The United Commonwealth of Earth
Once the overarching government of old earth and its colonies both intra- and extrasolar, the Commonwealth is now a name mentioned only by historians and scavengers reading the title off of cracking walls and old files.
Nothing of its old government remains, and yet the world still operates on the rules it set up. Only it's the rules they created that ended the world the first time around. Not much we can do about that now...
It seems the Commonwealth got its start as a diplomatic organization. An impressive feat, given humanity's rather understandable tendency to draw lines when pitted against groups that are antithetical to their own. According to records, that didn't last long. As humanity grew, and the colonies got more and more powerful in their own right, the Commonwealth became increasingly heavy-handed in its politics.
Where they might have once responded to dissidence with negotiation and meeting in the middle, trying to reach something that made every side happy, now they cracked the whip. Expecting everyone nation and entity to fall in line. Military force and the ever-present threat of global missile strikes became the order of the day.
The harder the UCE attempted to hold on, the more the planet fractured, colonies rebelling and succeeding, cults declaring their manifestos in fire and blood, and generals turning warlord. Where they manage to put out one fire, another just swallowed the newly freed oxygen. The government would have dissolved if there was anyone left who cared. Every component member having long since abandoned the council chamber to try and scrape up whatever fragments they could. It's said that so many missiles flew before the end that the continents were rearranged, and Earth itself grew when tectonic activity was triggered, or some great experiment was released in some nations dying gasp.
And those are just the issues that the UEC faced from the inside. Not to mention the alien empires probing it's borders, celestial disasters, and unknown horrors breaking through the fabric of reality.
Of course, that's if you believe the stories. I know I've seen enough in the world to say that I do.
Eventually, the fire swallowed everything, leaving us to pick through the ashes. Ironically, the council chambers of the UCE is one of the most intact buildings left. The Parliament of Ghosts, as it is now known, sit's in low earth orbit, watching silently over the world it once ruled.
While the nations that once made up the UCE eventually formed the governments of today, none of them trace their lineage to their father government. Or perhaps Grandfather Government would be more accurate. No nation or city-state even attempts to claim the title, surprisingly. Seems the general consensus is that some things are better left in the past.
One for All
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Government System
Democracy, Representative
Power Structure
Federation
Economic System
Market economy
Controlled Territories
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