Confederacy of Independent Systems

The **Confederacy of Independent Systems**, more commonly known as the **CIS**, is a large collection of loosely allied planets, trade groups, guilds, pirate bands, criminal organizations etc. that came together after the First Galactic War in 2 ATC/36K.371 CE. They are made up of various groups of people from all walks of life where they have assembled a large group of like minded individuals who wanted to stay out of the Cold War between the Republic and the Imperium that had divided the galaxy. They proclaimed that they had *'the right to live out our own lives. The whole galaxy is dying for two separate ideologies and their unending feud. No one, be it an Emperor or a Chancellor, should tell us what we got to live for, or what we got to die for.*

From that point on, the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the largest collection of neutral planets in the galaxy, was born. They have stayed neutral throughout the last three millennium of the Cold War, never taking a side in the conflict. But their Confederacy was more of a loose alliance than an actual nation, lacking a central government to keep them united. And they were never large enough, nor powerful enough as the two main superpowers of the galaxy, but they were large enough to maintain an amount of influence on the galaxy. After the Second Galactic War, Zayne Carrick, Jarael, and Aaron Haddock helped the Confederacy to form a government and help them establish a place as a legitimate nation among the galactic community.

## Planets, Space Stations and Satellite Colonies

While no where near as large as either the Republic or Imperium, the Confederacy still held an immense amount of territory both before and after the Second Galactic War, with it having in total of around 20 million systems before the year 3638 ATC/40K.007 CE and over 30 million after 3638 ATC/40K.007 CE. However, the exact number of systems under its' control always varied considerably throughout its' history, not only due to its' loosely defined nature as a Alliance-Confederation hybrid but also due to the number of memberstates leaving the Confederacy in the 3,632 years since its' creation and its' reorganization following the conclusion of the Second Galactic War. After the second galaxy spanning war and its' own restructuring, the exact number of systems under its' control stayed consistent at around 31.2 million systems which stayed this way up until the Confederate Civil Wars which saw the Confederacy reduce in size to its' pre-Second Galactic War numbers.

## Demographics

### Species

The Confederacy is largely dominated by either Humans or Terrans, with various other species making up a close third of the overall species population. Aside from the commonly seen species like Twi'leks, Zabraks, Mirialians, Cathars, Grans, Ithorians, and other assorted Near-Human and Non-Near-Human species, the Confederacy also have an assortment of species unique to it and only found in the Confederacy, ranging from relatively new species to the galactic stage to extragalactic species that found themselves in Confederate space and settled down in the region. Like with all Confederacy demographics, the Confederacy rarely have any up to date demographical charts to count the numbers of people belonging to the various species, however, Republican and Imperial demographics have estimated the percentage of the various species with Humans at 47%, Terrans at 24%, with Near-Humans at 12%, Non-Near-Humans at 10% and Extragalactic Species at 7%, clearly showing Humans being the majority of Confederate Space.

### Languages

In the Confederacy, their main language is English (Basic). The species that make up the Confederacy speak every known language in the galaxy from worlds that belong to both the Galactic Republic and the Terran Imperium. With the addition of having some species found in neither nations, this gives the Confederacy a more diverse number of languages compared to the two superpowers.

### Religions

The Confederacy has no official religion, encouraging its people to follow whatever religion they chose so. The Confederacy has many different religions, with many being brought over by refugees and immigrants from the Republic and the Imperium. Although still diverse in its religious beliefs, the Confederacy still has a sizable portion of its population (about 55%) are followers of the Temple of the Force.

### Family Structure

The Confederacy is more akin to the Imperium in regards to its' familial structures than the Republic, as most of its' members' familial structures are Patriarchal and Patrilineal, with only a minority of the Confederacy's members being Matriarchal and Matrilineal or Egalitarchal and Bilineal, of which are largely due to a species background, leading to notions of those forms of family structures is limited to those species rather than being widely seen across the Confederacy, which is what Patriarchal and Patrilineal. The exact numbers of these types of family structure are largely unknown, as the Confederacy rarely keeps an up to date demographical chart to count the number of systems and planets that have this structure but Republican and Imperial demographers have estimated the percentage of a patriarchal and patrilineal family structure at around 60%, Matriarchal and Matrilineal at around 20% and Egalitarchal and Bilineal at 10%, but these are not exact numbers.

## Government and Politics

### Confederacy-wide Government

#### Pre-Second Galactic War

From foundation, the Confederacy has operated as a loosely defined and structure alliance of various systems and groups then a true confederation. In fact, many historians and political scientists believe the pre-Second Galactic War Confederacy to be similar to the Articles of the Confederation era United States and the late 20th century to mid 21st century European Union, but far more decentralized. The closest to any sort of government, or at the very least a form of centralized government that technically governed the wider Confederacy, was the Confederate Council, which itself only has the power to command the combined Confederate Armed Forces. This council was quite volatile as well, as its' members changes from a few decades to only a few months, with its' members ranging from legitimate governments within the Confederacy to pirate bands that's just as likely to dissolve and crumble as soon as it joins the Council, which in turn, leads to a Confederacy that many assume couldn't survive to the pre-second galactic war days if it wasn't for the fear of both superpowers trying to influence and control its' various members should they become independent. Justifiably, when the Second Galactic War ended, the Confederacy needed to reorganize itself if it should continue or dissolve entirely.

