I was trying to get some of my neighbors to fight each other, and one of the races listed was curious. "Fundamentalists". I did not remember seeing any such race mentioned before in the game. They're not a major or minor race. I can't find them on a medium sized map. And then a few turns later (after a very strong race sent NO ships out), they declared peace with them...



...I'm going to call this a bug because I was never told they appeared, and they cannot be found except as a diplomatic option with another race. EDIT: And that other race can't find them to attack either.

The only suspicious events that happened before this was a 'native' backlash against my culture, and the Drengin getting some sort of precursor artifact that makes them (allegedly) stronger and stronger.

BTW... I've been monitoring their strength (research, industry, military, etc) for the past 50 turns or so. I'm not seeing any difference in their strength.

EDIT: Here is my full map as a screenshot.



I'm the Earthers all over the top. Bottom and right is Drengen. Left is Thalian. Minor race upper right is Jessuins. Minor race bottom, appeared recently, is Paridians. [Please pardon any misspellings.]