Thought I'd update this with a couple screenshots. The first one, main1513.png just shows the console HELP output. The bar in the upper right corner is an input field. It only accepts valid commands, and is a pretty quick way to get access to some of the deeper functions (especially in testing).
The second shot is of the temporary empire name generator. Basically it selects from 8 different consonant/vowel patterns and generates a "word" based on that pattern. The patterns are CVC, CVCCVC, CVCVC, CVCV, CVCCV, VCVC, VCCVC, VCCV. I might expand this later to include things like apostrophes and hyphens. The names generated are suitably alien sounding for the moment though.
*edit*
I should add that the name generator uses the same list of empire types found in Aurora. If the prefix and the suffix are the same, then the suffix gets blanked. So no Empire of Xotla Empire.