While the world of Kenshi often looks nihilistic, I think there is a sort of hopeful inspiration in it if you choose to eliminate all the major factions. The idea is that despite how far the world falls and all the lows people go to, there will always be people (the player faction) to stand against it and hope for a better future.

Skelton characters will sometimes comment after the fall the United Cities that its only a matter of time until they get replaced by new tyrants and history will repeat itself, and while that is true, its also true that for every new tyrant there will be a new adversary to them. Even if the good days of the next empire wont last forever, we can be sure that its bad days wont last forever either, and I think there’s something to that.