Confederation of Mankind
Confederation of Mankind is the strongest political entity in the known part of the Galaxy. It's military, economy and demography are unmatched. It is more than capable of facing the combined powers of the Solar Federation and the xenostates that surround its outer borders. And all of that, despite said enemies having armies counted in billions (or, in case of Yatevians, trillions) and fleets in tens of thousands of ships.
Unfortunately, while the Confederation's potential is endless, it's utterly unable to fully realize it. The reason for that is the internal problems. It's not only forced to fight against the Solar Federation and the nearest xeno powers, but also against the screaming madmen of the Council of Woes, and, what's most important, against itself. Confederation is politically split between fifteen factions. They are then further split into more than two dozen regional alliances and pacts. But that's not all, as both factions and alliances are also divided into close to 10000 independent states, autonomous provinces, and powerful NGOs. All of them possessing both military... and goals. At any given time there are at least a dozen (up to hundreds) active battlefronts dividing the Confederation.
All that the Confederation succeeds in is organizing a joint front against sufficiently dangerous outside threats (such as the Solar Federation or major Xeno incursions) and enforcing some basic rules in the inside conflicts. This, however, has a rather unfortunate side-effect. Without the Icarus Accord and the Founding Charter, the Long War would most likely be over by now. While they certainly civilized the wars a lot, they also stopped the Unification Wars-era 'lightning' conquests from happening.
Other than that, the actual degree of power the Confederation has over its member states is either non-existent... or quite the opposite (If you believe the conspiracy theories).
Structure
General Description
Confederation of Mankind isn't the biggest political entity in the known part of the Galaxy - but it's certainly the densest. It is composed of 61 star sectors and a three-digit number of subsectors, which translates into circa 6100 populated worlds in sectors alone. With many of them reaching billions of inhabitants, this sets the general population of the Confederation in trillions. This population is divided between hundreds of different ideologies, philosophies, religions and political systems. This, by definition, makes any attempt at centralized control more than impossible.
Because of that, Confederation is so heavily decentralized that it is no longer a state in the traditional sense of the word. It is a loose union of states, or even (in some case) a loose union of loose unions of states. Its central government possesses next to no real power. It even lacks a military presence. It is also permanently shaking due to internal wars (sometimes dwarfing the ones fought with outside threats), and torn apart by religious and political disagreements.
Only two de facto elements of the Confederation government have real influence: Supreme Council of Mankind and Supreme Tribunal of Mankind. There is also a number of NGOs that operate under the auspices of the Confederation's governments. This includes many relief organizations and the Explorer's Guild, though only the last one has any actual meaning.
Those two organizations are:
a) Supreme Council of Mankind - A parliament, and a theoretical legislature power of the Confederation. It is divided between several parties - called 'factions' that are strong enough to block any laws from being created. Since it's almost impossible to create a law that doesn't offend someone, the Council is de facto a discussion circle.
However, in certain sufficiently harsh violations of common decency, it can issue sanctions (however limited they wouldn't be). It also technically can issue laws, which means that keeping your representatives there is a requirement if only to stop it from passing laws that might make your life harder. It can also work as a gateway to your country's politics.
b) Supreme Tribunal of Mankind - The highest possible tribunal in the Confederation. It includes one hundred and one judges chosen by Confederation members (de facto, factions). While it also prosecutes and judges violation of laws issued by the Supreme Council, it's prime job is to punish violations of the Founding Charter and Icarus Accord.
If it confirms such a violation, it has a right to officially banish a member state or organization from the Confederation. This is equal to a declaration of total war issued by a majority of Mankind. To date, this sanction was issued seven times. Six times it ended with the country or organization in question being destroyed. In two cases successfully enough that even the names of the offending states are gone. In one case the sanction was done post-factum, with the Tribunal agreeing that nuclear armageddon was the right reaction to the first contact with a lost human colony.
Only the Truthseekers Corporation managed to avoid extinction, but it is believed to be slowly declining.
Factions
Introduction
The Confederation of Mankind is currently divided between several political organizations known simply as 'Factions'. They are not rigid alliances, as it's pretty common for factions members to be hostile to each other. Often openly. However, because factions group countries of similar ideologies, it also means that wars between faction-members are never as intensive. All of that doesn't mean that factions can't be used as a foundation for military cooperation.
