This article has been verified for the current PC version (3.4) of the game.
Species rights interface.
Species rights determined how species are treated in an empire. The rights can be determined individually for each species and can be changed every 10 years. Default rights for new species in the empire can also be set, which can later be modified for individual species. What rights can be selected depends on whether the species is the main species of the empire and what ethics, civics, policies, and authority the empire has. The set rights interface can be found from the species panel.
When a species template is created, it inherits the species right of the unmodified species. However, the template can be given separate rights afterwards.
Citizenship represents the status of a species in an empire: whether they are free, partially free, or subjugated; whether or not they can participate in the political processes of the country; what freedoms and restrictions can be placed on them; and even whether they have the right to live in the empire at all. In addition to rights and obligations, citizenship also affects pops' ability to seek refuge: empires can allow all refugees, granting them residence or full citizenship, or only accept refugees from species that already have full citizenship.
Type
Pop effects
Requirements
Description
Full Citizenship
Only option for primary species
Only primary species or sub-species if Xenophobe
Citizen Rights AI policy if species is Mechanical
Full Military Service if empire has Citizen Service
Not Hive-Minded species unless empire is Hive Mind
Not Machine unit species
Not Machine Intelligence
Pops are free and allowed to join factions, and the species can produce leaders.
Each and every individual of this species is an esteemed member of this society.
Residence
−10% Happiness
−25% Amenities usage
−50% Political power
Citizen Rights AI policy if species is Mechanical
Does not have Full Military Service if empire has Citizen Service
Not Fanatic Purifiers
Not Gestalt Consciousness
Pops are free but are not allowed to join factions, and the species cannot produce leaders.
They have yet to prove themselves worthy of all rights afforded to others. Perhaps they never will.
Slaves
0.75 Base amenities usage
0.75 Base housing usage
−75% Political power
Allowed Slavery Policy or empire is Gestalt Consciousness
Does not have Full Military Service if empire has Citizen Service
Hive-Minded species
Not Robotic species
Genocidal
Rogue Servitor
Driven Assimilator
All pops of this species will be enslaved. What this entails depends on the type of slavery.
Freedom is an illusion. For some this truth is more tangible than it is for others.
Does not have Prohibited Purge policy, unless purging or assimilating is the only option
Does not have Full Military Service if empire has Citizen Service
Only option for aliens if Fanatic Purifiers
Only option for non-Hive-Minded species if Devouring Swarm
Only option for organic species if Determined Exterminator
Only option for Hive-Minded species if empire is not Hive Mind, without Evolutionary Mastery
Only option for Machine species if empire is not Machine Intelligence
Only option for Mechanical species if Outlawed Robotic Workers Policy or empire is Hive Mind
All pops of this species will be purged. What this entails depends on the type of purge.
State records do not recognize the existence of this species.
Assimilation
−100% Political Power
Not genocidal
Not Robotic species
Not Hive-Minded species, unless Evolutionary Mastery
Can assimilate, that is, one of the following:
Driven Assimilator and pop is not Cybernetic
The Flesh is Weak, completed the associated special project, and pop is not Cybernetic
Synthetic Evolution and completed the associated special project
Evolutionary Mastery and either pop is Hive-Minded, or it isn't and the empire is a Hive Mind
Transcendence and pop is not already Psionic
Pops of this species are changed over time to better match the dominant species of the Empire. Pops that are in the process of being assimilated will not produce any resources. The results of assimilation depend on which ascension perks have been picked (or if it's a Driven Assimilator).
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us.
Machine Integration
Machine Intelligence
One of:
Mechanical
Machine
Cybernetic if the empire has the Driven Assimilator civic
All owned pops of this species are fully integrated with the Machine Intelligence. They can work any job (besides special cases such as Bio-Trophies) and produce leaders.
Assuming direct control.
Bio-Trophy
+1000% Political Power
Rogue Servitor civic
Not Robotic nor Hive-Minded species
Pops of this species are revered and cared for by the Machine Intelligence, freed from the burdens of responsibility and agency. They are given the Mandatory Pampering living standard, enabling them to 'work' as Bio-Trophies.
Living standards represents how economically favored a species is, as well as the gap between different social strata. The higher the living standards of a Pop is, the more Consumer Goods it will use, but the happier it will be. Higher living standards also remove the penalties from unemployment.
Most living standards require the species to be neither Machine nor Hive-Minded, and to either have Neutering Purge Type or not have Undesirables Citizenship.
Changing the living standards of a species from Chemical Bliss to anything else will give that entire species a Withdrawal Symptoms modifier, which reduces its happiness by −10% and its resource output by −20% for 5 years.
Type
Ruler effects
Specialist effects
Worker effects
Slave effects
Unemployed penalties
Requirements
Description
Chemical Bliss
1 Upkeep
+40% Happiness
−60% Job Output
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
1 Upkeep
+40% Happiness
−60% Job Output
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
1 Upkeep
+40% Happiness
−60% Job Output
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.1 Upkeep
+40% Happiness
−60% Job Output
yes
Subdermal Stimulation technology
Not Mechanical species
Entertainment media is made freely available as a drug regimen induces a euphoric stupor. The Pops are happy, but useless.
