Master of Orion/Characters

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Alkaris

A race resembling hawks and having warlike propensities.

• Ace Pilot: Justifying their natural bonuses to ship defense!
• Big Badass Bird of Prey: Seriously, giant war bird people, though in the second game their aggressive appearance and demeanor were toned down quite a lot.
• Proud Warrior Race: And traditional rivals to the Mrrshan.

Bulrathi

A Bearlike race skilled in ground combat and colonial development.

• Proud Warrior Race: Best infantry in the universe, basically being giant bears. Bonuses to ground combat.
• Heavyworlder: Their other major trait, they can handle heavier gravity.

Darloks

A mysterious race most notable for their skill in covert warfare.

• Dark Is Evil: In the first game, everybody had a grudge against them and considered them untrustworthy.
• Lizard Folk: Kinda? In the first game everything you can see under their hoods is impenetrable blackness and glowing red eyes, but in the second game you can actually see a seemingly scaly skin inside. However, most depictions have them draped in cloaks, so it's hard to tell.
• The Spymaster: Their big bonus is to spying. They rely on it to get anything done.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: This racial trait is part of why they're good at espionage.

Humans

A strange and bizarre race which apparently exists in Real Life. Notable as skillful diplomats.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Don't let their diplomatic leanings fool you into thinking they're weaklings. If threatened, they will use their connections to get half the rest of the galaxy on their side. And their Democratic government gives them research bonuses; if Psilons aren't around, Humans will typically end up gaining technological superiority and keeping it.
• The Federation: In MoO2, they start with the Democracy government and will upgrade to the Galatic Federation government. These give bonuses to research, trade, and naturalizing indigenous/conquered populations.
• Humans Are Diplomats: In the first game, they were the only species that didn't start with some pre-existing hatred mucking up their diplomatic situation. In the second game, they get huge diplomatic bonuses, and their Democracy government means they convert conquered aliens into citizens much, much faster than other races.
• Proud Merchant Race: The best off economically before the Gnolam were introduced in II. Their trade treaties start generating profit well before anyone else's. Democracy gives them bonuses to trade treaties in the second game as well.

Klackons

An insectoid race. Incredibly hard workers; they have bonuses to all forms of production and can easily spread across half the galaxy in the early game.

• Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're ant people.
• Creative Sterility: One of their traits, and a major drawback. They gain a random application of a scientific advancement instead of being able to pick the one they want. This makes their research very hit-or-miss and they typically have to rely on conquest of spying to keep up.
• Hive Mind: Klakons' "Unification" society meant they were basically a giant ant colony; everyone knew their place, worked to benefit the whole, and was satisfied with their place in it. This meant Klakons never suffered any kind of morale penalty.

Meklars

Cyborgs known for their factory construction. They eat half production, half food.

• Cyborg: They are part-organic and part-machine. In game they have a hefty bonus to production, and only require half the food of normal races, but "consume" part of their industrial output to make up for it. Still manages to put them ahead on manufacturing, though.

Mrrshan

A matriarchal (in the first game) race of feline warriors. Known for their gunnery skills.

• Panthera Awesome: Giant warcats.
• Proud Warrior Race: Rivals to the Alkaris. In fact, where Alkari pilots have bonuses to defense, Mrrshan gunners have bonuses to attack. On top of their gunnery, they have the Warlord trait, making all of their crews and leaders one level of skill higher than other crews of equal experience, and a cap one level higher than them.

Psilons

A race of Grey-like humanoids who devote themselves to the pursuit of technology to compensate for their physically weak bodies.

• Beware the Nice Ones: Pacifist and peaceful race, who generally prefer to be friends with everyone. However, their ability to learn all techs makes them formidable enemy from mid-game onwards.
• Magikarp Power: They're low-G people, and as such, they suffer in production on all worlds except low-G worlds (until they research gravity converters for the planet). Early-game, they're struggling to survive. Late-game, nobody can stand up to them once they're established enough.
• Proud Scholar Race: They have the best research bonuses in the game, and their Creative trait means they get every application of a scientific advancement instead of picking just one.
• Space Elves: High Elf variety, though not snooty. At first.

Sakkras

Lizard Folk known for their swift breeding. Like the Klackons, they can cover half the map in the early game.

• Feudal Future: Uses a feudal government, using their vast populations as a labor pool. This means they need military outposts to keep their citizens up to even baseline happiness, and unlike the other two feudal factions, they aren't geared for military conquest.
• Lizard Folk: Sakkras are basically space dinosaurs.
• We Have Reserves: Sakkra traits are in two departments. They make subterranean cities, which lets them cram more people into a planet and gives them bonuses to planetary defense, and they have ridiculous boosts to population growth. Invading their planets is a challenge even for the Bulrathi simply because of sheer numbers you have to slog through.

Silicoids

Silicon based life. Can colonize almost any environment. They do not eat food, and are immune to pollution, so they have the unique distinction of being able to put every single one of their guys into production or research. Their major disadvantage is that they are "Repulsive" and thus unable to trade with any other races. They can't get all of the technologies by trading; they must instead spy a lot or hope to get lucky in seizing technology during conquest. On the upside, their immunity to pollution and lack of food requirements completely obviates a lot of the research that other races need.

• Silicon-Based Life: Their key traits are all based on the fact that they're goddamn weird rock aliens. They don't need food because they eat rocks. They don't care about pollution because normal biospheres mean nothing to them. They can't communicate diplomatically beyond declaring war because siliconlife minds cannot really understand carbonlife minds and vice versa.

Elerians

• Action Girl: A whole race of them, thanks to their society being matriarchal.
• Blue Skinned Space Babe: The some other races may have a little of the Rubber Forehead Alien thing going on, but Elerians are just funny colored human women.
• Feudal Future: The other feudal society, like the Sakkra.
• Mass Hypnosis: Telepathy gives them this power. As long as they have large enough ships in their fleet, they don't even need to invade enemy planets to capture them. And they can use ships captured in battle immediately.
• Space Elves: A much more militant variety.
• The Omniscient: They are aware of everything happening in the galaxy, because of the telepathy. Removes the need to scout systems.

Gnolams

• Born Lucky: The only non-money trait Gnolams possess. Makes bad random events less likely to target them, and Antarans likely to ignore them in favor to blowing up some other poor schmuck.
• Proud Merchant Race: Major bonuses to basically anything money-related.
• Space Jews: Even one of the Gnolam leaders was named Zog. He was renamed in a later patch.

Trilarians

• Cthulhumanoid - Subverted. They are an aquatic race, and they do have some tendrils hanging down from their chins, and even implied to be descended from the Big Bad race the Antarans, but at the same time their appearance is almost angelic, they tend towards the "pacifistic" personality type, and even their theme music makes it obvious that they are not an evil race. Maybe.
• Fish People - Their big trait is being an aquatic race, and they look it. MoO3 retconned their appearance to eel-like creatures.
• Mind Over Matter - Their psychic powers allow them to increase their ships' speed and even allow them to move during a "space flux" - a random event that blocks all access to hyperspace across the entire galaxy.

Master of Orion III (2003)

(to come)