Three main blocks exist. Somehow an old term resurfaced, and because of that said blocks are often summed up as 'left-wing', 'right-wing' and 'center'. The meaning of the terms changed a lot, however. By general definition, the 'right-wing' faction are leaning towards liberty (sometimes even democracy), while the 'left-wing' groups state leaning towards totalism and radical reshaping of Human society. Centrists (that make for close to 2/3 of the Confederation' members) tend to bend towards limited authoritarisms, which includes military dictatorships, oligarchies and other stratocratist societies.
Those three blocks are further divided between the 'radicals' and 'moderates'. Moderates tend to be the majority, however, the radicals often form small but vocal attachments to their factions. The terms 'far-left', 'far-right' and 'far-center' are also in use,
The faction system - while far from being well-organized - is an important factor in the ongoing stalemate. Even if one country manages to take over several planets of their opponents in the war, or even conquers them whole, this will inevitably bring a faction-wide response. Joint military campaigns (in few cases named, in few not) will either weaker the aggressor, thus denying them the ability to fully exploit their victory or will retake the lost territories. In the first case, the will eventually be repeated.
Such military campaigns tend to be centered around major factions: minors rarely can muster enough military power in any given region to succeed in that.
Right-Wing Factions
Moderates
Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy [APD] - A faction serving as a common brand for surviving democracies and the more secular/liberal republics. With few parliamentary monarchies with monarchs having little to no power added as a spice. There is also one or two authoritarian republics thrown into the mix. It is a spiritual descendant of the old Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy, the coalition of western republics that won the Third World War.
They tend to be mostly secular, preferring either theistic agnosticism or lack any form of a state religion. However, a sizable amount of them has a large Christian minority - or even a small majority. Even those that aren't Christian tend to go for similar forms of ethics, if only because most of them originate in the culture of the West - which was created with Christianity as its foundation. This ends up with APD's states often having surprisingly close ties with Res Publica Christiana, though the exact extent of those ties is unknown.
The APD is a pretty active major faction, regularly organizing their joint military responses to repel invading totalists and authoritarians. They are often called 'Wars of Liberation', 'Wars of Freedom' or 'Wars of Democracy'. Depending on the situation, they might also support the Equality Front, Remember Opportunity or even Fifth International, though the last one mostly by indirect means. When faced with a sufficiently abhorrent enemy (like the Pact, Comintern or more genocidal aliens) they are often supported by the Res Publica Christiana or even Ancien Regime.
Equality Front [EF] - Equality Front is a minor faction that is often seen as an addition to the Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy. This stereotype is not wrong - EF is too weak to exist on its own. But it is also too politically different from the mainstream APD states to join it. The biggest division is that APD is obviously spiritual heir of its' Third World War-era namesake, the Equality Front is a descendant of the moderate parts of the Union of Progress and Freedom that said namesake defeated.
Just as the UPF, the Equality Front is a modern descendant on 21st Century left-wing movements that were refined a lot by the passing centuries. The result can be summed up as the closest possible recreation of the Post-Scarcity Economy era of the Solar Commonwealth. This is accompanied by a lot of utopian and technocratic themes in their aesthetics. Secularism is the absolute basis of the EF, but most countries are to some extent atheistic. A high degree of mechanization, expansive welfare, and a celebration of sexual diversity are combined with mostly democratic (or technocratic/meritocratic) governments.
EF mostly succeeds in establishing a stable political situation - mostly because it's just as conservative as the APD. The only difference is that the political position they conserve is much more left-wing (in old meaning). While the general level of happiness is pretty much on the level of APD, EF is plagued by high emigration (as both too progressive and too regressive citizens tend to leave it). This is one of the reasons for the staunch pro-life approach of Equality Front government (the EF is for freedom and equality of entire Mankind, even the part of it that is yet to be born) and the relatively low level of military adventurism exhibited by the faction. When attacked, they are often liberated by the joint APD-EF counteroffensives.
Radicals
Liberty Conglomerate [LC] - Liberty Conglomerate is a radical right-wing party composed by a large number of states and organizations supporting the extreme degrees of economic liberties. It is the safe haven for anarchocapitalists, objectivists, libertarians, radical economic liberals and, last but not least, megacorporations and transnational companies. They attempt to facilitate international trade as a means to spread the newest technological achievements which, in turn, is a way of strengthening the Confederation as a whole.
