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. Incredibly long-lived, unbelievably rich, tired of ordinary life. Taking a single colony ship, Horatio set up base on a far flung planet that contained ancient cloning labs left by the Endless.

Still bored and now also lonely, he turned to these facilities. Using his DNA for a template, Horatio created a race of obedient replicas of the most beautiful being in the entire universe - himself.

Before long, "Horatio the First" as he was now known, had repopulated the planet with his likeness. At that point, it dawned on him how much more beautiful the galaxy would be if it too were filled with... Horatios.

Culture
The Horatio society reflects the nature of its founder and absolute ruler. Just as the faction's goal is to beautify the universe, every part of the society - the buildings, the ships, the people - also must be beautiful.

In a race of near identical copies, conformity is a great virtue, individuality a great vice. "Defective" copies that are too unique are destroyed. Indeed, all Horatio, both male and female, look alike, save facial tattoos.

Convinced of their own superiority, the Horatio see the other factions as primitive, unsophisticated, and - above all - ugly. The notion of other species not like them is disturbing to most Horatios[3] That said, other Horatio embrace these other species. The faction understands that sometimes working with other races is necessary or even desirable.

For the time being at least, the Horatio will have to coexist with the ugly people...

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.