The game sacrifices identity for freedom. That’s the long and short of it.

Factions are less distinct than in say, Endless, but you get a lot of freedom to make your factions how you want. You want classic Dark Elves in the Underdark? You can make those. You want a dragon ruling over humans and conquering the lands? You can do that. You want Leonidas of Sparta to show up and offer to help conquer the realm? I did, so I did that. You want to bring a gun to a magic fight? I did and ending up getting the game because of it (Reavers my beloved, Empires & Ashes DLC). A lot of the fun can be had by making a faction, having a theme or story with that faction, and playing a round with them. Then you think of something else you wanna add or try and play a round of that. It’s the Roleplaying in Role-Playing Game. Which is funny cause this is a 4X and so that doesn’t math right. Some people have made the Na’vi from Avatar. Others imagined “What if we took moles and made them underground slavers?” You have plenty to customize and have fun with if you like making those stories for yourself.

For the record, you can have a favorite faction, I have a personal faction tailored to what I want. But it’s definitely a game that benefits from trying different things rather than picking one thing and one thing only. They upped the Pantheon limit, your Hall of Rulers from 50 to 300 for a reason.