Unfortunately, they also have a darker face. It is a journalist secret that LC's is the only right-wing faction that never openly criticizes newer forms of slavery. This is unsurprising when you consider the fact that at least some of their countries incorporating some of them (typically of the 'indefinitely indentured workers' brand). And that's only the tip of the iceberg, as especially those more anarcho-capitalistic countries like Free State aren't above arms and drug trade, human trafficking and experimentation, and who knows what else. At least their approach to religion is somewhere between the APD and EF.
Besides the shameless recreations of ancap memes about child slaves and recreational McNukes (like the Free State), the Free State also includes a lot of countries and organization that simply had no other choice. Most transnational companies, regardless of their internal ethics, have little choice but to join the Conglomerate. And most libertarians (save for the branch of them that is running the American Empire) can't hope to be picked up by anyone else. Their joint military responses don't have their special name, though it has to be mentioned that they are mostly composed of Private Military Companies.
Remember Opportunity [RO] - A minor faction composed mostly of the radical xenophiles that managed to retain their xenophilia through both the War of Purity and the several centuries of wars against various xenopowers. It was initially formed as a reaction to a vast number of extermination attempts directed at Variants (especially those more inhuman) during the Unification Wars.
Its name refers to two different Variant colonies called Opportunity that suffered at the hands of baseline Humanity. The first one was gassed by a terrorist attack during the period of decline of the Solar Commonwealth. The second one had the distinct bad luck of being placed near the world that became the center of power of the Fourth German Reich. RO is essentially a self-defense group for both Variants and the more human-like aliens.
While initially, it was quite similar to Equality Front in terms of its societal views, this began changing overtime. More radical groups of the RO began moving towards anti-human terrorism (with the Variants and aliens not aligned with RO being disliked even more than homo sapiens) and even offensive wars. The moderates are under the growing influence of the Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy and the Res Publica Christiana, resulting in the growing number of conversions and increasingly close ties with the right-wing moderate states, regardless of their species. RO is unfortunately too spread out to be able to mount counteroffensives on their own, forcing them to rely on either APD or RPC to provide the muscles.
Fifth International [FI] - Group formed by anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists and, very fringe, anarcho-primitivists (useful only as a footsoldiers, though typically pretty fanatic). In a way, they are the more radical (yet still right-wing in the new meaning) descendants of the Union for Progress and Freedom. Radical enough to make the Equality Front bail out. This is because while the EF tries to remain as peaceful (or even pacifistic) and calm as possible, FI retained the revolutionary part of the UPF agenda.
The International seeks a world that is truly free - free even from the ever-present tyranny of the State. There are no 'countries' there. The peak organization level of the FI members are councils of representatives from all member communes (that are governed by similar councils filled by either voted representatives of the entire population, trade unions, or something else). There is no regular army - only militias. Even ships are typically seen as self-governed communes. When it comes to religion, freedom is absolute, though the suspicions towards any organized religion are more than visible. The same thing applies to matters of sex, as FI' countries are typically rather rare from conservatism.
On the other hand, they are also very militant. It is Fifth International's mission to spread the freedom from the tyranny of governments and its anarchic (but in organized ways) ways. Revolutionary rhetoric is everpresent, and there is enough of FI countries to make their joint campaigns a threat (though beneath the level of the major factions). There are no official terms for them, but unofficially they are called 'Wars of Anarchy' or 'Wars of Dismantling'.
Center Factions
Moderates
Ancien Régime [AR] - Ancien Regime is a powerful force of the status quo in the Confederation... which is both a blessing and a curse. It is composed almost entirely of secular dictatorships, militant societies, oligarchies and absolute monarchies (both those played straight and those mostly controlled by the bureaucracy and the court). They are the most numerous of all factions and are surprisingly well-organized.
Such powers aren't interested in toppling the status quo, as it's a status quo where they happen to rule. Because of that, while the Ancien Regime fights fervently against the spread of democracy, personal freedom and equality, it fights equally fervently (if not more) against left-wing totalists. Believing - rightly so - that country that fails to respect even most basic rights of its inhabitants will never respect any treaties. This doesn't stop the Ancien Regime from being one of the most politically and religiously divided factions in existence. It's a place where total acceptance for human trafficking borders fanatic abolitionism. Where religious devotion neighbors state atheism.
