"Emperor of the Fading Suns is a science fiction "grand-scale" space strategy computer game made by Holistic Design in 1996. The game has a well-developed diplomatic model, a wide array of units and a complex back-story. This game was based on Holistic's in-house role playing game Fading Suns.
The game is played on a galactic map and specific planet maps. Planet maps utilize a hexa-grid system for movement. Individual units and buildings take up a single grid space. Several menus handle diplomacy, chat, and documentation.
In the game, you play as a feudal lord of a noble house amongst the ruins of a galactic empire. You must battle other noble houses and rally enough support to be crowned Emperor of the galaxy. You can start as one of five houses; each has their own advantages and disadvantages. During game setup, the player can customize their house, taking some negative traits such as insanity in exchange for more positive traits, like having all your units start out better trained. Each house starts on its respective home planet, and houses starting on temperate planets have an early-game advantage over houses that start on frozen or jungle planets. There are several non-player groups in the game, including the Symbiots, Vau, the Guild, and the Church. In total there are forty-three planets that can be explored, colonized, and fought over."
Source: Wikipedia, "Emperor of the Fading Suns", available under the CC-BY-SA License.