Could you do an xenophile space empire that is grimdark for other species (inclusive humans) BECAUSE they are xenophile?

read The Things

Competition driven aliens that by standards of most other species look almost insane. They love all the other aliens for they give them new opponents and chances to prove themselves again. So they move through galaxy from one conquest or scheme to the next adding more and more species to their empire.

They grant full citizen rights. No one probably goes hungry - their technologies are advanced enough. But most other species just can't compete with them. Compared to them most others look like underachievers. Number of people who could stand on their level from each planet can be counted on one hand. And that's compared to average members of society.

They are just better and love to show off. There is no real malice in their actions, they just can't help themselves. But this means that most other species in their empire are relegated to background characters with no real contributions.

A combination of political and cultural impulses. The nation has a prophetic doomsday belief that a great force will destroy the galaxy in "the future". To combat this the spation has put itself on war footing and the government has been engineered along the lines of border security and political domination. They've developed exceptionally powerful mind indoctrination that they use to align everyone under their dominion to also believe in the Threat. It's been like this for so long that the government NEEDS war to survive so they keep conquering and indoctrinating. The presence of aliens is of little concern because their loyalty is assured and the Threat is going to kill everyone anyway so its more practical to present a united front.

Social unrest due to multiple cultures clashing. While the government it'self is xenophilic, it's got cultures that are xenophobic and many cultures and biologies that are fundamentally in conflict.

You mean The Thing? That's not really a xenophile empire.

They see other species as animals and keep them in Zoos.

I mean the short story based on it
clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

The empire loves other species and cultures; they're really, REALLY into the whole multiculti thing, cosmopolitanism and all that, but they also have a fairly bad case of cultural paranoia as well as political-philosophy centered around singleton government.

Basically, they want to incorporate all sapient life into their empire in a genuine manner, but they have an extremely hard (if not impossible) time trusting other species to govern, as well as working towards a universal, one-galaxy star state.

Any hint of nationalistic/separatist movement is quickly and violently quashed, and aliens expressing interest in governing, whether it be "their" worlds or other worlds, are put on watch lists or "dissapeared" if they're influential enough.

It's basically "we want everyone to be one big happy super-culture, but we're staying in charge because we literally can't trust your alien philosophies with power"

Ur-Quan are the most xenophobic species I have ever seen.
They either enslave/imprison all other species or outright destroy them.

Well that's easy.
There is no escape from the dick.

They're xenophilic because they've run out of original ideas and wish to strap every alien they can find to a machine and drain them of their wield, alien ideas.

Because then the focus of evil stops being xenophilia.
Adding to this: Make xenophilic "empire" run like hippie squat - poor managment of resources but idealism turned up to 9.

Space is so fucking huge that everything you would need to do is put some sort of defense against DUMB PEOPLE THAT WILL TRY TO GO TO A FUCKING XENOPHILE PLANET

The Tesselation is the most technologically advanced civilization, its inhabitants so buried in cyberware it cannot be said what they originally even looked like now. Some say this is further complicated by there being four individual species from disparate star systems that have converged into one civilization, but these claims remain unproven.

The foundation of the success of the Tesselation is the Limit of Mind. Essentially, the Limit of Mind can be explained like so:

Every invention is tainted by the logical assumptions of its creator. No AI built by a human, no matter how advanced, can escape the fact that every technology that makes up its processors and programming is a result of specific choices, limitations, and assumptions of its human creators. This creates an invisible boundary between what that AI can and cannot solve, with a nigh infinite set of experiences and methods of thought, entire branches of technology, that the Human made AI can never even recognize that it cannot grasp until it meets an aluen mind that demonstrates them to be possible.

It is only by meeting, studying, and embracing the thoughforms and ideas of other species that a civilization can grow beyond its inherent limits. This study is far from painless. To reach the correct degree of understanding, invasion of privacy, mind, body and soul to a horrifying degree is required. Full brain dissection is only an early step.

The Tessellation wants to know what makes you tick. Knowing that makes them smarter and stronger. And once they learn enough about you, it becomes impossible to ever outthink them again.

