ENDLESS Legend 2 factions
ENDLESS Legend 2 factions at 1.0 are eight playable sides: Aspects, Kin of Sheredyn, Last Lords, Necrophage, Tahuks, and Sandshapers, plus two free Rogue splits — Order of Zelevas from the Kin and Severed Claws from the Necrophage. Amplitude and Steam both treat faction pick as the whole campaign's economy, diplomacy, and battle doctrine, not a paint job on a shared tech tree. Use the board to compare role, leader, affinity, and hook, pin up to three sides, and filter Diplomats, Defenders, Economic, or Warmongers.
| Faction | Role | Leader | Affinity | Hook | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspects | Diplomats | Chorus gestalt / Polemephon, the Steadfast as starting hero | Coral spread and treaties | Part machine, part coral; restore the Chorus after the dieback; infest hexes with coral and pacify villages with Coral. | |
| Kin of Sheredyn | Defenders | General Shaparenko; starting hero Uwe Rach | Fortification gauge Strength of Our Zeal / Devout Force; orbital Wrath of the Skies | United Empire offshoot stranded on Saiadha after Garin vanished; turtle-builder walls, adjacent-unit shields, Chosen juggernauts. | |
| Last Lords | Economic | Consul Tyabana; starting hero Duke Unwin Weybridge | Dust-for-population; Lord's Estate on pacified villages | Broken Lords who fled Auriga; ignore Food, spend Dust to grow and heal, enslave minor pops through estates. | |
| Necrophage | Warmongers | The Matriarch; starting hero Plays-with-Fire | Corpses, burrows, infection larvae; little diplomacy | Saiadhan swarm emerging from the depths; nests, underground network, spawn warriors from victories. | |
| Tahuks | Scientists / clergy | Starting hero Talak Emburu | Sacred Oculum converts science into sunshine, faith, or glassification | Range-first army that illuminates targets; Called population and glass tiles are 1.0 achievement hooks. | |
| Sandshapers | Expansionist terraformers | Dreamers, Seekers, or Conquerors (player path) | Djinns of the Deserts; Wishes fueled by claimed land turned to Sand | Pre-Endless desert natives added at 1.0; Vitreous Titans, Bulwarks, Stoneslingers; teleport-and-strike. | |
| Order of Zelevas | Rogue / conquest | Imperator Vecc | Same Kin core, unlocks from expanding territory; max rank removes city cap | Broke from Kin of Sheredyn; still loyal to Emperor Zelevas and the United Empire; free with 1.0. | |
| Severed Claws | Rogue / slaver swarm | Cut off from the Necrophage Matriarch | Necrophage core plus enslavement to replace losses; kill grants a second attack | Hive that meddled with forbidden tech; free with 1.0; Steam spelling Severed Claws / The Severed Claw. |
How the eight sides actually differ
Steam asks whether you want endless war that needs no justification, a coral network of allies, or a people who do not eat Food. Those three sketches map onto Necrophage, Aspects, and Last Lords. Kin of Sheredyn are the fortification answer: PC Gamer's March 2025 feature names General Shaparenko in the field and the Strength of Our Zeal gauge that turns walls into an active plan, plus orbital Wrath of the Skies. Tahuks, previewed by PCGamesN, convert science through the Sacred Oculum into sunshine, faith, or glass. Sandshapers arrived as 1.0's sixth major: desert natives who spend Wishes after they turn claimed land into Sand tiles.
Rogue Factions are not DLC skins. Amplitude's rogue blog and the Steam spotlight say Order of Zelevas still uses the Kin kit but unlocks from expanding territory and can drop the city cap at max rank, while remaining loyal to Emperor Zelevas. Severed Claws keep Necrophage corpses and burrows, then spend enslavement instead of the Matriarch's hive discipline; a kill can grant a second attack. Both rogues are free with 1.0. If you want a ninth named major, the game does not ship one — the custom creator is the overflow valve, mixing affinities, traits, units, and populations from across the roster.
Read the board left to right: name, role, leader, affinity, hook. Sandshapers pick Dreamers, Seekers, or Conquerors as a path rather than a single named starting hero. Signature units are named where Steam, Amplitude, or the press feature listed them. For village perks that sit beside these eight, use minor factions. For the commanders who actually walk the map, use heroes.
First-campaign picks and official links
New players usually start Kin of Sheredyn or Aspects because the official copy explains them in the most concrete verbs: walls and coral. Kin let you hold a coastline while Tidefall opens landbridges you are not ready to contest. Aspects let you bribe and pacify instead of stacking casus belli, which matches the Steam line about spreading tendrils of influence and leveraging minor factions. Last Lords are the economic experiment: ignore Food, pay Dust to grow and heal, park Lord's Estates on pacified villages. Necrophage are the war experiment: nests, burrows, larvae, almost no diplomacy. Tahuks and Sandshapers ask you to manage a conversion engine (Oculum or Wishes) on top of the usual Dust and Influence.
Order of Zelevas is the Kin game with a conquest timer. Severed Claws are the Necrophage game with slaves instead of a Matriarch. Neither rogue replaces its parent on this board; they sit on their own rows so you can pin Kin against Order, or Necrophage against Claws, without losing the major. The Hooded Horse launch trailer on this page is the motion brief for the 1.0 roster, including the two free rogues and the Sandshaper reveal that Steam news also carried.
Primary store listing: ENDLESS Legend 2 on Steam. Amplitude's living roster notes live on the EL2 community hub. Press detail for Kin is the PC Gamer Shaparenko feature; Aspects are in Rock Paper Shotgun's coral diplomacy piece; Tahuks are in the PCGamesN Oculum preview. Those are the sources under this page, not a second stat block.
Filters, rogues, and the custom creator
The Diplomats filter isolates Aspects. Defenders isolates Kin of Sheredyn. Economic keeps Last Lords and Sandshapers, who both treat territory as a spendable engine rather than a food bowl. Warmongers keeps Necrophage plus both rogues. Tahuks have no matching filter chip because the researched role is scientists and clergy, not one of the four board axes; they stay visible when no chip is pressed. Combine chips to union the sets. Compare still holds your pins while rows hide, and the tray names whoever you added, up to three.
Custom factions are a first-party feature, not a workshop afterthought. Steam says you mix affinities, traits, units, and populations from across the game. That is the correct answer when you want a coral Kin or a Dust Tahuk and the named eight do not offer it. The board will not grow a ninth official major to match a workshop request; the creator is that ninth slot. Achievements still gate some unlocks to named sides — Kin, Necrophage, Aspects, Last Lords, Sandshapers, Tahuks — so a custom run may miss those faction achievements even if the map goes well.
Steam spelling for the Necrophage rogue wobbles between Severed Claws and The Severed Claw in different posts. This wiki uses Severed Claws, the form on the 1.0 rogue spotlight. Order of Zelevas keeps the imperial Z. If you are coming from Endless Legend 1, Last Lords are the Broken Lords who fled Auriga, and Necrophage are a Saiadhan swarm rather than a one-to-one copy of the old hive. The rest of the 1.0 roster did not exist on Auriga in that form.
Sources