The Ancient Regime regularly launches its military campaigns, known commonly as Restorations of the Order or Wars of Restoration. They are almost exclusively defensive (or counteroffensive) in themes, as the Ancien Regime appetite for conquest is heavily limited. In fact, almost non-existent.
Res Publica Christiana [RPC] - RPC is a major faction composed of theocracies, authoritarian republics, monarchies, timocracies and moral democracies aligned to the moral teachings of the Neocatholic Church. A union of a majority of Christian denominations that long ago lost its patience when it comes to defending and spreading the faith. It's one of the most centralized factions in existence (with wars between faction members being almost unheard of), mostly due to it being an extension of the Church' will.
Res Publica Christiana is one of the most aggressive of factions. The Church expands silently, taking advantage of religious freedom offered by the Confederation - and the Res Publica Christiana serves it as both a shield and a hammer. It's anger typically focuses on actual wrongdoings, however. In fact, despite being autocratic and hierarchic, it cooperates closely with Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy against threats such as left-wing totalism, extremists from every other factions, alien incursions, dangerous archeotechs, etc. etc.
RPC has its own special joint military campaign, called - unsurprisingly - a Neocrusade. They are both defensive and offensive, though the former case is much more frequent. RPC has to, after all, defend Conservative Bloc (and even the Remember Opportunity moderates) against the onslaught of the Pact of Steel and New Comintern.
Conservative Bloc [CB] - Minor faction, and a schismatic group related to RPC. It was created after the schism ripped apart the freshly united Catholic Church following the doctrinal problem of the existence of souls in aliens. Though it was merely one of the reasons - the new schism found support especially among those members of RPC who were irritated by being overseen by the almost omniscient Church. Especially as its approach to corruption among its elites (both secular and religious) can barely be summed up by the term 'heavy-handed'.
Today Conservative Bloc is composed of undoubtedly Christian but deeply authoritarian regimes, with rulers that typically are the heads of their countries' religious structures. It is essentially a weaker, paleo-catholic equivalent RPC. The paleo-catholic part means that they essentially are rather anti-Xeno. This means they are typically anti-Remember Opportunity, which by extension means they aren't particularly happy about Variants. Their staunch opposition against both (secular and liberal) democracies and the (godless) untrustworthy totalists is very similar to (Res Publica) Ancien Regime.
They launch their joint campaigns (called the Holy Wars) that are sometimes supported by the local Res Publica Christiana and Ancien Regime states. RPC when the enemy is anti-theistic, or from either Pact of Steel, Unity in Diversity or Islamic League. AR otherwise (though the religious element of the 'Holy War' tends to be downplayed in that case.
Radicals
Islamic League [IL] - Islamic League tries very hard to be an Islamic equivalent of the Res Publica Christiana - but it fails. There are multiple reasons for that. The most important one is that the Islamic League lacks religious unity. With the lingering resentment between various groups (like Sunni and Shia, to name the biggest ones), internal wars happen quite often.
What's more, the League drifted backward during the Unification Wars. Their Islam is a radical one (moderates tended to end up in Alliance for the Preservation Democracy - rarely - and the Ancient Regime - more often), and their holy wars tend to be wars of aggression rather than defense. What's more, the probably biggest problem of the Islamic League is that a notable part seems to have drift backward when it comes to their society.
Today - aside from the remaining moderates - the Islamic League has de facto returned in terms of society to either early-to-mid Ottoman Empire. Slavery, drive for conquests and a lot of interest in the reunification of the world of Islam - violently if needed. Their Jihads are pretty zealous and often. Their interest in driving the remaining non-muslims from the Middle East Oversector is rather intense. And their hatred for the Solar Federation for the nuclear holocaust of Mecca and the rest of the Middle East is boundless.
Vanguard of Progress [VoP] - Transhumanism had a fair chance of becoming the destiny of the entire Mankind - but the War of Purity put an end to that. All chances for widespread tolerance or even acceptance towards transhumans ended the second the Great Betrayal started, and twenty-three urbanized worlds were annihilated by the initial transhumanist attack. This, however, doesn't mean that all transhumans decided to exterminate the outdated part of Mankind.
Many transhuman societies were just as surprised by the Great Betrayal as the leadership of the Solar Commonwealth. A lot of them remained loyal to the Commonwealth, even fighting against their brethren. Those transhumans were spared when the wave of frantic purges wiped out most of the Lines from the Human Space in one of the greatest acts of genocide in history. A lot of resentments lingers, and very few human states would willingly align themselves with transhumans against normal homo sapiens. That's why the transhumans banded together once the Unification Wars began.