#### Post-Second Galactic War

Following the Second Galactic War's end, the Council called for a convention to debate how the Confederacy should be restructured as the conclusion of the war effectively ended the Cold War between the Republic and Imperium and thus the need for this quasi Alliance-Confederation was effectively null and void. The Dìqiúan Convention, as it is later known, was held in the United Republic of Nations' capital city of Republic City, took over seven months to conclude, with debates and outright arguments erupting across the numerous representatives sent to discuss the restructuring of the Confederacy. Some argued for an establishment of a constitutional monarchy, but no one agreed with who would become the new monarch of the Confederacy, not to mention the outrage of representatives from Republican and non-monarchist states in the Confederacy, who treated to leave the Confederacy outright, so the motion to establish a constitutional monarchy was dropped. Others suggested to give more power to the still existing Confederate Council, but many other representatives disagreed with that as well, believing that the Council could easily be dominated by a select few states and groups, which will not represent the wider Confederacy. And others yet suggested the creation of a Parliament with a President heading it in a manner similar to the Republic's Senate and Supreme Chancellor, but disagreements lead to nothing there. Eventually, after months of debate and arguments, the convention ended with the creation of a Confederate Constitution that formalized the centralization of a government to represent all of its' various memberstates and organizations. A Constitutional Parliamentary Confederation, with separate branches of government for the Judiciary, Legislature, of which is split into two houses, the Confederate House of Representatives, which is made up of all Confederate memberstates, and the Confederate Council, which is made up of the Confederate memberstates that contribute the most to the Confederate Armed Forces and an Executive, headed by a President who is elected by popular vote.

### Memberstate Governments and Influence Over Wider Confederate Politics

Before the creation of the Confederate Parliament in 3634 ATC/40K.003 CE, most actual governing in the Confederacy was almost entirely done by the memberstates of the confederation, with each one having vastly different types and structures of government ranging from a democratic republic to a autocratic regime. None the less, they are the primary manner in which the Confederacy is governed, but this highly unstable and oftentimes paradoxical systems were not efficient for governing a region of space the size of the Confederacy. In fact, it often bred war and conflict inside the confederacy that, without the fear of the Republic and Imperium, would have resulted in the Confederacy dissolving entirely mere decades after its' formation.

While largely remaining intact for the past three thousand and six hundred years, there have numerous nations that were once members leave for a variety of reasons. But due to the nature of the Confederacy pre-Second Galactic War, these secessions did not result in either rebellion or outright conflict like it would for the more centralized Republic or Imperium, instead, these states leave peacefully.

### Nongovernmental organizations and the Influence they have over Confederate politics

Ever since the Confederacy was created, various nongovernmental organizations has had influence over confederate politics in some form. It didn't matter what sort of organization it was, be it a corporation, a guild, and even a crime syndicate. This was certainly the case during the days in which the Confederate Council was the only body even close of a government in the pre-Second Galactic War Confederacy. And while the influences have waned as a result of the formation of the Confederate Parliament, it still holds considerable power in Confederate politics, a fact of which wouldn't be truly addressed until the Confederate Civil Wars centuries later.

However, these organizations have dissolved and formed constantly over the 3600 years of confederate history, and they rarely last two centuries at most, a fact of which reflex the rate in which nongovernment organizations falls out of the Council and their seats being taken by another, newer, more influential groups.

## Military

### Pre-Second Galactic War

#### Confederate Militia

The Confederacy has no official standing army. Instead, it's forces are mainly militias that come together when the Confederacy is under threat externally by either the Republic or the Imperium. The Confederacy requires it's citizens to take military training every few years so that anyone can be called up into the Militia when the time comes. Though the Militia isn't as well trained or equipped as it's Imperium or Republic counterparts, they make up for it in their willingness to fight and protect what's theirs.

#### Confederate Navy

The Confederacy maintains a Navy to protect it's borders and to transport the Militia to the front lines as well. Their Navy is made up of a hodgepodge of different ships such as: armed Merchant vessels, pirate ships, captured Republic and Imperium warships, and vessels that have been heavily modified over the years. What they lack in firepower, they make up for it in speed, maneuverability, and tactics.

### Post-Second Galactic War

#### The Renegades

A recent addition to the Confederate Armed Forces, the Renegades were officially adopted after the Second Galactic War ended. Originally, the Renegades were Zayne Carrick and his group of friends when they were all on the run from Republic and Imperium authorities a year and a half before the war. After the group settled down in the Confederacy, their group became an official part of the Confederate military and became a group of operatives that can be deployed anywhere in the galaxy and confront any threat before them. And over time, more joined the Renegades and continued their work.

## Economy

### Pre-Second Galactic War

Unlike the Imperium or Republic, where much of the economy is largely affected by a singular economic policy, be it a feudalistic capitalism of the Imperium or the social capitalism of the Republic, the Confederate economy, on the other hand, was not unified under a common economic policy. In fact, its' various memberstates had their own economic policy completely independent of each other, with some being a social capitalist economy, others a more centralized economic policy, typically in the form of a command economy, and others still are lassez-faire capitalism or outright anarchistic capitalist. This disunited economy also reflects the currency of the Confederacy, or rather, the lack of such currency. Unlike the Republic or the Imperium, the Confederacy lacks a truly centralized currency to make internal economics and external economics constant and stable, with each memberstates having their own currencies in circulation, thusly, all internal and external trade is made immensely more complicated which has caused the Confederacy's overall economic growth and expansion practically nonexistent. The closest thing the Confederacy had to a centralized currency was the Council Platnium, which was a Council-backed digital currency given to memberstates to try and make trade between the various states a bit more cohesive, but it is only given to memberstate governments, not the individual citizenry, forcing them to use their homelands currencies for trade. Predictably, many of the Confederate's population has taken to using either the Republic or Imperial Credit as an unofficial currency meant to make transactions between individuals within the Confederacy more effective. But once the Confederacy began to centralize its' government, it clearly needed to create an official currency if it is to survive as an entity.

Many Economists and economic historians often use the Confederacy as an example of developing Planetization and Galactization, as its' various memberstates are often in the process of either Planetization or Galactization before settling in a manner similar to the Republic and the Imperium, both of which had long past the early stages of Galactization.