The Republic

The Republic is a galactic faction in the Star Wars universe. It's described in detail on these pages on Wookiepedia. This article serves to offer some insight on the changes made to this faction in the games that I play, set in the Star Wars universe. 
== Geography ==
The Republic Centers on the Core Worlds of the Galaxy, encompassing literally hundreds of independent nations within the Galactic Core. Due to there being many black holes and an incredible density of stars, found relatively close together, it was possible for these nations to encounter each other before the hyperdrive engines were fully invented. 
The nations found within this area can travel to each other at great speed, and many worlds in the galactic core, compared to other regions of space, are populated. 
== Structure and Regulations ==
The Republic is largely controlled by the species that share the "like" as these make up the vast majority. Humans being by far the biggest group, though followed closely by other very widespread species such as Zabrak and Twi'lek, Duros and Rodien. 
The Republic consists of many alien species, not all of which share the "like" (meaning they aren't entirely humanoid), but while these species manage well enough on their own, not having the "like" seems to be a biological ball-and-chain, seriously impacting the species ability to advance, and therefor these species are not as widespread among the stars, but also fairly inactive within Republic Politics for the same reason, looking mainly inwards to their own species and their planets. 
The Cultural barriers of the Republic, from dealing with species of many multitudes, makes it nearly impossible to get anything done effectively, which is why the Republic is a fairly loosely organized union, that allows local government to quite an extensive level. 
The Republic exists to maintain peace, security, welfare and trade between nations that necessarily must work together in order to co-exist peacefully. 
A few examples of this, is that the republic charges a tax on all members, that goes towards the paying the independent Commercium, maintaining the Republic Senate (the deciding body of the Republic), supporting the Jedi Order (the guardians of the Republic), furthering research, the Republic Space Navy, the Republic Police Force, the Republic News Agencies and more. 
While the Police everywhere within the Republic must pass a local exam as well as a Republic-level exam, police forces are mostly local - As well as all members are required to maintain some sort of local military defense force, which includes a local-based space navy, and the members of the Republic that cannot accommodate this are required to "rent" the forces from allied members, or hire mercenaries that must be cleared by the Republic High-Command. 
All members of the Republic are required to school their young to what equals a bachelors degree with a very broad and detailed high-school level education, before they reach adulthood, which is impossible for certain species that are either very short lived, or reach adulthood very early - or simply lack the faculties to attend school. 
Dispensation is granted in such cases, where it is deemed that the species is incapable of living up to these standards, but no dispensation is granted when it comes to cultural barriers on this. 
It's a requirement that members of the Republic must be taught to at least read, write and and understand basic, as well as speak it if they are capable of forming such words - and the education must start at a point in life where the members should master it as a native tongue. Not all species can accommodate this either, as some species cannot learn to read due to lack of eyesight, or learn to write due to lack of fingers - but again, dispensations are made where necessary. 
In the Republic, the education level required to begin a career is very varied depending on what kind of world one is living on, but the Republic is generally trying to make people aim for higher educations, by imposing regulations on even the smallest businesses for choosing to hire "unqualified staff" - which might seem baffling to the reader (especially to American readers), considering that over 90% of all Republic citizens have the Republic equivalent of a bachelors degree, but within the Republic, a bachelors degree is really just a start, and many job descriptions require more than one bachelors degree, additional courses, a masters degree or have even higher demands. 
On Colonial worlds, it's more or less accepted that people do not go for additional schooling, excepting the bare minimum of extra courses required, to use various machinery or what not, but on just slightly more civilized worlds, this is practically unheard of, which is the reason people from the "nicer parts" of the galaxy tend to refer to people from more outback areas, as "Nerf-herders", a derogatory slang for someone who has no education, but works in agriculture anyway. 
== Military and education ==
The Republic demands that all local defense forces are trained by the Republic joint military before they return for additional training in the local defense force, and that local defense forces use the same equipment as the Republic military (at least a basic load-out - additional extra equipment outside of the Republic standard arsenal is acceptable - as is additional weapon mods or specialized camouflage and other minor details that make a world of a difference from a local perspective). 
