm not sure it mattered that I lost out on that.
For the orcs, the traits I picked were Decadent (unhappy as workers or slaves), Solitary (+10% housing cost), and Extremely Adaptive -- which was a mistake, since I always wanted elves on the same planets, so I ended up Terraforming every colony world anyway. There was one primitive species which was on the verge of space-flight, so I invaded their shitty Tundra world and enslaved them, so maybe I got some value out of Extremely Adaptable, but habitability modding came pretty quick after that and with a few clicks Frost Orcs were their proximate masters.
The game will start you off with your thralls in Chattel Slavery, which is sub-optimal. Immediately change them over to Domestic Servitude, which seems to have a bug but even with the bug it's great. Domestic Servitude takes all unemployed slaves and gives them a job as Servants, which means each otherwise-unemployed elf slave provides +2 Amenities (same as a Clerk, but no Trade Value).
This combo meant planets would start out with everyone working -- elves as menial workers, orcs as specialists and rulers -- then as both populations grew, slowly orcs would replace elves as menial workers, while elves effectively turned into Amenities.
This meant I'd have happy planets with a significant number of undeveloped building slots, and I could specialize the planet basically on-demand. Slamming down 3 buildings with 15 new job slots across them would instantly be filled, as orcs were available to just stop doing menial elf-work, and unemployed elf slaves stepped back into the Worker tier to take their place.
Domestic Servitude meant I could specialize worlds after building up a decent population, and removed a lot of the fiddly population appeasement (since elves are Amenities).
Species-specific rights for elves were:
- Slavery: Domestic Servitude
- No Population Controls
- No Migration Controls (this means they will breed faster on new settlements)
For the shitty Tundra aliens, I made them Indentured Servitude (can work specialist jobs) since I didn't want to touch their shitty Tundra planet more than necessary. They were some kind of fungus, so I absolutely did put them under Migration Control after they started showing up on my Habitats. (I terraformed a Tundra gulag planet and resettled all the Habitat-fungus over there. Might purge them later, idk.)
Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Great Hentai Orc Empire and how it was fun to play, and actually made Stellaris less fiddly.
Fast peaceful early expansion, then when you're done claiming systems change your Policy -> Diplomatic Stance from Expansionist to Isolationist which removes a lot of the Sprawl pressure while costing you nothing important, build like a tall peaceful empire but on a lot more land, and specialize your planets later than usual with a convenient population of domestic elf slaves, who are amenities.
Gark, son of Thag: "But Father, how do the elves feel about this situation?"
Thag, son of Grum: "My son, you can just look at the happiness report we receive from central command on Orctopia. Look at how amenities affect the happiness of our slaves."
Gark, son of Thag: "Yes, of course, everyone likes ameni-- wait, Father, even the elves themselves enjoy the, uh, amenities provided by Domestic Servitude?"
Thag, son of Grum: "You're old enough to understand now."
Gark, son of Thag: "I understand. From now on, I'm going to rape them a lot more often."
Thag, son of Grum: "That's my boy."