Every gift came at a price.
After completing psionics ascension, an empire could unlock a project that allowed it to breach the Shroud.
Within the Shroud, the empire could encounter four so-called "Shroud gods."
[Spreader of mountains of corpses and seas of blood: Weaver of Life (Composer of Strands)] [Screamer of emptiness and greed: Eater of Worlds] [Whisperer of longing and possession: Instrument of Desire] [Taster of shattered trust: Whisperers in the Void]
Depending on the empire's ethics, policies, and government, a random Shroud god would appear during an expedition into the Shroud and ask whether the empire wished to enter into a Contract with it.
The empire could refuse them and explore the Shroud alone. Accepting, however, would grant a weaker version of the Contract modifier in the current version of the game.
Once the Contract was formally established, the empire would receive a permanent empire modifier, but it would pay a price every twenty-five years and could not enter into Contracts with other entities.
In addition, breaching the Shroud carried an extremely small chance of encountering an entity called the [End of the Cycle]. Entering into a Contract with it would give the empire immensely powerful bonuses for fifty years, but an enormous price would come due once those fifty years were over.
Psionics ascension and Contracts with the Four Gods of the Shroud were actually quite powerful, but that was only when viewed on the scale of an entire empire. Looking closely at the individual level revealed something sinister in every detail.
Entering into a Contract with the Weaver of Life granted a bonus to population growth speed.
But where did that additional growth come from? Were the additional people born under the Contract's influence inherently Shroud-marked? Or, from the moment of birth, were these