They all welcome the games and diversions. Some resist the drugs, at first.
Academic Privilege
1 Upkeep
+15% Happiness
+10% Output
+900% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
1 Upkeep
+15% Happiness
+10% Output
+400% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.25 Upkeep
+0.2 Trade value per Pop
0.05 Upkeep
yes
Materialist
Shared Burdens
Academic Privilege prioritizes the educated Population, to the general benefit of the sciences.
Knowledge is the key to power.
Utopian Abundance
1 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
1 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
1 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
no
Egalitarian
Utopian Abundance ensures that every member of this species has access to nearly any type of luxury conceivable.
We cannot realistically eliminate every want by providing for every need. But we can try.
Decadent Lifestyle
1.5 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+900% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.75 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+100% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.5 Upkeep
+20% Happiness
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
yes
Pleasure Seekers or Corporate Hedonism
Decadent Lifestyle prioritizes more resources and luxuries for privileged members of society.
We deserve only the best, they must serve, we must rejoice.
Shared Burden
0.4 Upkeep
+5% Happiness
+0.25 Trade value per Pop
0.4 Upkeep
+5% Happiness
+0.25 Trade value per Pop
0.4 Upkeep
+5% Happiness
+0.25 Trade value per Pop
no
Shared Burdens
Shared Burden ensures an equitable distribution of resources between all members of society. Pops demote Strata much more rapidly.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Stratified Economy
1 Upkeep
+15% Happiness
+900% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.5 Upkeep
+5% Happiness
+100% Political power
+0.33 Trade value per Pop
0.1 Upkeep
−10% Happiness
−25% Political power
+0.1 Trade value per Pop
0 Upkeep
−10% Happiness
yes
Authoritarian
Not enslaved or has Battle Thralls slavery type
Stratified Economy prioritizes the ruling classes at the expense of the impoverished masses.
If they wish to better their lot in life, they will have to work for it.
Social Welfare
1 Upkeep
+10% Happiness
+400% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.5 Upkeep
+10% Happiness
+100% Political power
+0.33 Trade value per Pop
0.5 Upkeep
+10% Happiness
+50% Political power
+0.33 Trade value per Pop
0.1 Upkeep
+10% Happiness
no
Shared Burdens
Social Welfare strives to improve the lives of the poorer Stratas through generous social policies.
Seeing to the needs of the people is the most important responsibility of the state.
Decent Conditions
1 Upkeep
+10% Happiness
+700% Political power
+0.5 Trade value per Pop
0.5 Upkeep
+5% Happiness
+100% Political power
+0.33 Trade value per Pop
0.25 Upkeep
+0.2 Trade value per Pop
0.05 Upkeep
yes
Shared Burdens
Decent Conditions ensures that most members of the species have what they need for an acceptable quality of life.
Neglecting the needs of our subjects is a losing proposition in the long run.
Basic Subsistence
0.5 Upkeep
−5% Happiness
+400% Political power
+0.33 Trade value per Pop
0.25 Upkeep
−10% Happiness
−25% Political power
+0.2 Trade value per Pop
0.05 Upkeep
−20% Happiness
−50% Political power
+0.05 Trade value per Pop
0 Upkeep
−10% Happiness
yes
Shared Burdens
Not Full Citizenship Rights
Basic Subsistence offers only the most essential of goods to the Pops of this species.
As few as possible of our subjects should starve. Beyond that, they're not our problem.
Servitude
never unemployed
Robotic species
Servitude Artificial Intelligence Policy
These synthetics are held in absolute servitude to their organic masters, and can be used or discarded at their whim.
Commodities do not require consideration.
Non-Existent
never unemployed
Undesirables Citizenship
Purge is not Neutering or Displacement
This species is in the process of being purged, and Pops from it will have no Upkeep cost.
We do not budget for the dead.
Drone
no
Hive Mind if species is Hive-Minded
Machine Intelligence if species is robotic
Driven Assimilator if species is Cybernetic
While it may have little use for luxuries, a drone population still requires a great deal of resources to sustain itself.
Mandatory Pampering
1 Upkeep
+40% Happiness
yes
Bio-Trophy Citizenship
This living standard enshrines a small population of organic beings as display pieces, through relentless and unyielding pampering.
Hive Dissociation
never unemployed
Hive-Minded trait
Assimilation Citizenship
This species is undergoing a difficult physiological separation from a Hive Mind.
Identity Sublimation
−50% Happiness
never unemployed
Hive Mind or Driven Assimilator
Assimilation Citizenship
This species is becoming one with the unified mind.
Transubstantiation Synthesis
−25% Happiness
never unemployed
Cybernetic or Synthetic main species
Assimilation Citizenship
This species is melding with the machine.
Transcendent Awakening
−25% Happiness
never unemployed
Psionic main species
Assimilation Citizenship
This species is awakening to its psionic potential.
