Horatio

The Horatio are one of the playable factions in Endless Space. A race of clones, their leader seeks to "beautify" the universe by populating it with his likeness.

Characteristics
A race of humans with slightly elongated cone heads, only distinguished by their facial tattoos.

History
The Horatio were founded by an eccentric United Empire trillionare of the same name. He was incredibly long-lived, unbelievably rich, but was tired of his life in the Empire. After taking a single colony ship, Horatio set up base on a world he called Horatio Prime where he discovered it contained ancient cloning labs left by the Endless.

Using his DNA for a template, Horatio created a race of obedient replicas of the most beautiful being in the entire universe - himself.

Naming himself, "Horatio the First" he repopulated the planet with his likeness and created his own empire in his likeness.

Culture
The Horatio are a society of clones society, reflecting the nature of its founder. The Horatio can be described as hedonistic and vain. Conformity is a great virtue, with individuality a great vice. Clones that are deemed unique are considered "defective" and are destroyed. All Horatio, both male and female, look alike, save for their facial tattoos.

The Horatio are highly arrogant seeing the other factions as primitive, unsophisticated, and - above all - ugly.

The We
"The We", as they occasionally refer to themselves, is a society that has highly advanced cloning and biological sciences, but is relatively behind in other ways. Their goal is to re-create all of space in their own image, and to do this their primary need is to build the farms and incubators that grow Horatios. As they are humanoid, they require food, so development of agriculture and food supplies is also of great importance. As the First says, "You can never have too many Horatios." However, in spite of high population concentrations the society remains relatively calm and content; as Horatios have been carefully bred to be loyal and obedient they lack the drive to seek change, especially violent change. Necessity for survival will of course drive them to create weapons and more advanced ships, but their preference is to seek, colonize, and grow planets in the hopes of covering the galaxy with their kind.