This ensures that the forces of various planets can work together flawlessly, but of course, once more the Republic has to make many dispensations in these requirements. 
To begin with, not all species are capable of living up to Republic military standards, which are mostly set by humans (being the most common species in the galaxy), but some that aren't can still become effective members of a defense force in some capacity (while not members of the Republic, the Hutt species are good example, while they would make poor space-marines or even infantry, they can - with the right equipment - serve as artillery, communication, logistics, base-defense and even pilots with some imagination). 
And then, some locations make it impossible to use Republic Standard equipment, as it simply doesn't cut it. 
The Republic recruits all who are able into the military, preferably as soon as they finish their schooling, and drill them through a few years of military service (often away from the front-lines and in some position that compliments their degree). 
During this time, if at all possible, they are given courses that compliment both their military duties as well as their degree. 
Because many attractive educations are available through the military primarily (seeing as it's free this way), many people are willing to spend a little longer in their military service, to acquire these, and as such, not all service periods are equally long - and not all result in coming out on the other end with the same rank either. A general rule of thumb is, the longer the education, the more useful the courses/educations granted, in civilian life, and the higher rank is achieved. 
Of course this also means that people sometimes have to que up for these degrees, and this is usually done by signing up for a year of grunt-work as Space Marines. 
They are then transferred to their local defense forces (if any) for the last year and a half of their contract. The first year is full-time work, but the next half year is less than part time, working in the reserve while (if so desired) left able to enroll with various educations to continue school for free, on the Republic's dime as long as one stays in the Reserve. 
The Military does a lot of civilian sector work, meaning Republic Soldiers are found in all sorts of jobs that one wouldn't expect to see them. This is nearly an alien concept to most people on earth, but the gist of it is, that the Military buys and maintains a lot of expensive transportation equipment, and this enables them to stay in the shipping business, they also rent out their garrisoned troops to act as private security for private homes and businesses and to monitor space stations and space traffic. This is just the beginning though.
== Post Zakuul Invasion ==
The Republic was more or less annexed by the Zakuul Empire. Refusing to put a non-force user in charge, Satele Shan reluctantly agreed to take charge of the former Republic worlds and became Viceroy of the Core Worlds. As with the Sith Empire, a small group of republic worlds did not surrender, and joined in an alliance against Zakuul. 
The Zakuul Empire agreed to adopt a Senate, to accommodate both the Empire and Republic, that had traditions for Senatorial rule, but Zakuul is mostly ruled by it's council of Scions and it's Emperor, so while the Senate was kept busy with minor decisions, the Empire was secretly ruled by Valkorion and his Scions behind the curtains, which of course most people knew. 
Zakuul drastically changed the Republic, mostly for the better. Zakuul had a strict policy against non-humanoid aliens joining on equal part in society, so while they became second rate citizens, mostly isolated to their own homeworlds, they were not really treated any worse, in fact many programs were implemented to integrate them with the rest of the galaxy. 
The Senatorial Guard from the Republic, the Imperial Guard from the Empire, the Zakuul Knights from Zakuul and the Jedi Commandos were united into the Zakuul Honor Guard, used for various protection details, and used as a Spec. Ops. military unit. 
== Post Scream ==
The Scream meant the downfall of many Republic worlds, such as Corellia, but interestingly, Coruscant managed to survive, due to having several moons that provided enough food to make a meager survival. Coruscant remains among few success stories among the urbanized planets. 
The Republic took a critical anti-psionic stance following the scream, monitoring psionics, outlawing the "force religion" and forcing psionics to undergo training at psionic academies. 
Because practically only humans were left in the Core Worlds due to Zakuul being very strict about dividing the species and cultures, the human surviving planets of the Core formed an Alliance, known simply as the Alliance. 
The Alliance comes closer to resembling the Galactic Empire of the original Star Wars trilogy, being a very strict and bureaucratic "democracy", ruled by a complicated elite of wealthy business owners.