Military Service determines a species' right to join the police or military and whether or not they can become military leaders. Gestalt Consciousness empires can only use species with Full Citizenship or Machine Integration citizenship for Full Military Service; all other species must be Exempt.
Type
Military jobs
Military leaders
Requirements
Description
Full Military Service
Undesirables, Slaves, or Servitude citizenship
Only primary species if Xenophobe
Not Nerve Stapled trait
Has Droids technology if Mechanical
They are doubtlessly among the most competent in our armed forces.
Soldiers Only
Not Undesirables citizenship
Not primary species
They make excellent soldiers - but command is better left to others.
Migration controls affect both migration between planets within the empire and migration to and from empires with a Migration Treaty. It does not affect enslaved pops, which can only and always migrate between owned planets if a Slave Processing Facility is built. Migration controls also do not affect manual resettlement.
Type
Effects
Requirement
Description
Migration Controls Enabled
Unemployed free sapient pops may not automatically resettle
Pops cannot be selected for biological growth on a planet unless already present
The free flow of pops can allocate resources efficiently, but sometimes what is necessary is not efficient.
No Migration Controls
Unemployed free sapient pops may automatically resettle
Pops can be selected for biological growth on a planet if not already present
Undesirables citizenship
Not Livestock or Grid Amalgamation slavery type
Just as our primitive ancestors wandered in search of a home, every being must be free to seek its destiny among the stars.
Slavery Type requires either a species to have the Slaves Citizenship or the empire to have the Slaver Guilds or Indentured Assets civic and determines how the enslaved pops will be used.
All slavery types except Chattel Slavery require DLC.
Type
Pop Effects
Open jobs
Requirements
Description
DLC
Chattel Slavery
+10% Resources from Jobs
−30% Happiness
Worker jobs
Gestalt Consciousness
Chattel Slavery is the most common form of slavery in the galaxy. Whether for life or a limited time, unrestricted access to the labor of others is in some parts seen as a privilege with numerous counter-duties attached, and elsewhere considered a self-evident prerequisite for a functioning society.
Battle Thralls
−20% Happiness
+20% Army Damage
Worker jobs
Enforcer
Soldier
Duelist
Necromancer
Gestalt Consciousness
Battle thralls are weaponized serfs, often trained from birth in the martial arts and conditioned for absolute obedience. In exchange for unquestioning military service, they are granted much more autonomy than other slaves and can be employed in a greater variety of jobs.
Domestic Servitude
−20% Happiness
Worker jobs
Entertainer
Servant
Gestalt Consciousness
Domestic servants spend much of their time tending to the needs of free Pops - some are assigned to individual domiciles, while others tend to public spaces. They tend to live alongside their masters, and thus require almost no dedicated housing.
Indentured Servitude
−20% Happiness
+50% Political power
Worker jobs
Specialist jobs except:
Enforcer
Entertainer
Duelist
Necromancer
Gestalt Consciousness
They can theoretically pay off their debts and be freed, but their contracts are intentionally structured to make this a non-issue.
Livestock
−40% Happiness
−50% Housing usage
−10% Political power
Livestock
Xenophobe or Hive Mind
Not Mechanical species
Livestock is Pops!
Grid Amalgamation
−40% Happiness
Grid Amalgamated
Machine Intelligence
Combined with a form of fusion, we have found all the energy we will ever need.
Purging is where a species receives the Undesirables citizenship and is then systematically exterminated from within the empire. The purge type determines how this is carried out in practice.
Pops being purged can produce resources based on the purge type, for as long as the pop has the Undesirables citizenship, not just when the pop is being declined, meaning that a planet with a pop of Processing purge type will yield +6, while a planet with 2 of these pops will yield +12 in total, until all undesirable pops have been purged. These monthly resources are modified by planet unique buildings in the same way as the associated jobs; for example an Energy Grid gives an additional +1 per pop under Chemical Processing.
The Fanatic Purifiers civic gives +2 unity for each pop being purged while the Devouring Swarm civic gives +2 society research per pop in addition to the resources said purge type may have.
Each planet has at most one pop at a time that is Declining; purging is not the only way it can happen, but it generally takes priority. A decline progress bar goes from 0 to 100, and fills up at a rate depending on the purge type. When the bar fills up, an undesirable pop on the planet will be removed. Depending on the purge type, the pop has a chance to be displaced as a refugee, if it is eligible; otherwise it is killed. Most purge types also cause other empires to get opinion penalties towards the purging empire, provided they have enough intelligence to know it is happening.
All non-gestalt empires that have the same primary species as the purged pop will have their opinion of the purger reduced by −25 per pop, to a maximum of −1000.
All other empires will also have their opinion of the purger reduced by −5, and Egalitarian or Xenophile empires who don't allow species-wide purges have it reduced by a further −5–15 per pop, to a maximum of −1000.
Type
Monthly decline
Effects
Loss
Refugees chance
Requirements
Description
DLC
Displacement
25
−30% Happiness
−50% Pop housing usage
no
100%
Not Genocidal empire
Not Hive-Minded or Machine species
Not Cybernetic species if empire is Driven Assimilator