Of course, with shackles of the Icarus Accord (and to a smaller degree, of Founding Charter) limiting their modifications, modern transhumanists are pale shadows of their past selves. It is a common secret that most of them seem to tinker with forbidden technologies 'just a bit', however with their status of not-quite-pariahs-but-almost this is more or less tolerated... of course, mostly because nobody seems to be able to gather enough evidence for successful condemnation. This doesn't stop the Ancien Regime or even Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy or Res Publica Christiana from lending them a hand if the enemy is seen as sufficiently evil. Though they also have their joint military response, referred to as Wars of Progress.
Unity in Diversity [UiD] - A minor faction created by several theocracies and heavily religious states based in religions other than Christianity and Islam. This is a very wide category. From relatively benevolent Buddhist states to militant neopagan societies, through various new religions like neomazdakist pleasure cults or neognosticism (including its nihilistic murder cult variant). In a way, this is the last stand of gods both old and new against the relentless onslaught of the Cross and the Crescent.
It is, honestly, hard to describe just how much hatred and disdain members of this faction have for each other. Vastly different moral teachings (if there even are any), vastly different political systems, vastly different approaches to the world. But there is one thing they are more than aware of - that they are too different from the rest of the Confederation to survive on their own. Very few factions would pick them up, and those that would do it, would probably quickly reforge them to their liking.
UiD has its joint wars called Wars of Faith. The support for them, however, is often quite reluctant - if not forced by the circumstances. The leadership of the UiD is well aware that trying to only defend themselves wouldn't work, so when there are no besieged UiD states to help they are more than happy to launch an offensive campaign against any neighbor (especially those Christian, Islamic or State Atheist).
Left-wing Factions
Moderates
New Comintern [NC] - Hardline communism never died, even when the Union of Progress and Freedom fell to the hands of the Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy and the Iron Pact. Sure, it went underground for a while, but a few centuries to improve your rhetorics did a lot. Today the actual communists are back, though their movement also 'swallowed' socialists and a fair number of the so-called democratic socialists.
New Comintern is here to stay - and to finally succeed where the Union of Progress and Freedom, Warsaw Pact and the old Comintern failed. They have but one goal - furthering their Revolution and finally bringing the equality and progress to everyone... by force, if needed. Of course, the necessary middle-step for that is the obliteration of the forces of the Counter-Revolution, which requires constructing totalist states and establishing socialism there, as a basis for further expansion of the Revolution. NC is undoubtedly a radical faction - but very few are fully aware of that fact. New Comintern is the perfect case of a villain with good publicity.
Their expansive propaganda efforts and tendency to wage wars by proxies make a lot of people in Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy, Equality Front, Remember Opportunity and close to half of the Ancien Regime see them as the least bad and most reasonable of all left-wing factions. This is obviously a ruse, however one that was seen through only by the leadership of the Res Publica Christiana, Conservative Bloc and the rest of the Ancien Regime. When they aren't waging wars by proxy they launch their joint military campaigns known as Wars of Workers' Liberation or Revolutionary Wars. They tend to 'liberate' areas beset by Pact of Steel or aliens and then present themselves as 'liberators'.
Clockwork Alignment [CA] - Minor faction composed of highly mechanized technocracies. It's aesthetics and political views tend to be a mix of the Equality Front and the cybernetic Lines of the Vanguard of Progress. It is an alignment of states believing machine governance and the extensive AI oversee as a way to ensure perfect functionality of the State... even against their population. It is in a way addition to the New Comintern, but deciding to rely on machines rather than humans.
What differs them from New Comintern is the lack of revolutionary rhetorics. CA is focused on internal affairs, and typically doesn't harbor a lot of dreams for expansion. What differs them from the Vanguard of Progress is that their mechanization is focused on the state and its administration and politics, rather than on citizens. What differs them from the Equality Front is that there is very little in terms of personal freedoms.
They sometimes launch their joint military campaigns. They used to be jokingly referred to by people outside of Alignment as "Wars of Optimization" until the Alignment adopted the term. They are also called "Machine Optimization" or "State Optimization". The new joke term for the often under-funded and rarely very creative Alignment's offensives is Cog Lubrication.
