Stellaris at its core is a narrative title, albeit one that is created by the player, whose interaction with the wider galaxy can influence the greater cause of events, from galaxy-spanning empires that expand through war to small secluded galaxies that use diplomacy, technology and espionage to rule from the shadows. In Stellaris, there is no such thing as an invalid narrative, and players are free to play whatever role they wish in the grander scheme of things, even if that role is that of xenophobic fish people who wish to be left alone in their watery corner of the galaxy, while everyone else does their own thing. Unlike many games with similar systems, the origin of your empire can have a huge impact on how you play the game and interact with others, including starting the game as a vassal of a fallen empire, or with an allied sky dragon that feeds on the population of your capital in exchange for its protection. Stellaris, like Crusader Kings, is the type of game where you do not have to win to have a good time, rather, players are free to exist as part of the galaxy and accumulate victories and defeats as they do so. Stellaris like all Paradox games, has an abundance of DLC available, ranging from small cosmetic packs to larger expansion packs that add new mechanics or radically enhance base game mechanics to a new level. It offers players such a huge variety of content, and a massive list of faction types that completing the game in a traditional sense would take the average player well over 400 hours, which is a conservative estimate. The latest Stellaris expansion, Galactic Paragons, makes revolutionary changes and add a crucial aspect of Empire management to the game. The expansion released alongside the free 3.8, Gemini, update, which adds new cooperative and competitive game modes to multiplayer. With the new Empire Origin, under one rule, this update tells the tale of how a legendary leader founded their empire and now leads them to conquer the stars. This empire will start with veteran traits that greatly increase the lifespan of its leaders as well as the empire-wide bonuses they provide. Before this expansion, leaders in Stellaris were bare bones and the benefits they could provide were largely negligible. As its name suggests, this expansion is meant to improve upon the leaders in an empire's roster, including the ruler, governors, scientists, admirals, generals, and envoys. And in Stellaris now the leaders become more of a personality and importance, because an interstellar empire requires the best and, brightest leaders. The process of recruiting new leaders largely remains the same, as it costs Unity to purchase and upkeep leaders, with the cost increasing with each one. However, there is now a limit to how many leaders an empire can have at a given time, increasing their value. Each leader class can be further specialized into one of two veteran classes, three if they're assigned to a position on the council. As a leader levels up, they can gain new traits and increase the tiers of traits they already possess. With this update you are also able to recruit renowned Paragons. These unique leaders with special backstories can be obtained as part of certain events. They have predefined traits, including a Destiny trait, and are shown with a purple border in the leader UI. With the free update, every player will now be able to assign leaders to certain roles on the council. These provide empire-wide bonuses that scale with the leader's level, depending on what positions they occupy. Every council starts with three seats, but those with galactic paragons can add more from each Empire Civic. One of the most significant changes that comes with the council is that it is no longer required to have a scientist assigned to progress the research of each of the three technology categories individually. Instead, one of the key positions of the council is a Head of Research, who will oversee the research of physics, society, and engineering tech simultaneously. Overall, this new update brings a lot of personality to your empire with the new leader mechanics.