Well, they're still an empire right?
>We love your culture! So unique, so much we could learn from each other! But you're technologically limited. Other species might seek to exploit you unfairly. It's a big, dangerous galaxy out there you know.
>Doesn't it just make sense for us to have a few cruisers in orbit? And of course, we've calculated a means of fair resource accommodation that doesn't violate your cultural practices while ensuring you can receive our full protection. I assure you, the benefits of citizenship are truly astounding.
>Ah, I see you've rejected our gracious offer. Not uncommon. While we respect your decision, the truth is we are ethically obliged to annex you now as a means of protecting you from other, more predatory empires. It would be an utter tragedy if your beautiful culture was subjugated, or worse, exterminated by those less enlightened sorts!
> Rest assured that we will ensure your cultural sites and integrity remain respected, and we are ready to accept your full and unconditional surrender at any time. Any troops who lay down arms will of course be treated fairly. We strongly advise all civilians to make their way to shelter immediately.

>Praetorian, charge plasma cannons. I believe these people need enlightening as to the advantages of joining our empire.

Also, this. This is better.

Humans are space rapists that conquer planets and make all the inhabitants exotic sex slaves.
Humans literally fuck aliens to death crushing them under their thrusts and leaving them fatally dehydrated.
It turns out some biochemical constant found on all alien world acts as a brutally effective aphrodisiac on humans while also having narcotic/hallucinatory effects similar to PCP any human that lands on an alien world is struck by the overwhelming need to fuck every single alien they see only stopping when every one is dead or they have collapsed into exhaustion waking up later with no memory of what happened.
Humans are at first horrified at this but sense it often leads to us being able to grab alien tech without opposition for later reverse engineering we have decided to accept this path to becoming the rape lords of the galaxy.

That's not really Xenophilia

How is it not?

Mass Effect fan fiction has a mirror universe AU setting where the Asari empire has conquered everyone via sex and mind control, which are one and the same for them.

If you planned anything against them, you owner would know as soon as you formed the thought. Isn't it just more fun to obey your blue waifu/mistress?

They love humans so much, that they attack and wipe out any other alien species that even form the tiniest threat to humanity, and they kidnap humans to keep with them forever. Basically, they are yandere for humanity.

Make it so that the empire is such an attractive option for other species within and near its borders that they rapidly lose their distinctive cultures as their younger members gravitate to the stronger economic and cultural pull of the empire. Based on most objective metrics, it does nothing but good, but it also destroys what makes its member races unique as they assimilate into the same shallow culture.

The fear of this happening is essentially why the Klingons started the war with the Federation in that shitty new Star Trek show.

name of the fic?

They're gigantic, they think humans are adorably cute, and they just can't help but steal you and take you home with them.

I don't remember the name of it, it was from years ago. I think it was on masseffectkink.
I only remember a few details like:
-Ashley was a sex gladiator because of her father's attempts at military defiance. Interesting account of an Asari defeating and raping her on live TV, while in the process MC-ing her to enjoy it. They restore her mind afterwards because her futile attempts at resistance please the crowd.
-Miranda was a member of the human resistance, recently captured and enslaved by Morinth. She was thinking about jumping out of or crashing the shuttle they were in, but realized Morinth was monitoring her thoughts and could stop her as soon as she made the decision to try.
-Quarians are mentioned as operating a pirate fleet with geth under their control, as the robots are the only things immune to Asari MC and/or sex appeal.
-Shepard is owned by Liara, who is a humaniboo and in love with FemShep. They plan to contact the mysterious entity "sovereign" to end the domination of the Asari empire.

>Quarians are mentioned as operating a pirate fleet with geth under their control, as the robots are the only things immune to Asari MC and/or sex appeal.
That's a really good idea. Cool to see the Geth as good guys.
>They plan to contact the mysterious entity "sovereign" to end the domination of the Asari empire.
That's a terrible idea.

I suppose this would be titillating for those with a lesbian dominatrix fetish, but for me it's just hilarious.

In their benevolence they wish to transform every sentient being into one of their own. Out of love and mercy, of course.

No, but humans can get butthurt over anything so it doesn't really matter. Just have them enforce galactic peace and make vague noises about how this is encouraging "mediocrity" amongst lesser star nations.

It was actually pretty dark as I recall. Like Ashley hates being both mind- and regular- raped by Asari commandos over and over in humiliating televised contests designed to make her lose every time. But she knows if she ever fails to perform or eats a bullet, her sister will be forced to take her place.

They're trying to protect and 'enlighten' other species/empires through either outright annexation, or through the creation of protectorate states.