[HP Delron]

I have read some interest in having "heros". This is somewhat simliar to that. Not sure if anyone has suggested this but...

"Personalities"

These would be important people that are noted to be on a planet/ship.They would provide bonuses/penalties to the planets/ships they are on.And them moving or them dying could have an effect on as much as the whole empire.
Here are some examples:

"Emperor": Reprsents the ruler of the empire. Generated on the home planet at the start of the game. Gives a massive bonus to the planet he is one something in the order of +50% to all things that can be increased. And a sizable bonus to he entire system +15%. However should the system he is in have any enemy presence in it, the whole empire takes a huge happiness hit. Should the planet he is on come under attack another huge happiness hit. Now of course the emporer would flee in that case the planet he is on is going to be overwhelmed and would appear randomly on another planet under your control (just to stop the whole emperor dying and somehow you are still playing the game problem).

"Mining Overseer (random name here)"
"Science Director (random name here)"
"Intelligence Head Coordinator (random name here"
and so in that manner

They would be created by different training facilties. They would provide bonuses to whatever area they are experts in. The training faclities would only be able to be used on planets with a large population to choose from. And it could take quite a few years just to find one someon exceptional enough to be qualifed to be one of these personalities.

The "Heros" of ships would too be personalties that could be moved around. They could provide combat bonuses to ships, training bounuses to planets etc. They'd have names like "Big Adimral Man (random name here)".

There are also lots of other ways a system like this could be used, from hostage taking to ruler changes etc..