Galactic Hegemonic Alliance

The Galactic Hegemonic Alliance was formed 1261 years ago. The Hegemony united the warring factions of the galaxy out of the Dark Age that preceded it. Near the center of the galaxy lies the seat of the Hegemon, who rules with the Grand Council—a consortium of powerful families, greedy merchant Guilds that control entire categories of technology, and the heads of powerful state-sanctioned Cults.
The Hegemony is a distant source of law and power. The Hegemon rules from their seat amidst the black holes near the center of the galaxy. The Hegemon’s greatest task is keeping power divided between factions such that they always squabble over it, and don’t unify to seat a new Hegemon.

The galaxy is carved into sectors, put under the stewardship of seven Noble Houses. Technology and science are the domain of the approved Hegemonic Guilds (such as the Guild of Engineers). Mysteries and the arcane fall to the approved Hegemonic Cults (such as the Church of Stellar Flame). Each of these guard their domains jealously.
Still, for every rule there is an exception. There are a number of planets that pay a tithe to the Hegemony and self-govern without belonging to any specific House. There are a number of ship repair shops that have mechanics with expired Guild Licenses. There are plenty of mystic groups that walk freely through the streets of every world, and are popular figures of romance and mystery in the entertainment industry—even though they’re not part of any official Hegemonic Cult.

Demography and Population

The Hegemony is predominantly made up of humans. Whomever the Precursors were, they tended to create system gates to places that host planets or moons that conform to human specifications (at least one in the Goldilocks zone, with atmosphere and temperatures that were inside earth-like specs, or that the Guilds could terraform to spec).
Consequently, humans have spread far and wide, multiplying and taking over the galaxy. While there are xenos of many shapes and colors, the ones that are most frequently found are those that can breathe human atmospheres, function in near-1G gravity, and are about the size of humans. For reasons nobody is sure of (although many blame the Ur), a number of human-appearing aliens (bilateral symmetry, twin-legged) are the most common, though many have modifications suited to their homeworlds (more eyes, extra arms, gills, different colors, etc.).
That’s not to say you won’t find 10-foot-tall, reptile-scaled Norsicans at the docks moving crates with their prodigious strength, or the occasional three-foot, furry Wrinlian engineer using their six limbs to perform delicate adjustments inside the wiring of a Guild starbase.

Laws

Legal matters in the Procyon Sector are usually handled planet by planet. In general, planets that have a higher population and wealth have their own local law enforcement agencies, which answer to the planetary Governor. System Police are called in to oversee intersystem and interplanetary crimes and criminals. These system cops usually wear the colors of the House they function under the auspices of (hence in Procyon the police wear the green and black of House Malklaith).
The Legion and their battle cruisers are military, and swear fealty to the Hegemon, but answer to the Noble House that rules the system. They can be called in to handle matters that require extra force or have proven too complex for the System Police to handle.
Large-scale action from the Core tends to be slow. Part of Malklaith’s job as the steward of the sector is first to appear like everything is in order, lest another Noble House be granted control of the sector. This means that high-level response by either the House head or the Hegemony itself is often slow and uncertain.

Trade & Transport

Most ships are designed for in-system flight. The majority of them cruise or haul goods with some form of human-built conventional engines. Ships with jump drives are not exactly uncommon, but more pricey and regulated (think cars and planes in the modern day, respectively). Jump drives are complex and regulated by the Starsmiths Guild (whose members are very tight-lipped about where they get them). Only engineers certified by the Guild are officially allowed to fix them, though Guild dropouts and even further removed students are often employed on the sly.
With conventional engines it takes several months to reach the edges of any system. Often it’s far cheaper to ship goods via this slow but reliable system.
The Starsmiths Guild and some Seeker Cult members map and maintain Hyperspace lanes. Ships with jump drives can enter these lanes, usually via large rings near the endpoints, though hotshot pilots and good engineers working together can do it anywhere along the path. From the outside, a ship in a lane looks like a shooting star. These lanes aren’t direct lines everywhere, so often you must catch a path heading towards your destination and exit midway. Ships then travel conventionally to the next entry point. Traveling across a system may require two dozen such stops.
Stations in these oases between lanes are common. Lane travel often cuts planet-to-planet travel down to days, and a journey to the system Gate to only a week. Often such between-lane stations have engines of their own, since lanes drift, and it behooves builders to move rest stops to compensate. They are also frequent targets of pirate raids and stops for Legion patrols.
Rumors persist of dark lanes, unmapped by the Guild, used by pirates, smugglers, and mystics. However, without clear demarcation, it’s unclear where they start and end, making them dangerous to traverse.
The jumpgates are the only way to travel the vast gulfs between systems. Giant rings that are able to transmit even huge battleships, they stand fixed in space, uncaring about the rotations of the planets in the system. Folks often plan trips when their planet is closer to the gates, cutting down travel time and fees. Each jumpgate is a huge ring made of unknown material, with strange faces and forms carved throughout it.

Most settled systems have an ansible network, which can transmit in-system communications instantly. Also, unlike conventional comms, ansibles can communicate to the other side of a gate while it’s open. The Sah’iir are tight-lipped as to how exactly they managed that.

Communication between systems is slower. Often a courier ship is parked at the edge of a gate, traversing across once a day to deliver messages. Hence, live conferences between systems are rare, and news from several jumps away can take some time to disseminate.