I had an idea of a fourth affinity before the expansion, but I think the new hybrid system is much better.
At first I thought I’d miss the pure affinity representations since they were so distinct -- empires each filled with flavorful units and improvements that contrast the others is pretty cool, but it seems like Firaxis is handling things well and won’t disappoint. A fourth unique affinity would’ve diversified things more, but now with hybrids with their own unique identities, we’ve basically doubled the amount of flavors (even if they overlap a little bit).
DIVINITY
First, this would've introduced psionics to the game for all players, complete with its own perk tree, yields, and all; somewhat like faith/religion in Civ 5.
Red adamantite would become Purity's affinity resource and purple Floatstone would be renamed to Etherium or Etherite (ether = upper regions of the sky -- fitting) and be Divinity's affinity resource.
Psionics start to emerge from exposure to etherium on the new planet and awakens dormant abilities within some humans and/or it simply just causes mutations.
Psionic powers are incredible and awe-inspiring and people gifted with them are seen as superhuman and godlike, hence the title Divinity. (Nothing at ridiculous levels though, like Superman -- more like Star Wars.)
This affinity can be fanatical in its beliefs, much like Supremacy, so they have a bit of religious flavor too. Much like Purity and Harmony are natural rivals, Supremacy and Divinity would be, since Supremacy would reject all things arcane and supernatural and fully embraces science and technology. Also, Divinity has a very superior attitude, much like Supremacy, and views different beliefs as inferior.
Though, unlike Supremacy, they don’t try to show others the true path (or force them into it). Instead, Divinity is much more shadowy and secretive and instead look for those that are “gifted” while others are mere servants and belong to a lesser class in their societies. This lesser class almost worships the “divine” ones and their power and willingly follow and serve them.
Much like the opposition between Purity and Harmony, Divinity would oppose Supremacy. Color-wise, Purity's warm theme contrasts Harmony's cool. Divinity would contrast Supremacy's dark metal and aggressive geometry with a light, silvery metal and smoother geometry (both would have an airiness to them, though, and not look as solid as Harmony or Purity).
Purity: adapt the planet to humans.
Harmony: adapt humans to the planet.
Supremacy: adapt humans to any planet (independant)
Divinity: don’t adapt to any planet! (more on this later)
Main affinity color and projectile color: Purple
Units would be colored light silver with purple highlights, somewhat minimalistic and also have flowing capes and such like Purity. The Eidolon from Rising Tide looks a lot like what I wanted!
Their cities would be spire-like and shining silver, with floating structures about.
The subtle changes that their leaders display in diplomacy would be that their eyes start to faintly glow purple, while the clothing receives the silver and purple coloring, and they have much less adornments.
Divinity focuses on things beyond science and technology and more towards the supernatural -- the mind and spirit. They have a very mysterious and arcane flavor to them.
Some examples of abilities could include control over emotions, nightmares, mind control, illusions, invisibility, telekinesis, force fields, telepathy, teleportation... purple lightning, haha. They could have unique melee units which wield psi-blades or swords, for example. Their ultimate affinity unit could be a being of pure energy, called the Avatar (similar to the Archons of Starcraft). Their units and vehicles could appear more fragile and sleek than other affinities, because they rely more on the protection of their psionic force fields.
Examples of existing unit name themes:
Purity: protector/guardian, classical, familiar (Centurion, Lancer, Bastion)
Harmony: aggressive, animals, mythology (Marauder, Viper, Hydra)
Supremacy: haughty, religious, inspiring the lesser (Apostle, Prophet, Shepherd)
Some random new ones I'll blurt out to fit Divinity's theme:
Oracle, Seer, Sage, Magus, Hypnotist, Enigma, Myth, Mesmer, Ethereal, Mirage, Figment, Aberration, Delirium, Morphling, Mimic, Phantasm, Specter, Phantom, Rogue, Chimera, Sphinx, Avatar, Archon, Nightmare, Phobia, Stalker, Dementor, Deceptor, Nebulus, Doppelganger, Zephyr, Illusion
Originally, before Starships even came out, I thought of their unique victory as some form of Ascension to an astral plane of existence with the stars, somewhat like a rapture. Also, renaming Harmony’s victory to Symbiosis and giving Divinity Transcendence. Divinity sees this as an evolutionary step away from a primitive corporeal existence. But, when Starships was announced, I thought this wouldn’t work well if they wanted to add them to it as well and I tried to think of other types.
Another one could be that a Great One must be born (specialists are reintroduced in the expansion), which makes you really hit hard psionic specialists in all your cities' Temples (like Jedi temples!) and other thematic buildings to generate a ton of psi or psion, at the cost of other things you could be doing with your cities.
Though, I came across this from Alpha Centauri:
The Ascent to Transcendence:
“No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright
children of the stars! And together we shall dance in and out
of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until
the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn
again to the beginning.”
This sounds exactly like what I was thinking of for Divinity!
(Sorry, wrote this hastily and copied things from an older post I've written about this!)