Radicals
Pact of Steel [PoS] - Pact of Steel is a major faction composed of radicals in truest sense of the word. Outcasts, states universally hated even among the leadership of the various centrist dictatorships - and typically for the purely moral reasons, which says a lot for countries that often are rather amoral. This faction is utter pariahs, treated with disdain even by the New Comintern - the other type of natural-born villains.
Members of the Pact of Steel are true totalitarian - and often genocidal - regimes. Best case scenario they are oligarchies who openly reinstated mass-scale slavery and uses it as a basis for their economy (and, equally often, entertainment). Countries with dozens of millions (if not more) of people) in work camps - or death camps. They are countries that were saved by the expansion of the Solar Federation. If the Great Alliance wasn't assembled to wage war against the onslaught of the Federation, countries of the PoS would be overwhelmed by the rest of the Confederation based on the moral outrage alone.
Very few of the PoS members love each other, as they often have vastly different political systems. What keeps them together is fear of being kicked out of the Confederation. Pact of Steel is also regularly forced to assist its smaller member-states - as everyone around them wants them dead and gone. Their military responses are called Blitzkriegs, after the Fourth Reich (it typically makes for the majority of response forces).
Public Agenda
While theoretically the goal of Outer Colonies is ensuing freedom and basic human rights among splintered Mankind, the existence of totalitarian states like Fourth Reich, or The Technocracy among its member states means that this goal is nothing more than beautiful peace of propaganda.
It, however, managed to put an end to forceful mental sculpting of individuals and orbital bombardments of major population centers - which are considered some of the few things that actually can get you banished from Council and declared a target of hatred for the Mankind as a whole - which is the great merit of the Confederation.
It also, unfortunately, helped to further the current eternal stalemate. No roses without thorns, it seems.
History
Intro
Confederation of Mankind is one of the two contenders (the other being, naturally, the Solar Federation) to the position of the fifth iteration of the League of Nations. After LoN there was the United Nations. Then the Council of Nations that was assembled after the Third World War by the members of the victorious Alliance for the Preservation of Democracy. After its collapse due to the Fourth World War, it was replaced by the High Council of the Solar Commonwealth. It was the fourth iteration.
Each of these organizations was the joint representation of Humanity. Typically, assembled based on national governments after a massive war dismantled their predecessors. Their scope expanded from Earth-based organizations (League of Nations, United Nations and early Council of Nations) through Solar System-based (later Council of Nations, early High Council) to a truly interstellar level (High Council). But then, it broke.
Humanity is today divided between two successors of the Solar Commonwealth. Both the Solar Federation and the Confederation of Mankind claim to be its sole heir. Solar Federation supports its claim with the control of all the core worlds of the Commonwealth. Including Earth, the most important world of them all. Another fact supporting the Federation's claim is that it was created mostly by members of the Commonwealth' government that survived Semann's Gambit and the destruction of Commonwealth's capital on Titan.
On the other hand, the Confederation - and its Supreme Council of Mankind - claims to be a successor in spirit, as it is a true representation of various nations and states of Mankind. Undoubtedly it's very similar to all past iterations save for the late High Council of Solar Commonwealth - the increasingly centralized group that is seen by the Confederates as the cause for the Unification Wars and the Human Schism.
History
Great Alliance
The direct predecessor of the Confederation of Mankind was the Great Alliance. It was a rather desperate attempt to forge a united front against the relentless expansion of the Solar Federation - but desperate doesn't mean unsuccessful. The raging horror of the Unification Wars had a positive side of wiping out the majority of the REALLY evil nations and organization. This allowed the moderates (and the less-evil evils) to band together. Those that wouldn't agree were at this point dead and gone.
The Great Alliance was at best a temporary measure. Nobody planned for it to last for more than ten to twenty years. It was supposed to unite the part of the Mankind that wasn't yet conquered by the Federation during a single war. The war that was expected to end with the Federation being destroyed - and then the Unification Wars could be restarted. Unfortunately, this wasn't going to be the case.
The war ended with a stalemate. The combined forces of the Great Alliance succeeded in pushing the Solarian hordes back - but not in liberating hundreds of worlds occupied by the Federation. Because of that, the Solar Federation remained a looming threat on the horizon. The Great Alliance had to remain. So it did. But very few people enjoyed that fact. And, unfortunately, this didn't change to this day.
