Principles would be things like self-preservation, food, shelter and procreating, communication and memory through a risk-reward calculation prism. Maybe establishing what is "known" vs what is "unknown" is a key component here too, but not in such a binary way.
"Memory" can mean many things, but if you codify it as a function of some type of subject performing some type of action leading to some outcome with some ascribed "risk-reward" profile compared to the value obtained from empirical testing that spans from very negative to very positive, it seems both wide encompassing and generally useful, both to the individual and to the collective.
From there you derive the need to connect with others, disputes over resources, the need to take risks, explore the unknown, share what we've learned, refine risk-rewards, etc. You can guide the civilization to discover certain technologies or inventions or locations we've defined ex ante as their godlike DM which is a bit like cheating because it puts their development "on rails" but also makes it more useful, interesting and relatable.
It sounds computationally prohibitive, but the game doesn't need to play out in real time anyway...
I just think that you can describe a lot of the human condition in terms of "life", "liberty", "love/connection" and "greed".
Looking at the video in the repo, I don't like how this throws "cultures", "memes" and "religion" into the mix instead of letting them be an emergence from the need to communicate and share the belief systems that emerge from our collective memories. Because it seems like a distinction without a difference for the purposes of analyzing this. Also "taxes are high!" without the underlying "I don't have enough resources to get by" seems too much like a mechanical turk