Factions of the Imperium Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Emirates of Hacan

"Twilight Imperium" is not a game just about fighting; it's about trading and negotiating with the other players, too. Usually, players need to have pieces in adjacent systems before they can trade, but the Emirates of Hacan do not have this restriction, letting them trade with anyone.

They can also trade Action Cards (which other factions cannot do) and can automatically use the effects of the Trade Strategy Card without needing to spend a command token, no matter what the active player wants.

Answer: The Xxcha Kingdom

The Xxcha are a species of anthropomorphic turtles who are known for their diplomatic capabilities and defensive military focus. Their faction technologies can stop other players from attacking them or playing action cards. One of their abilities lets them take control of neutral planets without needing ships in the system first, and another lets them remove an agenda card before a vote can even be had.

An unofficial but well-known podcast for "Twilight Imperium" is named "Space Cats Peace Turtles," which is a reference to the Hacan and the Xxcha.

Answer: The Universities of Jol-Nar

Technology is an important part of "Twilight Imperium." Each new technology unlocks new abilities, and there are so many to choose from and combine that the strategies are endless. The Universities of Jol-Nar always have the option to research two technologies when the Technology Strategy Card is activated, even when they're not the active player, and they can ignore one prerequisite when researching, drastically opening what is available to them.

The Jol-Nar are an intelligent fish-like species, but they're not very good in a fight. To compensate for their amazing technological prowess, they have a -1 modifier to all combat dice they roll.

Answer: Sardakk N'orr

The Sardakk N'orr are almost the exact opposite of the Jol-Nar: they start with no technology but get a +1 modifier to all combat dice rolls. They are a large bug-like species that live and work in coordinated hives, evolving on the hostile desert planet Quinarra.

While a broad bonus in combat sounds great, fighting is only one part of "Twilight Imperium," and usually a late part. With no other innate abilities, the Sardakk often have a slower start than most other factions.

Answer: The Naalu Collective

The lore of the Naalu Collective indicates that they were "recently" discovered by the wider galactic community, but it seems they were found repeatedly and used their telepathy to hide themselves, wipe the memories of those who did find them, or just eliminated unlucky ships that wandered into their space.

In the game, the Naalu always go first in turn order, regardless of what Strategy Card they choose for the round. When they are attacked, they can move their ships out of the way to avoid unfavourable battles, and they can research Neuroglaive, which will make other players shrink their fleet pool (how many ships can exist in a system) whenever they attack the Naalu. They also have particularly good Fighters.

Answer: The Mentak Coalition

The Mentak Coalition are one of the few factions that is not comprised of a single species. They are the descendants of the prisoners on Moll Primus from the time of the Lazax Empire. In the game, they have abilities to ambush other players and pillage their trade goods.

Because the Mentak home system started as a penal colony that asserted its independence, many in the "Twilight Imperium" community refer to it as "Space Australia."

Answer: The L1Z1X Mindnet

The L1Z1X are the descendants of a group of Lazax who fled the empire as it was falling. They landed on a hostile world where they had to use cybernetic enhancements to survive. Now they're back to reclaim control of the galaxy.

In the game, the L1Z1X have particularly good Dreadnoughts (Super Dreadnoughts), and can use the Bombardment ability for each round of combat instead of just the usual first.

Answer: The Yssaril Tribes

In "Twilight Imperium," the Yssaril Tribes focus on the Action Cards. They can draw cards easily, have ways to curate which cards they have, steal cards from other players, and have no maximum hand size (everyone else can only have up to seven Action Cards).

One of their most notorious abilities is Stall Tactics, which lets them discard a card to skip their own turn. On a player's turn they must perform an action or pass (meaning they get no further actions for the round). By stalling, the Yssaril player can more easily have the last action(s) of a round, after other players have passed, meaning they can take actions without other players reacting.

Answer: The Winnu

The Winnu were the first race to be added to the Lazax Empire. When the empire fell, they became the custodians of the capital, Mecatol Rex. Those Winnu became the Winaran, and they drifted apart, culturally, from the Winnu on their home planet.

The Winnu now feel they are the true heirs to the Lazax empire, so most of their abilities help them control Mecatol Rex at the centre of the galaxy. When a player moves on to Mecatol Rex, they usually need to pay six influence to sway the Winaran custodians, but the Winnu don't pay anything. Their abilities and technology make it easy for them to get to Mecatol Rex, and reinforce and defend the planet.

Answer: The Embers of Muaat

The War Sun is the strongest spaceship in the game, and the only one that must be researched before it can be built. In the lore, the Embers of Muaat were enslaved by the Universities of Jol-Nar and forced to create the devastating weapons, but they managed to free themselves during the chaos of the Twilight Wars.

They built the spaceship for themselves and are the one species who start the game with a War Sun, though it is just a prototype. The Muaat can help other factions research War Suns, which are better than their prototype, but if the Muaat research the War Sun, it becomes even stronger than the regular version.

Answer: The Clan of Saar

The Clan of Saar are maligned by all the other species of the galaxy, losing their homeworld and becoming a diaspora. Normal species have a home planet that they must control if they want to score points, but the Saar do not have this requirement; they can move their entire fleet (including the structures used to build new ships) around the board and not worry about another player taking their home system.

The "Twilight Imperium" player community often refer to this massive fleet as the "Saar ball," and other players don't want it to move towards them.

The Clan of Saar starts the game with the Antimass Deflectors technology which lets them safely navigate asteroid fields.

Answer: The Ghosts of Creuss

The game of "Twilight Imperium" is played on a hexagonal grid representing the galaxy. While player can usually only move ships between adjacent hexagons, some of the tiles have wormhole icons on them (alpha, beta, and gamma), which are treated as adjacent regardless of where they are on the board. This way players sitting across the table might actually be much closer than they first appear.

The faction with a wormhole focus is the Ghosts of Creuss. Instead of a regular home system tile, they have an empty system with the delta wormhole, which links to another tile that sits apart from the game board that contains the home system. For all other species, the two alpha wormholes link only to each other, and the two beta wormholes to each other, but for the Ghosts, each wormhole is linked to each other wormhole, regardless of symbol. Their faction technologies let them place new wormhole tokens, linking even more systems, and grant combat bonuses in systems with wormholes.

Answer: The Yin Brotherhood

The story of the Yin Brotherhood is a tragic one of trying to find a cure for the Greyfire wasting disease through genetic manipulation, but instead a bunch of clones of Darien Van Hauge were made, each of which was still susceptible. The clones grew into a religious cult, and their faction abilities involve converting enemy units and sacrificing their own for extra damage in combat.

Answer: The Arborec

The Arborec is a network of plants on their homeworld coordinated by "the Symphony." They were unable to communicate with the rest of the galaxy until they found a derelict human ship and reanimated the dead crew as puppets to use as ambassadors and diplomats. The Arborec insists they only learned the speech and only use existing corpses, but the other species of the galaxy are wary of what secrets the Arborec might know.

In the board game, the Arborec have unique methods for building and moving their relatively strong ground forces, spreading like a creeping vine or fungus.

Answer: The Nekro Virus

The Nekro Virus were a schismatic faction from the L1Z1X. While the L1Z1X incorporated technology into their bodies to survive, the Nekro Virus grew to hate all biological material and worked to completely convert to mechanical forms. The Nekro Virus were assumed destroyed during the civil war, but a seed got away to begin a new empire.

In the game, the Nekro Virus cannot research technology. Instead, whenever it destroys a unit of another player, it may copy one technology that the player has already researched. The Nekro Virus also cannot vote on agenda cards, further cementing its reputation as a galactic menace rather than a member of society.