When the stalemate became apparent - four years before the official end of the hostilities - the Great Alliance was changed into the very first form of the Confederation of Mankind. At this point, the whole system hanged mostly on the support of the proto-Ancien Regime states and those few countries like the Alliance of Sovereign Worlds that were saved from annihilation by the formation of the Great Alliance. Soon however its acceptance spread.
Reconciliarists
When the Solar Federation was repelled, its wartime government collapsed. The first post-war elections were won by the Reconciliation Party. This has almost managed to destroy the Confederation right at the start - several countries considered secession, claiming that the Great Alliance/Confederation is no longer needed now that the Federation was no longer a threat.
In the end, however, the Confederation persisted. Reconciliation Party ended up making the Solar Federation into a member of the Confederation. This fact, done mostly to ease the tensions by showing that the Feds are willing to uphold the Founding Charter. It, however, is theoretically a thing until today - though the Federation follows the laws when it wants. In a way, it is the most notable legacy of the Reconciliation Party.
The Confederation' remained skeptic towards the Federation. It was one of the chief reasons for the Reconciliarists downfall - while the Confeds slowly warmed up to the Solarians, it wasn't fast enough. Because of that, the Commonwealth Restoration Party (the chief opposition against the Reconciliarists) gained ground by pointing out 'injustice' and 'lack of symmetry' in Confederation-Federation relations.
The spark that detonated the powderkeg was the Icarus Massacre. The mutual annihilation of the former Alliance' and Federation forces guarding the Icarus Station together with Reconciliarists refusal to pursue the possibility of the station disappearance being the Alliance' plot (it wasn't, but they couldn't know that) led to the coup. It's quite ironic that it was supported by the majority of the population and followed by elections won (overwhelmingly) by the Movement for United Humanity.
Next Years
The Confederation succeeded in ensuring its survival in the war following the fall of the Reconciliation Party... and it remains until today. The situation is grim, however - it is a matter of at best a century before the internal balance of power crumbles. One of the faction will win, reforging the Confederation into a new country.
Territories
Introduction
Confederation controls sixty one star sectors and more than two hundred subsectors. However, they are all controlled by the vassal states. The Confederation itself controls only the so-called Unity System, the seat of its power. It is a heavily populated system but one that lacks any actual industry and is populated mostly by representatives of various countries. That's how far the theory goes, however. Because situation is in fact a bit more complicated.
The Confederation has around 10 000 members, with varied types of membership. Some of them are utterly free from the Confederation 'control' like Coalition or Powers), others are de facto vassal states of the Confederation government (Protectorates).
Forms of Membership
Coalition Membership - Coalition Membership is a system in which a sufficiently decentralized country (or military alliance/coalition against another country that has grown permanent) has its representation in the Supreme Council split between its member states. While each of them is technically a Satellite State or even an Autonomous Region, they are allowed to be a part of different faction than their supposed overlord. There is also a number of rules concerning the Coalition Membership, such as the relationship between the overlord and autonomies being regulated by law, and the autonomies of different faction abstaining in votes where the interests of their faction and their overlord stand contrary.
Coalitions are a rather rare sight, however due to Autonomous Region expected to be at least several star systems wide it's a form of membership that is almost exclusively used by major countries. It's rare to see a Coalition that isn't counted as Great or Secondary Power.
Standard Membership - Standard membership covers majority of the members of Confederation. All indepedent countries that control at least smallest territory counts as such members. It is internally divided between the three statuses concerning the level of power and influence the country in questions has. The difference between them is that the size of the official delegations to the Supreme Council and Supreme Tribunal. Great Powers have 24 delegates and 3 judges, Secondary Powers have 12 delegates and 2 judges, while Independent Nations have 6 delegates and 1 judge.
Dependent Membership - Dependent Membership is a form of membership 'designed' for sattelite states and vassals. Their status is officially recognized by the Confederation as a whole, and they are allowed to send three delegates to the Supreme Council. However those delegates have limited rights, as they can participate in discussions, launch inquiries and make propositions to be voted by the Council - but in case of voting, their votes are automatically granted to their overlord.
This membership offers certain benefits to the dependent territory. For example, to be considered liable for the Dependent Membership, a sattelite state has to be allowed a free reign in its internal affairs. It is also expected from the overlord to respect the dependant territory' laws - in exchange they are expected to not conduct diplomacy on their own and support their overlord on the battlefield. That's why at least some countries that are interested in gaining additional delegates but aren't ready to give their subsidiaries any sort of laws are more content with Autonomous Region Membership.
