The evil Drengin empire is in control of the known galaxy. Lacking nigh-invincible warrior-priests to do enforce its grim decrees, the Drengin use these powerful starships to maintain their hegemony.
As the story of Galactic Civilizations III begins, the Drengin have seized control of the galaxy alongside their Yor allies. Treacherously holding their fleets back during the Dread Lords war allowed the two malevolent races to sweep aside the weary Terran-led coalition in the aftermath of the Dread Lords’ defeat.
Though no alien can truly be judged through the lens of human morality, the Drengin are as close to stereotypically evil as you can get. However, they’re also practical and efficient in their cruelty. Murder and domination may be their end goals, but the Drengin are more than capable of planning ahead and forgoing momentary pleasure for long-term gain.
Lead designer Paul Boyer has this to say about the Drengin:
The Drengin are known though out the galaxy for their warlike nature. They are really mean guys. Really, really mean. They believe the strong survive, and that the slightly less strong are only useful as cannon fodder.
As we enter the Galactic Civilizations III timeline, the Drengin are at the top of their game. They have gained control of most of the known galaxy and still have a few races to enslave or otherwise destroy. In short, the Drengin are about as happy as Drengin get.
Modern Drengin ship design is reflective of this galactic dominance. They have become almost ostentatious in showing off their strength. Their ships are designed to look powerful; they like to make sure that other races know who will win in a head-on collision. Even their freighters have been known to scare unwary travelers out of a sector. If the Dread Lords war taught the Drengin anything, it’s that the only thing better than heavy armor is heavier armor – and bigger guns.
(click the image for a high-res downloadable version)
Concept artist Akil Dawkins adds:
The Drengin are a race of evil warmongers. They are known for their offensive capabilities and toughness, so we used large trapezoidal shapes for the rear of the ships and aggressive, triangular shapes for the front. This way we could achieve ships that appear both tank-like and aggressive. Two of our biggest inspirations were the Batmobile from The Dark Knight and the Mars tunnel vehicle from Total Recall. Each ship has large armored pieces protecting gunmetal access points and vents. We shifted the color scheme from green and red to a richer yellow-green and burgundy, since we are planning to use bold colors such as bright red for elements in the interface.
Our team put together this finished model from the color-coded pieces you see on the bottom of the image, using the same tools that we’re including in Galactic Civilizations III as the ship designer. We’re building it to accommodate users of all skill levels, so anyone can jump in and put their own stamp on their empire but power users will be able to go crazy. Building ships from the hull on up is well within our ship designer’s capabilities. We can’t wait to see what you all do with it.
Even though the designer puts so much power in our players’ hands, we want every race to feel unique. We’re pleased with the progress we’re making toward that goal – Drengin ships are easy to distinguish from Yor ships, to use one example.
We’ve shown you two ship designs for our evil empires so far. We have a slightly different update coming soon, which we hope you’ll enjoy just as much as these first two.
We also launched the Founder’s Repository for Galactic Civilizations III, where anyone who has purchased either of our Founder’s editions can access behind-the-scenes development materials like rejected concept art and music from the game. Just log in with your Stardock account and you’re good to go.
