[Alneyan]

Be warned the regular Empire creation (in the unmodded game) is pretty much straigthforward, as there is only one rational choice and a couple of minor variations on it. It would be pretty much akin to only having the Moloch, the Prince of Death and the Ghost King in Dominions 2, which would then be superior to anything else, no matter what the settings are.

Fortunately, some mods do improve this field, and make Empire setup actually interesting and varied. Alternatively, a house rule or two could be used to spice up this phase of the game. Otherwise, it is clearly inferior to Dominions. On the other hand, you can customise everything related to your Empire, including biology, history and so on.

There are a few special powers (known as racial traits), which allow you to dabble in fields such as religion or temporal knowledge. However, they are mostly improved variations of what the "regular" races can do. Still, you should be able to deepen this area if you want.