>>2083635
There's also not much room for sham religions. Like, I could imagine a "Foundation" type origin where you play as a group of scientists referred to as "The Foundation" from a former galactic empire who were exiled to a remote and largely useless planet called Terminus in a far away corner of the galaxy because of the development you developed a supposedly subversive form of psychology which allowed you to predict large, historical social movements with a high degree of accuracy, and so you were able to predict the imminent collapse of the galactic empire. As the collapse came, you have found yourself as the last remnant of the empire, surrounded by primitive, upstart species. Your planet and system are nearly useless and have no minerals whatsoever, but you have noticed that the primitive young empires surrounding you have begun to regard your technology in increasingly mystical terms, and so, both to protect yourself and to expand your influence, you found a religion around "magical" technology. You spread your technology to the surrounding young empires and train priests to operate it, but intentionally obfuscate its functions with "religious mummery" meant to keep the local populace from being able to decipher how it functions. So, the priests believe that the burning of incense and prayers to the Galactic Spirit are just as important and operations and maintenance protocols. Populations taken under this new religion will refuse to attack "Holy Terminus" or the "Holy Foundation" and will rebel against empires attempting to attack you, and eventually they will willingly vassalize themselves to you. With this in stock, the Foundation sets its sights on bringing imperial science and law back to the galaxy and reforming the Galactic Empire.