Hypothetical alternate faction follows. Feedback welcome.

[b]Nation Name:[/b]
-- Redspace Alliance
[b]Race #1:[/b]
-- Humans: Humans descended from early far-reaching colony efforts. Little to no widespread biological or cybernetic augmentation, leaving these humans fairly baseline.
[b]Racial Traits:[/b]
-- Adaptive (+): The Redspace humans have a long ancestral history of travelling the cosmos and settling in strange and new environments; they find it easy to learn how to deal with new situations, adapting existing technology and doctrine in the face of changing circumstances.
-- Disorganized (-): With a culturally and historically diverse population comes difficulties in settling personal differences; Redspace humans have only a fledgling centralized authority and often have to put up with differences in procedure between colonies. On more than one occasion, different flags within their settlements have come to blows and necessitated the intervention of the Alliance Armada.
[b]Race #2:[/b]
[img]http://www.kupax.com/files/22586_4ur0p/species.coril-lirok-transparent-comparison.png[/img]
-- Lirok: Large insect-like aliens bearing traits of spiders, wasps, moths, mantises, and other such terrestrial species, the lirok are a physically imposing species from an extremely hostile biosphere. They operate under an ant-like hierarchy supported by pheromone-induced obedience and an explosive breeding rate, with intelligent queens passing down orders to swarms of capable female drones. They have incredibly sturdy carapaces, reinforced endoskeletons, and a limited ability to fly or glide on top of deadly natural weapons.
[b]Racial Traits:[/b]
-- Deathworlders (+): Lirok are incredibly hardy and naturally extremely dangerous; they can suffer extreme bodily harm without slowing down, have potent weapons capable of rending through light armour, and breed extremely quickly.
-- Primitive (-): Lirok possessed a roughly stone-age level of technology before being uplifted by the Redspace Alliance, and are entirely dependant on their human allies for advanced technology. While they can certainly learn to utilize what they are given reliably, innovation is currently beyond them.
[b]Civilization Tier:[/b]
-- Tier 3: The Redspace Alliance controls about a dozen worlds and is still improving and innovating as time goes on.
[b]Population:[/b]
-- 20 billion humans, 5 billion uplifted lirok
-- The Redspace Alliance consists of about a dozen worlds of various environments. Most unique among them is the lirok's homeworld, a vibrant jungle orbiting a hot star. Redspace Alliance space is located midway to the galactic west.
[b]Culture/Society:[/b]
-- The Redspace Alliance is a thriving culture that's eager to learn new things and meet new cultures; this is exemplified in their treatment of the savage bloodwing, opting to uplift and assimilate the species rather than abandon them to the harsh reality of their homeworld.