Hello. Long-ish time wiki reader here.

[Worldtree]

Dry empire
https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/464f25d76bab7

this article is basically a stub that hasn't been updated in 21 years, so you're welcome to expand on it

there's *plenty* of ways for your idea to work though, however you end up fleshing it out.

if I'm understanding correctly, whether this polity is composed of biologically-based sophonts or AIoids (which would make the transition easier) if they're starting with a tribe-mind, they'll still need to add quite a bit of additional infrastructure+ processing power before they 'merge' and reach the third sephirotic... but it's definitely possible.