Autonomous Region Membership - Autonomous Region Membership is a form of membership for autonomous regions that lack independence and, unlike the Dependent Membership they do not possess their own armed forces (though they do possess their own law enforcement agencies) and rely on the protection of their overlord. This severely limits the scope of their 'freedom', changing them from 'merely' sattelite state into an autonomous region.
Autonomous Regions are allowed a single delegate to the Supreme Council. There are two types of Autonomous Regions, Minor and Major. In case of Minor the delegate can participate in discussion, launch inquiries and make propositions, but he cannot vote. Major Autonomous Regions have their votes automatically added to thir overlord' pool. This was made to avoid the threat of decentralized countries overwhelming the Council with sheer number of votes, for example the Holy Roman Empire has several hundreds delegates, but only 12 votes.
Protectorate Membership - The system of Protectorates was established mostly to prevent victors of the Unification Wars from utterly obliterating those that they earlier defeated. The general idea is simple. Outside of regularly inhabited Green Zones of every sector lies the Yellow Zone - lands that were explored and mapped, but ultimately remain mostly a no man's land. Without World Forge, the only worlds colonizable there are those few that could naturally be inhabited by humans. This means that the population density is rather small. Such countries (typically dubbed 'Enclaves') to avoid getting conquered by the much more powerful countries of the Green Zone 'sell' themselves to the Confederation of Mankind as Protectorates.
Protectorates are essentially vassal states of the Confederation itself. They cannot conduct diplomacy on their own, they also cannot expand beyond their home system (in rare cases they are allowed to control more than one system, though Enclaves bigger than three systems are unheard of). They also cannot be attacked or embargoed, as doing so would violate the laws of the Confederation and could be ground for expulsion. Such Enclaves-Protectorates are allowed to possess military for self-defense, and occassionally lend their military forces to joint peacekeeping forces and military interventions of the Confederation of Mankind. They are allowed to send a single delegate to the Supreme Council, but he lacks ability to vote.
The second 'type' of Protectorates are lost colonies, exiles and sufficiently human-like alien states (like Choir of Righteous). Such countries are allowed a trial period of 50 years (during which they can maintain a single delegate in the Supreme Council, but without the right to vote), before they decide what next. They can bid for Standard Membership (if they are strong enough), though majority settles for permanent Protectorate status.
NGO Membership - NGO Membership is created for countries that de facto aren't governments. It includes are sort of groups without direct control over territory, but it has to operate on a transnational scale, possess at least one million members, and exist for at least twenty-five years. NGOs are typically corporations, religious organizations, mercenaries and various relief groups (like the newest iteration of Red Cross).
Organizations with an NGO Membership can issue documents such as passports and IDs, they can issue citizenships, conduct what is de facto diplomacy, and only pay taxes to the Confederation of Mankind. The number of delegates is counted on the basis of either budget size (in case of corporations), number of members (religious organizations and relief groups) or number or soldiers [PMCs], however organizations big enough to have more than three delegates are almost non-existent. When it comes to voting rights, any organization that has more than one delegate has one vote.
Foreign Relations
Confederation of Mankind as a whole have next to no foreign relations, for the simple reason - they have next to no one to actually establish relations with. Solar Federation wants the Confederation dead and gone, majority of aliens are equally hostile (if not more), and the few non-hostile outsiders (like the Choir of the Righteous tend to be peacefully annexed.
The only exceptions are the Executive and some of the Successor Codes. However, diplomatic relationship with them is more grounded in xenobiology and xenopsychology than in typical diplomacy. However the decentralized nature of the Confederation means that relations between it and the member states and organization are actually rather diplomatic in nature.
Confederation of Mankind
Capital: Unity SystemOfficial Languages: Varied
Religion: Varied
Government: Confederation
Current ruler: Supreme Council of Humanity
Population: Impossible to count, estimated to be at least seven trillion.
Currency: Varied
Type
Alliance, Generic
Alternative Names
Colonies, Great Alliance, Confederation of Humanity, Confederation.
Demonym
Colonial, Outer.
Power Structure
Confederation
Economic System
Mixed economy
Legislative Body
Supreme Council of Mankind
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments