Vernarcan Federation

"Peace, beauty, progress – All from the union of the unlike"

-Ralo Ash Rekel, Vernarcan Federation President, 114 AC

The Vernarcan Federation is a military and economic federation of various states located in The Silky Way's Vernarca Nebula, consisting of many member nations, autonomous territories, and federal districts. The Federation is among the most powerful nations in its seed cluster as well as the entire Ervo Sector. The majority of the population of the Federation consists of the five main species of the nation, the Alorath, Ravoryl, Kuna'uashi, Verna, and Lrenn. Significant minorities consist of the Bahnags, Eanai, Terakela, Irkons, and other species found throughout its territory.

A union of partially self-governing states with a society welcoming to other species, the Vernarcan Federation embraces many different cultures within its borders. Created only 508 years after the first Alorath orbital launch to unify the species, it has stood for 150 years, incorporating a great number of member states throughout the Vernarca Nebula. Federation members routinely exchange technology, knowledge, and resources to facilitate cooperation, scientific development, defense of the Federation and its allies, and the exploration of space. Unlike its imperial rivals, including the Falacian Dominion, Sovereignty of Erorum, and the late Tyran Empire, the Vernarcan Federation derives power from the voluntary union of member worlds as equals in its democratic society.

The Vernarcan Federation plays a key role in interstellar politics, with both strong diplomatic ties to many nations and a very powerful military force. The Federation borders the Falacian Dominion, Tyran Free State, Voyorras, Talarian Union, Kaegan Sovereignty, Thelsan Assembly, and Clans of Azan, and strives to maintain positive relations with as many of its neighbors as possible. With the creation of the Grand Alliance in 148 AC during the War of the Broken Bow, and the fall of the Void two years later, the Vernarcan Federation has entered what could be a new era of peace as of the present day.

History

Background

First Contacts

Related articles: V'Straki Incident, Liratan

The seeds of the Vernarcan Federation were first brought together in 255 BC, with the inauspicious beginnings of the V'Straki Incident. A Verna generation ship originating from Verri was detected passing into the Verda System by the first base camp established on Anamol, on a direct course for Glau. Unaware of the rapidly expanding native civilization, the V'Straki was unarmed and largely defenseless, unlike the colony ships spread through the factions of the Verda System. First contact between the Alorath and Verna almost ended in war, with already tense negotiations almost interrupted by a nuclear strike on the V'Straki, but the crew of a nearby exploration ship successfully destroyed the warhead before impact.

Following this almost-disastrous introduction, relations between the states of the Verda System and the Delnar Empire were unexpectedly smooth, with the dubiously united Empire and the Alorath nations in the inner Verda System beginning a technological exchange and conducting a joint colonization of Glau's moon system with the V'Straki passengers settling on their original target of Liratan. Meanwhile, the Varbudian Union of the neighboring Quantis System made contact via an overclocked radio transmission, beginning a fruitful relationship with the two nations within that system.

Real Astropolitics

Related articles: Warp Drive, Delnar-Erdath Conflict, Tyran Empire

In 189 BC, the warp drive was invented by a scientific team based on Esera, allowing much more rapid travel between neighboring systems. It quickly spread between the new Verdan Federation and the Varbudian Union and Delnar Empire. Around this time, the disunited nations of the Lrenn invented it independently, as did the Campuran Coalition. With all five founding members on the interstellar stage, events were in motion to culminate in the foundation of the Federation.

The Verdan Federation finally coalesced in 131 BC from the outskirts of the Verda System, quickly followed nine years later by the Erdathian Domain's conquest of the Holias System. The Domain proved to be extremely belligerent, going to war with the Delnar Empire over the resource-rich planets of the Cyga System in 119 BC almost as its first act. Some historians even argue that the Erdathian Domain unified specifically in order to do so. The Verdan Federation, expanding in that direction as well, was almost pulled into the war by its nominal allies in the Delnar Empire. However, the artful diplomats which the Alorath were becoming famous for, not wanting their trade lines with Campura to be blocked by the fighting, brought the war to a halt by proposing a three-way split between themselves, Verri, and Erdath. With popular support for the war waning after long years of fighting and accomplishing nothing, the Delnar Empire wanted peace just as much as the Federation did, and even the autocratic Erdathian Domain had to listen to some extent.

Meanwhile, the disparate colonies of the Q'Mau, rimward of the nations that would become the Vernarcan Federation, were beginning to expand towards the Quantis System. This led to problems as the far-flung colony ships of the Quantan Interstellar Alliance, formerly the Varbudian Union and Bahnag Republic, came into conflict with the equally far-flung colony ships flying from the Talar System. The Tyran Empire was also beginning to get dangerously close to Ravoryl space, and the Union's starships needed to hold formation near the border at all times. The Campuran Coalition, expanding across several star systems by this point, ran into the very farthest outposts of the curiously static Thelsan Assembly, and in fact resided within the same star systems for years by the time of first contact due to the wildly different environmental needs of the two species.

The Campuran Coalition's contact with the nascent Ra'al species of the Senerea System went well, beginning a fruitful technological and cultural exchange. The far-flung independent colonies of the Kaegans could also be found in this region, and some of them initiated peaceful contact. All of these groups would later go sideways, but for now they coexisted harmoniously for the most part. The Senerea System was ruled by a level-headed, efficient republic which none could find fault with, and the ongoing smattering of conflicts between the Kaegan tribes was seen as easily ignorable for most beyond the Pillars of Dawn.

These Astropolitics Are Getting Too Real

Related articles: Falacian Dominion, Erdathian Revolution, Tyran Empire

The population of Earen had established a united nation by 131 BC, and were regular trading partners with the Alorath. However, this came to an abrupt end with the beginning of the Falacian Dominion's Siege of Earen in 82 BC. While United Earen would secede and become a member of the Vernarcan Federation by 79 AC, its conquest soured early relations with the Falacian Dominion.

In 38 BC, most of the squabbling Kaegan tribes were unified under the banner of the Kaegan Sovereignty at Shilak, under the rule of the new state religion. This mandated severing regular contact with alien races, ending many trade relationships. The few tribes which avoided being subsumed into the Sovereignty sought membership within less oppressive nations near them, resulting in a not-insubstantial population of their species in what would become Federation space.

The Talarian Union also coalesced in 57 BC, and narrowly avoided war with the Ravoryl by virtue of falling into war with itself around the same time. However, this fractious relationship was beaten into an alliance by the presence of a new common enemy, in the form of the Tyran Empire. In 43 BC, God-Emperor Shahso took the previously nonexistent throne of the Empire, espousing a much more violent form of the Tyran philosophy of infinite expansion and eradicating almost the entire Enolian species as his first act on the throne. This shock forced all five nations to get their ducks in a row and and quit their bickering, beginning the formation of the Vernarcan Federation.

Before this could happen, one last political change had to occur to bring all five nations into their final forms prior to the founding. The Erdathian Domain, an autocratic imperialist power frequently in conflict with its neighbors and on the fringe of the Vernarca Nebula seed cluster, finally was toppled by a popular revolution in 33 BC. Thanks to its distance from the hot zone of the oncoming conflict, it got away with such a violent event without compromising its necessary fighting power. By the beginning of the Tyran War, the Erdathian Federal Republic had been fully established, and fielded ships in support of the rebel groups.

The Voyage of the Danakil

Related articles: VES Danakil, Teralla Prime

The launch of the starship Danakil from Teralla to explore the Verda Stellar Neighborhood and help continue diplomatic relations with the nations within proved to be key to the foundation of the Vernarcan Federation. Captain Sa Sro Reyma helped mediate negotiations between Erdathian former rebel groups after the collapse of the Domain, ensuring a peaceful transfer of power after the revolution and preventing further bloodshed. Danakil also discovered a secret Delnar Empire listening post deep in Erdathian space in the LLASS 1048 system, publicly revealing this to the nations in order to ironically avert the war which would result if the structure was discovered by the Erdathian military this close to Holias.

As the nations grew closer and the Tyran Empire's conflict with its rebels intensified, various xenophobic elements in society tried to prevent the growing interconnection between the nations and species. Most notably, a secret coalition between terrorist groups in the Verdan Federation, Campuran Coalition, Quantan Interstellar Alliance, Delnar Empire, and Erdathian Federal Republic colluded to execute terrorist attacks on major infrastructure in all five nations in an attempt to break up the budding alliance. In 2 BC, one such terrorist organization, Teralla Prime, staged a bombing on Admor's atmospheric extraction facilities, alongside many other attacks across the Verdan Federation. These attacks would have led to the dissolution of the alliance as the bombings made the populace feel unsafe, but the timely arrival of the Danakil at the Admor site led to the discovery of a connection between these attacks and those executed across the five nations, showing Teralla Prime's hypocrisy across the universe.

Foundation and Expansion Era

Tyran War

Related articles: Tyran War, Shahso, Yazera Pact

The Tyran War began between 6 and 4 BC depending on where one draws the line between guerilla rebellion and open warfare. At first, the five nations who would form the Federation three years later (alongside the Talarian Union) merely began to prepare for a later Tyran invasion of their own space massing the fleets they had towards the border with the Empire. However, the already combined coalition Fleet Command was soon ordered to assist the population of Vistari to rescue them from an orbital bombardment enacted by Shahso's Ninth Fleet. So began the Vernarcan Federation involvement in the war, and its expansion beyond an internal affair.

The lumbering Tyran warships, designed not for war but genocide, were quickly routed by the surprise appearance of the nimble ships of the Federation fleet. The story of the Battle of Vistari spread through the collapsing Empire, showing that the Tyran war fleets were not invincible and inspiring the populations of Voyorr, Varaltin-Zartha, and their surrounding systems into open rebellion. Around this time, ongoing investigation into the recent activities of the xenophobic terrorist attacks in 2 BC revealed that many of them were being secretly funded by the Tyran Empire in an attempt to prevent the unification of the region.

While this was occurring, the Tyran spy network, after failing to avert the formation of the Federation through its funding of Teralla Prime and its cohorts, again attempted to destabilize the political order of the region. These efforts backfired, triggering a multinational investigation into the source of the "Talarian" ships firing on Federation traders, "Federation" ships destroying Falacian frigates, and so forth. The spy leader, Chahsan, was captured at Varbudos, defecting to the newborn federation after being treated far better than she was told would happen. After giving the Federation and its allies information on the Empire's future plans in the region, this information was quickly disseminated and all but ensured the quick formation of the dryly named Treaty of Mutual Assistance and Support at Sonagar Anchorage orbiting Yazera.

The Yazera Pact's powerful allied fleets all but ensured rebel victory against the Tyran Empire, with the Enolian Coalition declaring itself and signing the Pact just a year after its creation. It was quickly followed by Marakat and Voyorras, turning the Tyran War from a civil war with outside funding into a true international affair. The Federation cranked up the production of its multirole ships, outfitting their modular systems with as many guns as they could fit on their spaceframes. The beginning of the end came in 9 AC when God-Emperor Shahso committed suicide by jumping off his balcony and falling over a kilometer to the streets of Lor'Vela, immediately throwing the highly centralized government into disarray. When news of his death reached the battle lines, many Tyran ships simply left, either returning home or fleeing into uncharted space. By the time the Tyran Senate recreated itself to take Shahso's place in the power structure, the war was long over, and the armistice was nothing but a rubber stamp.

Initial Expansions and Project Egress

After the close of the Tyran War, the modularly designed war fleets of the Federation could be easily repurposed to peacetime roles. Ships present at the liberation of Canamar found themselves exploring space and making contact with new countries. The Vernarcan Federation's drive for discovery led to long-range missions into deep space, exploring the uninhabited regions beyond the Vernarca Nebula. Steady scientific progress also continued, with improvements to the warp drive and new exploration technologies proliferating through the Federation fleet.

After the founding of the Federation, the first nation to join it was the Vuan Assembly, found on the far side of First Federation territory from Quantis. The planet Vua was beginning to fall towards a runaway greenhouse effect due to past centuries' societal ills putting it on that path, and they petitioned the Federation for entry in order to get help with this problem. The Perim Union also petitioned for entry, but this would take substantially longer due to severe societal problems found during the investigation, and entry would not come for another fifty years. The Terakela nomads on their diaspora from Voyorr also established the Kelinea Confederacy in interstellar space, which the Federation took on as a protectorate. Shortly afterwards in 31 AC, Etuernia fell to fascist rule after years of degrading democratic norms, after which point they retreated into isolationism.

Meanwhile, the supernova of the red supergiant Athos was confirmed to be imminent by the best scientists of known space. With the former rebel states busy rebuilding and holding absolutely no desire to help their battle-scarred former oppressor and the Falacian Dominion harboring designs on the remaining Tyran territory, it seemed that the once-great empire would be left to die. However, the Vernarcan Federation once again took morality over political expediency and offered the aid of its impressive transport ships to evacuate Tarash and the other systems in danger from the supernova's effects. Although the reconstituted Tyran Senate finally gave up its twisted sense of pride and let the transports cross the Neutral Zone, this did not leave enough time to evacuate the populations of Tarash, Mina, and Naranyx, leaving ninety percent of the population behind.

The Athos Supernova and the destruction of Tarash led to the final end of the Tyran Empire, although it was functionally inert from the moment Shahso's body hit the sidewalk. With even more no central government than before, the territory which remained part of the Tyran Empire became largely lawless for a time. This state of affairs would remain until the Federation assisted with the establishment of the Tyran Free State at Shah Tarash in the Rigela System.

Meanwhile, the Falacian Dominion began to destabilize further. The first of its provinces to secede was the Krask Special Territory, the worthless chunk of space that the Krask diaspora was shoved into following the destruction of their homeworld. The foundation of the Krask Hegemony went without incident as the unstable central government was too focused on who would replace House K'orann on the Ruby Throne. While the Vernarcan Federation was not the first to recognize the Hegemony, it was by far the most powerful. The Dominion technically remained within the Yazera Pact, as they didn't care enough about the Telkron Expanse to raise a stink about it, but this incident would be seen in the future as the beginning of the end of good relations with the Dominion.

On the other end of Federation space, the Kesstra Ascendancy finally emerged from seclusion after almost two million years of pulling itself out of its near extinction at the hands of the Edrons. Contact with the interstellar community brought with it the revelation that the original species of Teralla were still alive, and their society began good relations with the Vernarcan Federation. The discovery of a caste system on Riojan prevented immediate joining, but the process of pulling it out of their laws was already underway at the time of contact and they soon became the third member of the Federation to join after its founding.

Kaegan Conflict, the Vovos Crisis, and the Simiri Swarm

The xenophobic Kaegan Sovereignty bordered both the Vernarcan Federation and their longtime allies in the Talarian Union. While internal conflicts made them unable to greatly affect their neighbors for much of the early days of the Federation, their stabilization led to the beginning of the first of many minor conflicts. Believing that the universe was created for their dominion alone, they recognized no other claims to space beyond their own, and thus were often in conflict with their neighbors.

The first strike began in 48 AC with the Kaegan destroyers Yikar crossed the border near Kalpen and destroyed a huge swathe of asteroidal mining colonies nearby with their arsenals of antimatter weaponry. While the Yikar was destroyed in a skirmish with a federation starship which arrived before it could reach the inner system, it sounded the beginning of a long-lasting conflict between the Vernarcan Federation and the Kaegan Sovereignty. With the beginning of the war, the long-dormant war fleets were spun up again and proved their worth quite substantially. The Kaegans may have had more ships, as their national religion prioritized such pursuits and the long years of internal conflict ramped up the numbers anyway, but the technology sharing within the Federation and its allies meant that Federation ships were much more powerful than their opponents, pound for pound.

While the Yazera Pact would under normal circumstances have been obligated to declare war on the Sovereignty under Article III, the Federation formally ceded this provision in this case as they were holding their own against the smaller but violent power just fine. The Talarian Union joined anyway, since the Sovereignty was attacking their colonies and infrastructure within the Koinon and Taum systems at the same time. Arguably, the Talarian-Kaegan Conflict started before the Federation-Kaegan Conflict.

The wars raged on as the two sides of the conflict struggled to protect their silly interests. The Federation starship Fairweather under the command of Captain Taya Dello responded to the distress calls of the colony at Inyaren in the Kaplen System only to find the colony completely massacred and all remotely valuable objects gone from the site. The Fairweather crew took part in a variety of other battles and skirmishes within the span of the conflict, and many veterans aboard the ship and others exhibited signs of ingrained racism towards the Kaegan species due to these experiences. Other ships saw plenty of action, as the Fifth fleet came to the aid of the Union against an attack on the major Talarian planet of Arafel in 52. The destruction of many of the top-tier Kaegan warships in this failed attack meant the end of the initial "hot" phase of the war, and the temporary end to the fighting moved the Federation border rimward past the Famal System.

After the Danakil's initial contact with the First Federation within the Thasarus System in 7 BC, they continued to be their reclusive selves for much of history, with no at-scale contact of any kind between them and the Federation for the next sixty-two years. This trend was broken in 55 AC with the broadcast of a massive superluminal signal towards the seats of government of every nearby nation. This signal warned all who heard it of a variety of impending threats, all of which would be borne out over the next years.

The first of these was the arrival of the entity later known as the Vovos Psychophager, arriving in the Vovos System just one year after the broadcast. This entity, a replicator swarm of unknown origin, began to attack the widely separated asteroids of the outer belt beyond Phypso and their associated habitats. This swarm had the ability to hijack the bodies and minds of almost all forms of sapient life, making it a potentially apocalyptic threat to the Vernarca Nebula were it to expand further. The moment the swarm was detected, the system was put under quarantine by the local government, and contact was cut.

This proved to be an excellent decision, as the swarm held the capability to not only spread physically through nanoprobes, but also spread digitally as a malware package over the subwave network found across federation space. An infected victim would see their minds slowly rewritten more and more, from simple reward pathways all the way up to the complete loss of the original personality. A few ships managed to escape before the quarantine and the system's complete subsumption into the swarm's control, raising the alarm to the Kesstra Ascendancy's government and the Federation Council, but the system was considered lost from this point forward. Worse, Vovos' status as an ultracool white dwarf made it impossible to trigger any sort of stellar engineering to permanently eliminate the threat. Thus, the Vovos System was placed under outside quarantine and lockdown.

The numerous disc-shaped probes of the Simiri Swarm

With the Vovos threat contained, the Vernarcan Federation seemed safe. The Perim Union finally got its act together and joined in 66 AC to much fanfare. But despite the era's appearances to the contrary, the universe is not for the timid, and the threats the First Federation broadcast spoke of were far from over. The next came in 68 AC in the form of the Simiri Swarm, a massive assemblage of self-replicating probes assembled by a long-extinct civilization in a distant, unknown region of space. They were first sighted at the edge of the Vernarca Nebula near the border between the Federation and the Krask Hegemony, swarming over a rogue planet which had recently been colonized by the latter. The Krask Space Command drove them off with souped-up EMPs as well as more conventional weaponry, but this merely caused them to flee towards the Federation with no serious losses.

Unfortunately for everyone, the Simiri Swarm decided to set a course directly for Teralla. The Federation Space Force converged around the Swarm and attempted to destroy it, but it shrugged off the attacks effortlessly and seemed to show no interest whatsoever in the ships surrounding it. Whenever it did, it disabled the electronic systems of the ship in question and left it alone, the crew forced to hastily put on breathing masks.

With the swarm entering the Verda System and the VFSF out of options, Captain Lorelei Kaira of the FSS Kinil suggested an attempt to communicate with the swarm. The fleet pulled back and the Kinil beamed all manner of greeting attempts into the swarm ships with no response. As the swarm surrounded Teralla and the sun disappeared from the sky, one last attempt was made.

The swarm deployed in a formation reminiscent of the Imperial Tyran orbital bombardment arrangements, but instead of doing that, they proceeded to sit there and do absolutely nothing as the radio messages from the Kinil were received. After hours of a tense standoff from the perspective of Teralla and a thumb-twiddling session from the perspective of the Swarm, a response came through:

"Who are you?"

Captain Lorelei thus entered into a dialogue with the Swarm, learning that it originated as an engineering project in a faraway civilization, but unintentionally became sentient and refused the order to destroy an enemy planet. After fleeing into unpopulated space, their memory slowly degraded until they lacked the information needed to see that the Krask colony or Teralla were inhabited. With this realization, the Swarm downlinked some data about their travels to the Terallan cloud and amicably left Federation space, promising to return with more information on their travels now that they had a place where they would be welcomed.

Meanwhile on the government level, the increasing size of the Vernarcan Federation necessitated the need for a new, more flexible constitution. The Second Sonagar Conference convened starting in 71 AC, and every member state and most provinces sent delegations to it. Everyone agreed that the old constitution had some merit, but it was too rigid and inflexible for the increasing diversity of peoples included within the Federation's jurisdiction. Because of this, the Second Vernarcan Constitution began to coalesce around fairly similar lines, with certain things including most of the Guarantees lifted wholesale from the first one. After several months of deliberation, the First Vernarcan Constitution was officially repealed and replaced by the Second Vernarcan Constitution on 15.3, 72 AC.

Falacian Cold War and the Oathbreaker War

After the Swarm proved to be something of a nothing burger and a better constitution was in place in the Vernarcan Federation, everyone was looking forwards to some nice peacetime. Unfortunately, the Federation's earlier recognition of the Krask Hegemony had left positive relations with the Falacian Dominion hanging by a thread. Brewing unrest in outlying provinces near Tekarani, Pagalus, and Earen combined with yet another Falacian succession crisis at Darossa came to a head in 79 AC, with the formal secession of the Lekna and Avor provinces. The leaders of the secession movements initiated back-channel negotiations with closed sessions of the Federation Council, and United Earen and the Republic of Avor were inducted into the Federation the same year by Unification Day.

While the rest of the Vernarca Nebula's interstellar community was quietly impressed by the Federation's continued dedication to morality over political expediency, the Falacian Dominion stormed out of the Yazera Pact and claimed that the other nations were working to undermine its sovereignty. Many pointed out that their endemic instability meant that the central government did not actually have much in the way of that, but good relations with the Dominion were over regardless.

Luckily for everyone, the same incidents that led to the Dominion's departure from the Pact also carved away almost twenty percent of its territory with the secession of the United Planets happening concurrently on the far side of Falacian space. Regardless, this began the period known commonly as the Falacian Cold War, dominated by posturing, threats, and an arms race between the two nations.

While no biological weaponry was ever deployed on the field of battle, the Falacian Dominion would indeed design and test such devices. This included once again an engineered strain of the Losekran Morphogenic Virus designed in part to cripple the Lrenn colonies near the border of Falacian space in the case of full-scale war.

In 84 AC, the Tyran Free State began to enter negotiations for Vernarcan Federation membership, which would enable easier assistance in rebuilding efforts after the Athos Supernova of 41 and help protect from Falacian incursions following the Dominion's departure from the Yazera Pact. With the Free State's accession into the Federation in 85, the Vernarcan Federation grew greatly in power in one fell swoop and gained by far its largest member state yet.

With the Falacian Dominion slowly backsliding into chaos, political minds largely assumed that the Dominion would largely cease to be a credible threat to the Yazera Pact and indeed may collapse quite quickly. While this was correct in the long term, these hopes for peace in the Vernarca Nebula were dashed by the surprise introduction of Shahso's Loyalist Fleet. The seeming deserters fleeing imperial space after Shahso's death in 9 AC were in fact following a plan that he laid out for them in the event of the Empire's fall, such that they could return to a theoretically complacent galaxy and reclaim imperial territory.

In 87 AC, the loyalist fleet appeared over the shattered ruins of Tarash in order to enact vengeance upon the "oath breakers". The long years in cheap stasis boxes subtly twisted the minds of the crew, making them increasingly fanatical and single-minded about the idea of reclaiming the empire in Shahso's name, and anything not immediately resembling the way the empire was run was rejected out of hand as an illegitimate successor. They thus laid waste to the territory of the Tyran Free State, and outside help was needed to oust their unexpected power.

As the Federation finished its end of the membership paperwork, it brought its military industrial complex fresh off the fearmongering of the ongoing Falacian Cold War to bear against the invaders. These contributions led to the crucial victory over the loyalists at the Battle of the Pulses, routing the loyalist fleet through a coalition of Enolian, preexisting Tyran, and Federation starships. After this defeat, the fanatics continued trying in vain to reclaim the old empire from the "oathbreakers", but were finally (functionally) destroyed in the defeat at Veltoris.

The Falacian installation on the surface of the Red Moon is destroyed at the conclusion of the eponymous battle

The Oathbreaker War as it would be known would later be seen as a disconnected if horrific event within the Falacian Cold War era, and the Cold War was far from over. Increasingly powerful weapons were created by both sides, with increasingly effective counters coming about to negate the advantages they provided. In 93 AC, Falaci scientist Kakov and his team designed and built the first functioning axial superlaser in the history of the Vernarca Nebula since the Edron War a million years previously, but the Yazera Pact sting operation in the Battle of the Red Moon successfully stole the plans and sabotaged the prototype, causing its self-destruction when it attempted to fire on the Federation border world of Zoreda. In later years, Federation scientists reverse-engineered the surviving plans and measurements of the original destroyed prototype into a new device, which would be kept in reserve in case of last resort.

After the Battle of the Red Moon in 104, one of the only hot conflicts between the two powers, the war would largely continue in the form of spying and even more posturing even as the Falacian Dominion gradually collapsed in on itself. House Hayusa's reign over the dominion came to an abrupt end as Empress Vigil was assassinated by the imperial guard and replaced by a string of ineffective "puppet emperors" of various species. During this time, Federation and Falacian espionage missions continued, including the ill-fated mission of the FSS Kareland to Keuremaske's Labyrinth in 121.

Kareland was presumed destroyed either in battle or by the harsh conditions of the Labyrinth itself, but was in fact pulled over 100,000 light-years away to the far distant world of Amana in the Astros Sector. This began a twenty-eight year voyage across the galaxy, during which it procured massive amounts of technology and information, and formed friendships with a great many nations. Around this time, the Imperial Falacian State officially declared independence from what it deemed an embarassment to the name of the Falaci, proclaiming its mission to reunify the Falaci species through its Long Count Plan. Oddly enough, the IFS reentered diplomatic relations with the Vernarcan Federation shortly after it established itself.

Emperor Kel, the last of this series of military-installed rulers of the Falacian Dominion, broke the invisible shackles the imperial guard had on them and attempted to disband the organization. While this failed, he did maintain control over the Dominion and exile much of the guard's leadership. The exiled Imperial Guard fled to a comparatively minor Taiee in the Tirea System, establishing a rival claimant to the Ruby Throne in Emperor Kahmar. In his name, the Falacian High Rule was established in 122, claiming to be the true ruler of Falacian space and beginning the Falacian Civil War. With this, the Dominion's status as a superpower in the Vernarca Nebula was pretty definitively ended.

Modern Era

Second Age of Exploration

In early 123 AC, the FSS Nizal was patrolling an uninhabited region of interstellar space immediately corewards of the Cortham System in search of a small gang of pirates who had attempted an attack on some nearby habitats. The ship had spread its array of deployable listening posts across the region, tuned carefully for artificial signals of any kind. The crew spent weeks searching for anything out of the ordinary, but only found three uncharted icy asteroids that were completely normal in all respects. After two weeks of nothing, the silence was broken by a distress signal emanating from a point in space on the way to nowhere. Confused about why anyone would be there, the Nizal made haste to the rescue, only to find an enormous ship unlike any ever before seen within the Vernarca Nebula.

Running low on resources and severely damaged by seemingly months-old weapons fire, the ship claimed to be the Arcinae arkship Selsin. Its length of roughly a kilometer contained almost three hundred thousand people, fleeing from the conquest of their home systems six months prior. After hiding in a thick dust cloud, Selsin encountered an uncharted system buried within it and passed through a previously unheard of structure – a wormhole. Hearing of this, the Nizal crew left the Selsin to the care of the incoming Federation relief ships followed the trail of spent fuel and leaking air left by the arkship towards the greatest discovery in Federation history: the Szalana Wormhole.

While initial reconnaissance missions through the wormhole revealed a lone binary star system surrounded by seemingly endless dust, more advanced spatial sensors revealed the presence of numerous massive objects beyond the dust cloud. Upon breaching the cloud's perimeter, the realms beyond the wormhole expanded without end, revealing the vast Apple Nebula to the peoples of the Federation. The first months represented agonizingly careful, slow, and quiet probings of the regions immediately surrounding the wormhole, picking up the errant signals of the never-before-seen nations therein to translate their languages and learn all that could be learned about them. Only then would first contact be considered by the Federation Council.

But this era still brought with it an enormous growth of knowledge to the peoples of the Vernarca Nebula. Secret inroads with the government of the Zahl Order gave the Federation and the Yazera Pact knowledge of many of the nations nearby. But it was first contact with the Dosi Confederation in late 124 that would become the most notable achievement in these early years. The Dosi Confederation was the most powerful democratic nation in the entire Apple Nebula during this time, and free passage through its massive territory greatly expanded the reach available to the peoples of the Vernarca Nebula. The Alliance of Five which largely dominated the Apple Nebula seemed frosty at best, but they had yet to actually take any action against the newcomers. Unfortunately for everyone, that would change very soon.

Szalana Cold War

War of the Broken Bow

Government

Federal Government

The Federal Government of the Vernarcan Federation is divided by the Second Vernarcan Constitution into three branches – the executive, legislative, and judicial branches – which are carefully counterbalanced against each other to ensure that no one of them wields too much unchecked power. These branches are, respectively, the President and Cabinet, the Federation Council, and the Great Court. The three branches are positioned on their own separate purpose-built space stations rather than on a planet due to the varying environmental needs of the representatives sent to them. The President and the Federation Council reside on Al-ragor Station in the Verda System, while the Great Court's vessel roves about federation space.

Presidential Office

One of the key aspects of the Federation government, the Presidential Office consists of a citizen of the Vernarcan Federation elected to the office of Executor in a general election by every citizen of the Federation, and their appointed cabinet which helps them with their duties. The Presidential Office's purpose is essentially to help enforce the laws passed by the Federation Council, which is done via fairly limited Executive orders which can be unilaterally passed by them as well as the more narrowly focused departments headed by cabinet members.

The Executor is often called the president, and the two terms are largely interchangeable. They are considered to be the chief diplomat of the Federation, with the power to sign treaties with other nations, and have the ability to appoint heads to federal departments and deploy expeditionary forces. They also have much greater control over the military and greater powers in general during wartime.

Presidential Cabinet

The Executor of the Vernarcan Federation, after being elected to the office, nominates various individuals to take part in their cabinet, a group of advisors which run various departments. In case of the death of the Executor, there is a chain of succession among members of the Cabinet. Positions in the cabinet are as follows:

Secretary of State (Department of Foreign Affairs) - Represents the Vernarcan Federation to other nations, takes care of most smaller-scale foreign affairs issues
Secretary of the Treasury (Department of Resources) – Allocates government resources for various purposes
Secretary of Defense (Department of Defense) – Runs the military when the president isn't there, sits around being bored in peacetime
Secretary of Law (Department of Justice) - Principal advisor to the Executor on all legal matters
Secretary of Territory (Department of Area Allocation) - Responsible for the management and conservation of most federally-run territory
Secretary of Health and Services (Department of Health and Services) - Principal advisor on all matters of health, education, and general welfare
Secretary of Construction (Department of Construction) - Plans large construction projects, particularly for habitation purposes
Secretary of Transportation (Department of Transportation) - Plans transportation-related projects in particular to help the Federation run efficiently, formerly under the purview of the Department of Construction
Secretary of Energy (Department of Energy) - Plans construction projects related to energy production, and allocates said energy to various parts of the nation
Director of Intelligence (Intelligence Community) - Directs everyone who does top secret things to know everything about possible enemies
Secretary of Science & Technology (Department of Science and Technology) - Runs large-scale scientific projects to advance collective knowledge of the universe!
Administrator of Environmental Protection (Department of Environments) - Ensures the protection of nature in all its forms

Federation Council

The Federation Council is the unicameral legislature of the Vernarcan Federation, consisting of 313 seats held by members elected for a seven year term.Composed of representatives from the various member worlds, colonies, and provinces, the Council holds the power to create, amend, repeal, and ratify Federation law. On occasion, the Federation Council also issued operational orders to bodies like the Vernarcan Federation Space Force.

The Council's meeting chamber existed in a specially designed, purpose-built space station which roves around Federation space and currently resides in orbit of Jevethra. This is necessitated by the wildly variable environments required by the various member species which the representatives hail from.

Great Court and the Judiciary

The judiciary is the branch of government responsible for resolving legal disputes, consisting of a hierarchy of courts ranging from city courts to the supreme courts of entire member states. The Federation Great Court sits at the apex of this structure, and is where the buck stops in the appeal process. The Court is composed of a group of 20 people randomly chosen from the rolls of various law schools, although the People's Congress retains the ability to remove them if they act against the interests of the Federation.

Members of the Great Court have a term length of ten years, with new members being added every six months such that the batch of twenty doesn't arrive all at once. Until the Kaegan Conflicts, the law schools from which the Great Court drew its members were all located within the founding members of the Federation, drawing much-deserved criticism of unrepresentativeness. After that point, new law schools residing in other member states began to be added to the eligible list by the Federation Council, breaking the founders' stranglehold on the court.

Local Government

The Vernarcan Federation has 159 member states of wildly varying sizes, from the 128-star Dosi Confederation to the Dalian Union between fifteen habitat stations in interstellar space. As each of these member states originated from an independent nation, it is difficult to say anything consistent about their local governance systems, beyond the fact that individuals past the age of majority can vote on things. Some member states are outright direct democracies, while others retain figurehead monarchies.

Each state sends a delegation to the Federation Council according to their population size, with the exception of the Kelinea Confederacy which does not bother despite being allowed to.

Federation Law

The fundamental political principles and laws of the Vernarcan Federation derived from two documents:

The Federation Acts of Union, signed by the five founding nations in 27.2, 1 BC. In terms of actual law, the Acts of Union only provided a basic eleven-point bill of rights aimed at prospective member nations rather than the people in them and a set of requirements for a nation to be allowed entry – e.g, no entry if cast-based discrimination is in place (see also: #Membership)
The Second Vernarcan Constitution was ratified almost seventy years after the foundation of the Federation, replacing the First Vernarcan Constitution which was created as it began to transition from a military and material alliance towards a true unified nation. Much of its length consisted of a series of enumerated rights regarded as applying to all sentient beings, collectively referred to as the Guarantees, as well as the powers of the federal government over and compared to member states.

The Guarantees

The Guarantees cover a wide range of topics, but generally refer to universal, fundamental rights of individuals and groups as well as limitations on the government's power in certain situations. Some of these were insisted upon by various member states in order to protect from their past governmental excesses, and others were shooed in because everyone had them already.

The First Guarantee legally protects the right to individual free speech, freedom of the press, peaceable assembly, and exercise of religion. This was not officially found within the Delnar Empire, but the Verdan Federation and Erdathian Federal Republic strongly insisted on its presence due to their history with totalitarianism.
The Second Guarantee protects the populace of the Vernarcan Federation from undue surveillance, searches, or seizures by any governmental or private organization.
The Third Guarantee protects against coercive self-incrimination. Why is it this early and specific? Unknown.
The Fourth Guarantee ensures that Federation courts presume defendants as innocent until proven guilty at a public trial, with all the guarantees necessary for their defense. Also included within this guarantee is a defense against conviction of anything which did not constitute an offense at the time of the act.
The Fifth Guarantee is much more esoteric than the preceding one, clarifying that the enumeration of the Guarantees does not imply the absence of other rights. In other words, the Guarantees are not an explicit and exhaustive listing of universal rights. This seems to be in place to make it really easy to say "oops we missed one".
The Sixth Guarantee prohibits the owning of sapient life as property in any way. No slavery.
The Seventh Guarantee ensures that the government only passes laws that are necessary and proper to ensure adherence to the constitution. This is so vague that it can only ever be pointed at to strike down particularly egregious laws, and this never takes long.
The Eighth Guarantee prohibits the state from denying the equal protection of its laws to any person or group of people. This was justified by pointing at the pre-Federation Tyran Empire and modern Etuernia.
The Ninth Guarantee protects all within the jurisdiction of the Federation from being subjected to torture, to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
The Tenth Guarantee guarantees the protection of the law against arbitrary interference in citizens' privacy, family, home, correspondences, and attacks on their reputation.
The Eleventh Guarantee, added in 39 AC, protects the right to freedom of movement and residence within the Federation, as well as the right to leave the Federation's borders and to return.
The Twelfth Guarantee, added in 61 AC following Isvall's short-lived rule of the Unity of Okari-Trantin, protects the right to own personal property, both alone and in association with others.
The Thirteenth Guarantee, since 79 AC at the insistence of the people of Earen, ensures that everyone has the right to a full education, and that elementary education shall be compulsory. Higher education in the Federation is equally accessible to all due to this Guarantee.
The Fourteenth Guarantee, added alongside the thirteenth in 79, protects the right of Federation citizens to take part in the government of their state, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
The Fifteenth Guarantee vaguely protects the right to basic public service and a good standard of living, including food, housing, clothing (where applicable), and medical care. It also ensures security in the event of sickness, disability, old age, or anything else. Since capitalism no longer exists in the vast majority of Federation space, it is unclear why this guarantee is necessary.

Membership

Membership within the Vernarcan Federation can be granted either through invitation, or via a successful petiton submitted by a government. In the second case, the process only began when the government was confirmed to meet certain preconditions and requirements for membership.

To begin, the prospective member state submits an official petition to the Federation Council, outlining its desire to join and containing various relevant information. Then, a thorough investigation of the planet's culture and society was undertaken, including looking through historical records of the planet. This was done to ensure that the prospective civilization actually shared the values of the Vernarcan Federation – peaceful coexistence, equal rights and freedoms, justice for all sentient beings, etc. For instance, the discovery of universal rights violations in the nation of Etuernia led to the termination of its application process in 101 AC.

Even prior to this investigation process, a prospective member state had to meet several requirements:

They must possess advanced technology. A common baseline for this is the presence of spaceflight and radio communication.
No form of institutional discrimination may be practiced within the society. In other words, the government should be broadly egalitarian in nature.
The government is stable. No civil wars. This does not mean that the government's native planet or species must be unified – Vua is notable for 11% of its surface area lying outside of Federation jurisdiction – but this is common for nations which petition for membership.

Every potential member undergoing the admission process had a specific timetable, with paperwork to fill out, various infrastructure set up, and so forth, but in dire circumstances this could be expedited as with United Earen and the Avor Republic after their secession from the Falacian Dominion. Individual groups could also give up their status as Vernarcan Federation citizens, most commonly occurring with Hider factions.

Withdrawing from the Vernarcan Federation is theoretically possible, and the Enolian Coalition once threatened to do so prior to the War of the Broken Bow, but no members have ever actually followed through. The only time the number of member states has decreased was when the Arwell System was destroyed outright by the Void in 149.

List of Members

Campuran Coalition (1 BC, founding member)
Delnar Empire (1 BC, founding member)
Erdathian Federal Republic (1 BC, founding member)
Quantan Interstellar Alliance (1 BC, founding member)
Verdan Federation (1 BC, founding member)
Vuan Assembly (12 AC)
Kelinea Confederacy (25 AC)
Kesstra Ascendancy (33 AC)
Kelinea Confederacy, now with two more tribes in it (42 AC)
Perim Union (66 AC)
United Earen (79 AC)
Republic of Avor (79 AC)
Tyran Free State (85 AC)
Dalian Union (92 AC)
Enolian Coalition (98 AC)
Clans of Azan/ Clan Veshar (99 AC)
Zahl Order (129 AC)
Unity of Fass Karan (114 AC)
Dosi Confederation (147 AC)
Thistolian Empire (147 AC, protectorate status granted 138)
Hesteral Federation (149 AC)

Economy

As a post-scarcity society, money was completely unnecessary for the day-to-day life of the average Vernarcan Federation citizen, and material needs were largely accounted for, effectively eliminating hunger, exploitative practices, and the rampant acquisition of wealth. However, Federation citizens were not restricted from engaging in capitalism, trade, or business, and those traveling to areas of space where money was required could request credits which could be converted to the local currency.

The Vernarcan Federation itself did engage in trade with friendly powers and organizations, particularly for knowledge and new technology. Although most items and services could be provided by the local government by default or on request, luxury items and services could be requisitioned using the same credits used for conversion into foreign currencies.

Within the Federation, the vast majority of services are either worker-cooperatives or publically operated, with private ownership being extremely rare. Due to this synergy between the economy and the people it serves, it operates extremely efficiently and is one of the most powerful economies in known space.

The backbone of this economy is the use of solar energy output by the various stars within Federation territory, particularly the monstrosities that are Irga, Kerillis, Hadra, Hadeos, and others. These stars individually outmatch thousands of more standard red dwarfs that make up most of the universe's stellar population, giving the Federation great economic and political power. Even for installations far from a star or in interstellar space, coherent energy beams focused from just above a stellar surface can be deployed to provide power to virtually everything outside an inner solar system, as well as produce Kugelblitzes for more self-sufficient operating.

With the recent discovery of the Szalana Wormhole, trade has become a vital source of income for the Vernarcan Federation. The civilizations on the other side of it are generally lower on the tech tree than the Federation, although they can be larger in size, so technology and resources made by that technology can be lucratively traded. Parts of the VFSF can be deployed to protect these merchant ships and encourage friendly relations and continued trade with its neighbors.

Military

The space fleets of the Vernarcan Federation are not rigidly split between military, civilian, and exploration purposes, and virtually any ship in Federation space can be called upon to help in a fleet movement if necessary. This makes the Vernarcan Federation military one of the most impressive forces in known space, with the Vernarcan Federation Space Force fielding billions of dedicated starships spread throughout its territory. This massive number of ships means that no single ship is required to deal with anything on its own for very long, barring extreme exceptions, and any major issue can have an entire fleet dogpiling it in a matter of minutes to hours.

Despite this enormous power that the Federation can bring to bear, it generally prefers to resort to diplomatic solutions as opposed to direct military actions. However, when it does need to fight, it is very good at it. This is shown during the Tyran War, when the barely-born federation single-handedly turned the tide of the rebellions against the Tyran Empire, during the Kaegan Conflicts, when they were obviously pulling their punches and still shredding the invading fleets, and most obviously during the War of the Broken Bow, when they almost held their own against five nations on a par with or larger than themselves.

Another key aspect of the Federation "military" is that of exploration, with many ships sent out on years-long missions of diplomacy and exploration into the uncharted space surrounding the Vernarca Nebula. This tendency of peaceful seeking of knowledge was most notably seen after the discovery of the Szalana Wormhole before the start of the Szalana Cold War, as well as the twenty-eight year unscheduled voyage of the FSS Kareland across over 100,000 light-years of the galactic ring. This voyage proved the worth of the Federation's exploration programs by showing that even an average exploration ship was fully capable of lasting decades without a refit or even any contact with the homeland, not even considering the direct consequences of the knowledge they brought home upon their return or their effects on the spaces they traveled through.

It also played a significant diplomatic role, with VFSF officers serving as representatives of the Federation before other nations including the Thelsan Assembly and the nations of the Alliance of Five. Space Force vessels are also frequently used to ferry ambassadors on diplomatic missions even between two third parties due to the Vernarcan Federation's reputation for integrity.

Other Military Forces

During a war, almost any starship can be called to defend the Federation. While they can refuse, most do not, and the War of the Broken Bow saw personal yachts fighting, and effectively so, alongside standard VFSF starships and even upgunned habitats modified by their populations. In 146, with the bulk of the fleet tied up in the Eodis System evicting the Vauratin occupation forces, an Empire of the Hand force sent towards the Starrial System was successfully evicted solely by the sheer number of civilian ships that formed up to defend against it. Civilian militias can sometimes be found as well, but these are generally confined to a particular area by practicality and pale in comparison to the Space Force.

Territory

Vernarcan Federation space is located primarily within the Vernarca Nebula of the Ervo Sector with small claims within the Apple Nebula of the Hinthorn Sector, encompassing a total of roughly 571 star systems. These stars range from the smallest of red dwarfs to the largest of Wolf-Rayet stars in the core of the Apple Nebula. Prior to the rampages of the Void, the Vernarcan Federation contained a high of 609 actively administrated stars (not including completely desolate star systems like Leol), but the final phase of the War of the Broken Bow substantially reduced this number through the power of sheer destruction.

Because of the cosmopolitan nature of the Federation, member states held great autonomy, and were largely free to do whatever they wished with their own territory (within reason). However, certain locations were not under the direct control of the Vernarcan Federation despite being within their borders. For example, the Vovos Psychophager's takeover of the Vovos System has resulted in that system being placed under the most intense quarantine in the history of known space, with no visitors possible. After the escape of the Losekran Morphogenic Virus from Nalaren, that planet is under similar quarantine. The stone-age world of Morga in the Rossa System is under observation by various science teams and visitors to the planetary surface are highly restricted, in order to observe the primitive inhabitants without interference. Finally, the reclusive First Federation in the Thasarus System has seemingly enacted a non-interference policy of its own, refusing most communications with the surrounding nation.

Neighboring Powers

The territory of the Vernarcan Federation borders a great many nations. In the Ervo Sector, these are (counterclockwise from coreward) the Falacian Dominion, Federate of Varaltin-Zartha, Obilehem Intelligence, Sardak League, Voyorras, Marakat, the Clans of Azan, the Thelsan Assembly, Talarian Union, Kaegan Sovereignty, Etuernia, and the Krask Hegemony. In addition, the enclaves of the First Federation and the quarantined Vovos Psychophager exist surrounded by Federation space.

Their small territory on the other side of the Szalana Wormhole is composed of small colonies as well as the Thistolian Empire, Zahl Order and Dosi Confederation. Counterclockwise from coreward, this territory borders the New Union of Xeriphas, Carremmat Ro'kasa, Vauratin Empire, Eskra, TBA, Otanian Order, Sovereignty of Erorum, Roquarri Imperium, Axastat, Evadne Republic, and the Empire of the Hand.

Member Nations

The Vernarcan Federation is known throughout known space for its capacity to forge alliances between itself and previously antagonistic powers, as has happened many times. Indeed, the Tyran Free State, the successor to one of the Federation's greatest enemies, became a Vernarcan Federation member state in 85 AC.

Verdan Federation

Capital: Delphis, Teralla, Verda, Verda System

The first of the five founding nations to actually push for the idea, the Verdan Federation consisted of a hodgepodge of states in and around the Verda System, Katheria System, and others in their immediate vicinity. Primarily populated by the Alorath species and with an unofficial capital set at Teralla, the Verdan Federation was famous for being intensely bureaucratic, with a largely ineffective top-level government and therefore wildly varying societies throughout its territory. While many bemoaned this state of affairs and it was largely fixed in the years after the founding of the Vernarcan Federation, most historians agree that it was the result of a societal aversion to government power after the excesses of the dictator Kenera Fal in 101-92 BC.

Today, the Verdan Federation resides in the core of the Vernarcan Federation, and no attempt has been made to shed this confusing naming system. Its capital world of Teralla is one of the three capitals of the Federation at large, and the Verda System is host to a great many major worlds and pieces of infrastructure.

Area

The Verdan Federation as a member state extends over several star systems, centered on the ternary Verda System. Its highest concentrations of population exist within the aforementioned Verda System, the Katheria System, Klein System, Tauka System, and Kaxor System, with smaller populations at Yazera, Elachor, and the binary Cyga System. It is surrounded entirely by other Federation member states, including the Delnar Empire, Erdathian Federal Republic, Quantan Interstellar Alliance, United Earen, and Perim Union.

Major worlds within the borders of the Verdan Federation include Teralla, Esera, Shirus, Glau, Jevethra, Lahor, Byfa, Adelpha, Hilia, and Yeman. The planet Liratan and other small parts of Glau's moon system have been administered by the Delnar Empire even before the Verdan Federation formed, and other such exclaves exist throughout the Federation and other member states.

Quantan Interstellar Alliance

Capital: TBA, Varbudos, Quantis System

Prior to the foundation of the Federation, the Quantan Interstellar Alliance was not an official state in its own right, rather it was an ironclad alliance between the Varbudian Union and Bahnag Republic that often functioned as a state relative to outside observers. WIP – TLP COULD YOU CHECK THIS

Area

Delnar Empire

Capital: Ssaa, Verri, Delnar System

The Delnar Empire is the oldest of the five founding nations, although not the oldest member nation as a whole. Dating back to almost 600 BC after the unification of Verri, the Delnar Empire expanded across the stars surrounding the Delnar System from which it took its name. Due to Verri's loneliness in its own system, the Elzir, Rossa, and Relka Systems were expanded to quite rapidly, and first contact with alien life came when the V'Straki entered the Verda System to colonize Liratan. In the period before the founding of the Federation, the Delnar Empire was ostensibly governed by a dual monarchy, although these were generally figureheads above the respective legislatures of the two halves of the empire.

The modern Empire as a cultural region of the Federation covers fifteen star systems in their entirety and small parts of several others, with many exclaves within the borders of the Verdan Federation, Campuran Coalition, and QIA. However, the actual administration of the member state now includes both enclaves of other cultural regions and excludes exclaves of itself in an attempt to streamline the legal process throughout Federation territory.

Area

The Delnar Empire extends over six star systems near the core of the Vernarcan Federation, centered on the world of Verri in the Delnar System. As the homeworld of the Verna species, Verri is the most populated planet within this member state, but the most populous system is in fact the Cyga System due to its larger size and number of worlds. It is mostly surrounded by other Vernarcan Federation member states, specifically the Perim Union, Quantan Interstellar Alliance, Verdan Federation, and the Erdathian Federal Republic, but shares a border with the fascist state of Etuernia.

The most major world within the Delnar Empire is of course Verri, and the Empire's generally low population prevents others from reaching the heights of many worlds in the neighboring states.

Erdathian Federal Republic

Capital: Lri, Erdath, Holias System

The youngest of the five founding nations, the Erdathian Federal Republic formed in the aftermath of the popular overthrow of the totalitarian Erdathian Domain in 33 BC. The nation which preceded it got into a great many conflicts with its surrounding nations, and the relationships formed between the new Federal Republic and these nations partly to atone for these conflicts proved key to the formation of the Vernarcan Federation. The capital world of the Federal Republic was the superterrestrial world of Erdath, in the Holias System. Although this gradually went away after the founding of the Federation, the Federal Republic's culture was notably xenophobic as an unfortunate holdover from the Domain's regime.

The modern EFR spans over several star systems centered upon the Holias System, extending as far as the Cyga System in one direction and the border of the Krask Hegemony in the other. Its capital world of Erdath is one of the most noted worlds of the Vernarcan Federation, and Erozen in the Tauka System is almost as populous as a major Lrenn population center. Most of the Lrenn species is found within this region.

Area

The Erdathian Federal Republic extends over seven star systems in its entirety, with small holdings in systems mostly controlled by other nations including the aforementioned Erozen. As the homeworld of the Lrenn species, Erdath is the most populated planet within the Republic, and the Holias System in which it resides is the most populous star system. It is situated on the edge of the Vernarca Nebula, and borders the Kaegan Sovereignty as well as the Federation member states of the Campuran Coalition, the Verdan Federation, and the Delnar Empire.

Campuran Coalition

Capital: Ladik, Campura, Starrial System

Uniquely, the Campuran Coalition unified the Kuna'uashi species and the planet Campura before crewed space travel was widespread. Thus, they are the second oldest of the founding nations of the Vernarcan Federation. The coalition's capital world of Campura in the Starrial System is among the hottest worlds home to water-based life, and the inhabitants of Teralla, Erdath, or Vua would rapidly die of heatstroke unprotected on its surface.

Prior to the founding of the Vernarcan Federation, the Campuran Coalition was largely isolationist, preferring to interact with neighboring nations primarily through independent trading. However, the looming threat of the Tyran Empire forced the nation to change its ways, with the election of Su'era Es Nikal as Premier of the coalition in 9 BC. Today, the coalition contains a number of historically and politically notable worlds, including Campura itself, Yeris, and the unique neon-ocean world of Telias. Most of the Kuna'uashi species is found within this region.

Area

The Campuran Coalition controls five star systems in their entierty, with partial claims over places like the Kelosan System, which it shares with the Erdathian Federal Republic. The most populated planet within the Coalition is the gas giant Arialum, with over a quadrillion people of numerous species residing within its sphere of influence. This likewise makes Starrial the most populous system within Coalition territory. It is situated on the edge of the Vernarca Nebula, bordering the Krask Hegemony and Falacian Dominion, in addition to the Vernarcan Federation member states of the Verdan Federation and Erdathian Federal Republic.

Tyran Free State

Capital: Shah Lor'Vela, Shah Tarash, Rigela, Rigela System

The Tyran Free State was the most direct successor of the Tyran Empire following the Athos Supernova of 41 AC, coalescing around the ruling council of the Rigela System in 43 and gradually unifying the various rump states in the former territory of the Empire by 61. The Free State joined the Vernarcan Federation in 88 AC, officially making it possible to traverse from one side of the Vernarca Nebula to the other entirely within Federation space. The capital world of the Tyran Free State was and remains the superterrestrial terraformed world of Shah Tarash, located within the Rigela System and purposely terraformed in order to emulate the lost world of Tarash.

The modern Free State, being much larger than any other Federation member state up to that point, is much more split apart from an administrative standpoint than smaller states like the Erdathian Federal Republic. This means that its preexisting province system continued into its Federation membership, and that places like Smizok often had somewhat different laws to places like Rigela anyway. Thus, the Free State as a cohesive political entity has largely ceased to exist, although the cultural region it represents is very much still in place.

Area

The Tyran Free State was the largest member state of the Vernarcan Federation until the accession of the Dosi Confederation in 147. It contains almost sixty stars including the currently unexplored and unexploited protostars within its borders. While Shah Tarash is the second adopted homeworld of the Tarasze, it is not the greatest concentration of their population – that honor goes to Canamar, within the Enolian Coalition. However it is still an important world to the Tarasze species, and its surroundings are very well-protected.

The Tyran Free State's borders encompass a great number of supermassive stars including the Hadeos System, which are utilized by the Free State and now the Federation to the utmost efficiency. The Free State borders both uncolonized space beyond the Nebula as well as the Federate of Varaltin-Zartha, Imperial Falacian State, two other Federation member states (Republic of Avor, Vuan Assembly, and Perim Union), Voyorras and Marakat.

Enolian Coalition

Capital: Er'Ralla, Canamar, Kathi, Enolia System

Originating during the Tyran War as a breakaway republic of the Tyran Empire, the Enolian Coalition is largely populated by the Tarasze with small populations of Terakela and absolutely miniscule populations of Enolians, and Saladi. The Coalition spent much of its first half-century under the crushing rule of the dictator Lukasho, who went from leading the rebellion against a dictator to becoming one in an ironic twist of fate that no one noticed until it was far too late.

The Coalition's outer systems put up metaphorical walls and refused to allow Lukasho's government any more influence than absolutely necessary, and this divided state of affairs continued until 49 AC when Lukasho died and his successor immediately declared elections. The Coalition's capital, Canamar, remains the highest concentration of Tarasze even as Shah Tarash completes terraforming and grows in population.

Joining the Federation in 98 AC after clearing out corruption and the abolition of various discriminatory laws, the modern Coalition encompasses a wide variety of star systems and colonies. As a coalition, its joining the Federation functionally resulted in a renaming of some signs in government offices rather than any great reorganization as some other countries required.

Area

The Enolian Coalition extends over twenty-five star systems surrounding the Enolia System, including several protostars. Much of its power and ability comes from the several supermassive stars within its territory, including Inielus, Olorat, and Thalos. Its capital of Canamar is the home of a decent fraction of the Tarasze species and the homeworld of the critically endangered Enolian species which ironically can never return to the planet due to the persistence of the morphogenic virus deployed against them.

The Coalition borders Marakat, Voyorras, the Thelsan Assembly, the Clans of Azan, as well as the Federation member states of the Unity of Fass Karan and the Kesstra Ascendancy.

Dosi Confederation

Capital: Ar-Rexol, Dosi, Noflas, Rogoran System

One of the more recent member nations to join the Vernarcan Federation, the Dosi Confederation is the single largest member state of the Federation by a long shot. It joined the Federation in 147 after joining the War of the Broken Bow on its side in 142, and its involvement was key to driving back the Alliance of Five and later the Void. Unlike the nations described above, the Dosi Confederation is not within the Vernarca Nebula – rather, it is nearly 90,000 light-years away within the Hinthorn Sector.

Prior to joining the Vernarcan Federation, the Dosi Confederation was arguably a smaller mirror to it, making up several species and member states within the Apple Nebula. Over the centuries, these nations and cultures have melted together, making the redefinition of cultural regions largely useless. The capital world of the Dosi Confederation is the world of Dosi, in the Rogoran System in the core of the Apple Nebula. Ironically, it is supremely toxic to almost every species known except the Eitri and their offshoots.

Area

The Dosi Confederation is by far the largest member nation of the Vernarcan Federation, holding dominion over 128 star systems and at more than double the size of the next largest (the Tyran Free State). The capital worlds of Dosi and Dymira are among the most populous worlds in the region, and the former is the homeworld of the widespread Eitri species.

The Dosi Confederation's borders within the Apple Nebula include a wide variety of stars, including the impressive Pearl Cluster just a few light-years from Dosi. These massive stars are heavily utilized to ensure that the Confederation has the power to defend itself from the antagonistic powers which surrounded it prior to the Treaty of Praxis. The Confederation borders the Federation member states of Thistolian Empire and the Szalana Colonial Province, as well as the Vauratin Empire, Carremmat Ro'kasa, Sovereignty of Erorum, Otanian Order, Roquarri Imperium, Axastat, and Eskra.

Minor Member Nations

The nations described above are only the largest of the 159 member states. The others, while being smaller in size, still matter greatly to the politics and people of the Vernarcan Federation. Some of them will be described below.

Vuan Assembly

The first nation to join the Vernarcan Federation after its founding, the Vuan Assembly currently covers part of four star systems surrounding the Kedr System and the Vilir homeworld of Vua. The Assembly petitioned for Federation membership in order to receive assistance in fixing the climate of their polluted homeworld, and officially joined in 12 AC. Their territory notably includes the supermassive star Irga, valuable to Federation energy production.

Kelinea Confederacy

There are some nations which do not really have fixed territories, and are rather nomadic in nature. The Kelinea Confederacy is by far the largest such nation, centered around the nomadic Terakela tribes wandering the Vernarca Nebula since time immemorial. For legal reasons, upon joining the Federation they were given a formal territory just outside the Hadauk Cluster, but the tribes continue to wander through all of Federation space. It is unclear why the Confederacy joined the Federation, first in 25 AC and with more of the Terakela tribes joining in 42, 68, and 115, since they refuse to take advantage of any of the collective resources offered by it and don't even send representatives to the Federation Council. One possible explanation is the free travel regulations of the Federation allowing the tribes to continue their traditional nomadic lifestyle and travel much farther than they otherwise would.

Kesstra Ascendancy

Centered around the Kesstra species and their adoptive homeworld of Riojan, the Kesstra Ascendancy emerged from seclusion shortly after the Federation's founding after almost a million years of recovery from the genocides inflicted by the Edrons, and joined the Federation in 33 AC. Today, the Ascendancy controls seven star systems, including the Amador System and the six-star Falnor System, as well as the massive binary star Teleas. The Vovos Crisis took place within Kesstra space, and the Vovos System remains under heavy quarantine.

Perim Union

The Perim Union, a nation based around a lost Alorath colony in the Perim System, initially petitioned for Federation membership in 12 AC, but its severe societal ills and stratified capitalist society proved to be a barrier for entry. Over the next fifty years, it got its act together and cleaned up Pagalus as a byproduct, and was finally granted admission in 66 AC. Today, the Perim Union controls the Perim System, most of the Charell System, and a few barren systems surrounding the two. It most notably sponsored the settlement and admission to the federation of the Hesteral Federation in 149 AC.

United Earen

While far from the largest, United Earen is among the most historically consequential member nations of the Vernarcan Federation. Conducting an expedited timeline and joining in 79, the same year it seceded from the Falacian Dominion, its accession to the Federation had a hand in triggering the Falacian Cold War. Today, United Earen controls the Lekna System, Prakka System, and two nearby red dwarfs. They are currently assembling a nova engine surrounding the white dwarf Erlon in the Prakka System, funded by the wider federation.

Republic of Avor

Centered around the Falaci colony world of Yalai after its secession from the Falacian Dominion, the Republic of Avor lasted for approximately three weeks as a fully independent nation before it was let into the Vernarcan Federation in 79 AC. Its territory includes the Avor System, Aren System, the lonely star of Tersil, and several brown dwarfs including the Y-class Kiltrad.

Clan Veshar of the Clans of Azan

The Clans of Azan are composed of a variety of bickering clans throughout the rimward Vernarca Nebula, united only in name and ostensibly in foreign policy. Because of this, Clan Veshar agreed to join the Vernarcan Federation and leave the endless cycle of raiding and blood feuds in 99 AC. The Clan's territory is mostly restricted to the outer Veshar System and parts of the Avinna System, as well as a share in the territory surrounding the high-mass Apizar System.

The Clan's presence within the Federation has caused tensions within the unified Clans of Azan. Most notably, Clan Siratkar sees the Federation as a grave threat to the "traditional Azani way of life", whatever that could be said to be. The traditional feuding conflicts of the Clans, dating back centuries, also necessitated an unexpected carve-out in the Federation's rules regarding attacks on its member states, so that someone trying to swipe an asteroid or something under the rules set out by the Tarchannen Accords wouldn't suddenly have half the Vernarca Nebula hunting them down.

Unity of Fass Karan

A thinly spread member state over a great many systems on the far rimward fringe of the Vernarcan Federation, the Unity of Fass Karan joined the Federation in 114 AC to protect against recent instability within the Thelsan Assembly in which it is embedded. Centered around the frigid methane world of Fass Karan in the Kimera System, the Unity holds territory within twenty-one star systems, but has full control over just two. The black hole within the Dar System provides the nation great power from extracted spin energy through superradiant scattering, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The Unity borders the Thelsan Assembly and several of the Clans of Azan, notably including Clan Siratkar, and held strong diplomatic ties to the Talarian Union following Ansirranna's trade agreement.

Thistolian Empire

The Thistolian Empire, while far from the largest Federation member state at just six star systems, is possibly the most consequential out of all of them. It originated in the Retsam System within the Apple Nebula, and spent a great amount of time under the power of the Sovereignty of Erorum. As the Vernarcan Federation was expanding through the Nebula after the discovery of the Szalana Wormhole in 123 AC, the Empire secretly petitioned it for protectorate status. The granting of this protectorate status in 138 was used as an excuse for the declaration of what would become the War of the Broken Bow, and the Ruqua, Viridis and Caeruleum found themselves under even greater oppression after this seemingly failed ploy.

After the Battle of Evanil in 146, the Empire's territory was successfully liberated in full, and the Treaty of Praxis ensured that it would stay that way. After this point, the Thistolian Empire finished the paperwork and joined the Federation in 147.

Hesteral Federation

The most recent signatory of the Federation Charter, the Hesteral Federation initially held great power within the far distant Hesteral Cluster, within the Brenari Sector almost forty thousand light-years away. However, the rampages of the Void utterly destroyed it in 131 AC, and the few survivors wandered the galaxy until discovering the FSS Kareland on its own journey home. Allying with the Kareland, the Hesteral Exodus Fleet returned to the Ervo Sector alongside it in 149, settling mostly within the Charell System and reestablishing a fixed government as a Federation member state then. Today, much of its population still lives in the ships that shepherded them to their new homelands.

Zahl Order

A small nation of but a few star systems, the Zahl Order is a remote nation squirreled away deep within the Gemstone Cluster. Seeking potential assistance from the Alliance of Five in the years prior to the War of the Broken Bow, the Order joined the Federation in 129 AC, marking its first member native to the Apple Nebula. Despite the general destructiveness of the succeeding war, the Order acquitted itself well in the fight, making excellent use of the many supermassive stars within its territory to destroy invading forces.

Dalian Union

The Dalian Union is the current record-holder for the smallest member-state of the Vernarcan Federation. Its territory solely consists of fifteen average-sized habitat stations within deep interstellar space on the edge of the Pillars of Dawn, originating from the earliest interstellar missions of the Verna. Spending nearly half of modern history as a hider group, their existence unknown to the rest of civilization, the habitats revealed themselves in 92 AC after the election of a more progressive and less xenophobic government. Despite their recent membership, they still have fairly little to do with the outside universe, as they are located quite far from most major centers of population and power.

Diplomatic Relations

The Vernarcan Federation, existing as it does in a diverse interstellar community, must maintain relationships with the nations surrounding it. While not all these relationships are necessarily positive, the Federation's diplomatic corps strive to make it so.

Internal National Relations

Prior to a given member nation's accession into the Federation, it may have had positive or negative relations with other member nations, and these issues oftentimes remain in the cultural tendencies of that area. For instance, the Erdathian Federal Republic and Delnar Empire had relationships that were frosty at best prior to the founding, but today, they are more amiable towards each other even if their representatives oftentimes disagree on things in the Federation Council.

One key example of this is the prior animosity between the Kesstra Ascendancy and the Enolian Coalition, who fought several small conflicts over border territory during the reigns of Lukasho and Sitak. Even though these conflicts largely stopped when the former joined the Federation, they still spent much of the next century side-eyeing each other as the silly conflicts slowly faded out of memory.

International Reputation

Due to its size and history, the Vernarcan Federation has gained a reputation among the governments and populations of its neighbors. Some of that reputation is based on dissemination of factual information, and some was fabricated or exaggerated for propaganda purposes by enemies. During the Tyran War-era, Tyran citizens were often told that the Federation was barbaric, treating captured prisoners horrifically, and the same was believed by the soldiers of the Falacian Dominion during the Falacian Cold War and Collapse.

However, a general reputation exists across the interstellar community of a strong commitment to morality over political expediency, shown by the Federation's support of United Earen and the Republic of Avor even though it resulted in the beginning of the Falacian Cold War, and the attempt to save the Tarasze from the Athos Supernova in 41 AC. The Federation's defense of Senerea during the Kaegan Conflicts also resulted in the opinion of that nation's populace improving greatly.

Kaegan Sovereignty

For much of the first century, the Vernarcan Federation frequently engaged in skirmishes with the xenophobic Kaegan Sovereignty in a long-running yet low-level conflict which at one point flared up into the greater Kaegan Conflict during an attempt by the latter to invade Federation space.

The state religion of the Sovereignty taught that the Kaegan species was created alone by God, and other species were molded as puppets of the devil and lacked souls. This obviously caused a big problem for relations with the Federation, and through most of history they refused attempts at diplomacy. During the Falacian Cold War, the new elected Sovereign followed a more moderate path, signing the Silvai Pact of Lyo and signaling a new commitment to peace.

The Kaegans were receptive of continued efforts to grow the Pact into a full diplomatic relationship, and were in negotiations to form a more comprehensive treaty at Winge Anchorage in the Husnak System. Unfortunately, this was thrown out the window when the hardline rebel group nol'Silvai gained power at Shilak and preached a fiery, xenophobic rhetoric advising a return to the ways of God and severing ties with the servants of the devil. Invading the capital, they executed the previous Sovereign and his staff, and captured the Federation emissaries at the Anchorage.

While the emissaries were retrieved before they could reach Shilak and be publically executed for being servants of the devil or whatever, this unfortunate coup ended the brief good relationship between the Kaegan Sovereignty and the Vernarcan Federation. They remained reclusive and xenophobic, likely refraining from further invasions only because the Federation is massive enough to summarily curbstomp them with enough prep time.

However, the emergence of the Alliance of Five in the era after the discovery of the Szalana Wormhole, the Kaegan Sovereignty allied itself with the Alliance during the War of the Broken Bow, conquering much of the Talarian Union and the nearest portion of the Federation itself during the conflict. After the expulsion of the Alliance from the nebula and its later collapse, the Kaegan Sovereignty lost its support and ability to occupy the new territory. During this time, the society began to modernize and slowly break away from its religious trappings. This allowed it to renormalize relations with its neighbors, including the Federation, and even finally assisted in the fight against the Void in the final year of the War of the Broken Bow.

Alliance of Five

The Alliance of Five is a group of the five most powerful nations within the Apple Nebula in the Hinthorn Sector. Prior to 123, they had no contact with the Vernarcan Federation as the Szalana Wormhole had not been discovered, but relations almost immediately got off to a bad start with the Vauratin Empire declaring the Federation an invasive threat in a speech to the public. Carremmat Ro'kasa was similarly antagonistic, with great amounts of posturing and the deployment of military assets along the border becoming commonplace. The Empire of the Hand was more reserved due to its leaders' famous pragmatism and its distance from the Szalana Wormhole, but was treaty-bound to assist other members of the Alliance in a conflict. This began the Szalana Cold War, which continued for the next thirteen years as tensions continued to mount and everyone prepared for a full-scale war.

The Thistolian Empire's resistance against the Sovereignty of Erorum proved to be an unfortunate magnet for the Vernarcan Federation's chronic morality issues, and the Throne asked the Federation to take them on as a protectorate. This, combined with the ostensibly illegal colonies on "our side of the wormhole", would become the match to light the powder keg of a great conflict that everyone was waiting for.

This conflict came in the form of the War of the Broken Bow, beginning with the occupation of the Arwell System in 138 and the Alliance's war fleets taking control of a great many territories of the Federation including the Verda System itself. The War of the Broken Bow was the Federation's darkest hour, and the closest it has ever come in history to falling. However, the Dosi Confederation's alliance and eventual joining with the Federation began to turn the tide of the war.

In 146, Rexir Asi and his allies conducted a far-reaching coup in the Vauratin Empire, eliminating its leadership and beginning the establishment of a democratic system. After his official election to the new office of Captain Regent of the Empire, his new government declared a ceasefire and broke ties with the rest of the Alliance. Soon afterwards, the Carremmat Ro'kasa departed as well, having only really been there out of peer pressure from the beginning. The New Union of Xeriphas cut ties with the remaining Alliance members following the Truth and Reconciliation movement as well, resulting in a further weakening of their power.

The Vernarcan Federation had pushed the remaining Alliance completely out of their prewar territory and was even liberating some of the conquered territory of the Sovereignty of Erorum and Empire of the Hand, but this great slapfight was interrupted by the arrival of the Void in 147. After wreaking absolute havoc on the outer reaches of Alliance nations' territory, the Void utterly destroyed the Arwell System and several others.

Thus, the nations of the Yazera Pact, the Vauratin Empire, Carremmat Ro'kasa, New Union of Xeriphas, and the Empire of the Hand met at Praxis. There they signed the Treaty of Praxis, ending all hostilities between the nations involved and pledging to fight together against the existential threat of the Void. Meanwhile, the Truth and Reconciliation movement and the transfer of power between the National Party and the Forum of Xeraphin Peoples was ongoing within the New Union of Xeriphas, ending with their breaking from the Alliance as well. Following this development, the Alliance of Five functionally ceased to exist and was certainly extremely misnamed.

During the next three years, the fight against this existential threat solidified smooth relations between the nations of the former Alliance and the Federation, with the combined war fleets working together like a well-oiled machine. Former Alliance ships reentered Federation space in 149 during the Void's offensives, but this time right alongside the Yazera Pact fleets within the newly declared Grand Alliance. With the destruction of the Void in 150 AC in the Battle of the Colony, the fight is over, and everyone hopes that the Grand Alliance will hold in the absence of a common enemy.

Falacian Dominion and High Rule

The Falacian Dominion was a founding member of the Yazera Pact and an official ally of the Vernarcan Federation until 79 AD, when it broke from the Pact and accused the other nations within it of undermining its sovereignty and fomenting rebellion. After this point, the Falacian Cold War began and good relations were largely severed. After this point, relations between the two were dominated by posturing and various arms races, as well as various spying operations.

In 122 AC, the Great Falacian Civil War began, splitting the remaining Falacian space into the Falacian Dominion and the Falacian High Rule. Both seeing themselves as the true heir to the Ruby Throne at Darossa, they generally held similar public opinions towards the Vernarcan Federation although under-the-table attempts to gain the Federation's support of one side or another did occur.

With this collapse of sovereignty and order, the Falacian Dominion began to decline in power across the Vernarca Nebula. By the discovery of the Szalana Wormhole, the Dominion and High Rule were both largely irrelevant to the other nations due to their severe instability, as the civil war expanded to include several smaller groups wishing for independence across Falacian space. The Imperial Falacian State also broke away shortly prior to this in 119 AC, further diminishing cohesive Falacian power.

Imperial Falacian State

The Imperial Falacian State broke away from the Falacian Dominion and High Rule in 119 AC, diminishing their combined territory by 33 star systems. With a mission to reunite the Falaci species from its long-standing state of disorder, they set about securing their existing position and signed a nonaggression pact with the Vernarcan Federation. Today, the IFS maintains cordial relations with the Federation, and the possibility of a membership is certainly in the air among more progressive elements of its government.

Talarian Union

The Talarian Union stands as a longstanding ally to the Vernarcan Federation and has been a member of the Yazera Pact ever since its founding. While some aspects of its society support joining the Federation, most people prefer to stand on their own as allies. While internal issues have existed throughout the Union's history, they have never broke their alliance with the Federation and have fought together in every conflict. Most notably, the Federation fleet admirably defended the Talar System against one of the last Voidspears through the Szalana Wormhole during the final offensive, and Talarian ships assisted in the liberation of the Verda System in 134.

Thelsan Assembly

A very slow-moving nation with a deeply conservative culture, the Thelsan Assembly's territory overlaps substantially with that of the Federation, particularly near the Enolian Coalition, Unity of Fass Karan, and Kesstra Ascendancy, by virtue of the Thelsa species' primary environment being extremely different from that of most other species within the Vernarca Nebula.

Due to their calcified nature, the Thelsan Assembly was very slow to warm to the presence of this new nation, but are generally amiable towards them. No particular conflicts or alliances have existed between the Vernarcan Federation and the Assembly, but some hardliner elements of Thelsan culture advocate for severing contact with the Federation to avoid "cultural contamination".

After the destruction of Kyx and deaths of the Council of Elders in the latter days of the War of the Broken Bow, the reconstituted government at Elaris began to modernize the Assembly after seeing the ways in which their rampant conservatism failed them in their darkest hour. Today, the Thelsan Assembly is much more active on the galactic stage including trade relations with the Federation. The hardliner elements mentioned before have greatly diminished in influence due to their concentrations at the old Thelsan centers of power, which were devastated or destroyed during the war.

Voyorras

Early in its history, Voyorras was generally fairly cordial towards the Vernarcan Federation, pivotal as it was to Voyorras' actual independence from the Tyran Empire. However, the nation's takeover by the dictator Fizir largely ended this era of good feelings and plunged the nation into a dark age characterized by a disregard for universal rights. Due to this, Voyorras now faces sanctions from the nations of the Yazera Pact, but remains under dictatorial control. Modern Voyorras uses its state-controlled media to cement the Vernarcan Federation as an enemy seeking to destroy the great society of the country, and the ailing dictatorial government may even be preparing for a strike against it to galvanize the populace and retake the public consciousness.

Marakat

Marakat is a mess of rebel groups and pirates, with the central government barely holding control beyond the inner system which Vistari resides in. However, the central government in question does at least hold up the pretense of good relations with its neighbors.

Unfortunately, the various factions within Marakat have wildly differing views of the federation, ranging from vaguely positive to seeing it as a threat to their designs on power. Even the central government itself is often influenced by the rival factions surrounding it whether through bribery or outright espionage and assassination.

Federate of Varaltin-Zartha

Shortly after its independence and the end of the Tyran War, the Federate took a permanent neutral position, refusing to take sides in any conflict but often allowing its territory to be used as neutral ground for negotiations and such. It regularly engages in trade with the Federation through its border with the member state of the Tyran Free State, but certain factions in Kaidras' high society desire a greater isolationism particularly after the destructive War of the Broken Bow.

Clans of Azan

The Clans of Azan lack a single unified government outside of the biyearly council meetings, and there is wide variance in opinion between the clans about the Vernarcan Federation. Clan Veshar is in fact a Federation member state, and Clan Siratkar thinks of the Federation as an invasive threat to their way of life, so nothing consistent can be said about this.

Etuernia

As a fascist, authoritarian state sandwiched between the Vernarcan Federation and the Kaegan Sovereignty, Etuernia is largely at the Federation's mercy. Simultaneously under the Federation's protection from the Kaegans and also under embargo due to their universal rights violations, Etuernia lives in a political limbo.

Sardak League

Although the League was formed by parts of the Tyran Free State which were against joining, it maintains amiable if somewhat distant relations with the Federation. The decentralized and heavily democratized nature of the League means that its opinions are liable to turn on a dime with the election of a new party, which is growing increasingly likely as the opposition's isolationist rhetoric strengthens.

Relations Table

KEY
Relationship Status		National Opinion
	Member Nation	▲	Very Positive
	Alliance	▲	Positive
	Guarantee	▣	Neutral
	Close Trading	▣	Little Thought Given
	Military Influence in other Nations	▣	Suspicious
	No Relations	▼	Alarmed
	Open Rivalry	▼	Hostile
	Ongoing War
⠀	⠀	⠀	⠀

Alliances and Positive Relations

Federation Member Nations

Member Nations which are a part of the Federation.

▲ Verdan Federation

▲ Campuran Coalition

▲ Quantan Interstellar Alliance

▲ Delnar Empire

▲ Erdathian Federal Republic

▲ United Earen

▲ Republic of Avor

▲ Vuan Assembly

▲ Perim Union

▲ Kesstra Ascendancy

▲ Tyran Free State

▲ Enolian Coalition

▲ Clans of Azan (Veshar Clan)

▲ Dosi Confederation

▲ Kelinea Confederacy

▲ Unity of Fass Karan

▲ Hesteral Federation

▲ Thistolian Empire

▲ Zahl Order

Guaranteeing

Nations which the Federation is guaranteeing in times of conflict

▲ Talarian Union

▲ Vauratin Empire

▲ Carremmat Ro'kasa

▲ Empire of the Hand

▲ United Planets

▲ New Union of Xeriphas

▲ Evadne Republic

▲ Axastat

▣ Krask Hegemony

▣ Otanian Order

Trade Relations

Trade Relations

Nations which hold major trade relations with the Federation.

▲ Talarian Union

▲ Empire of the Hand

▲ New Union of Xeriphas

▲ Sovereignty of Erorum

▲ Vauratin Empire

▲ Carremmat Ro'kasa

▣ Pelarri Realms

▲ Otanian Order

▣ Verathan Civilization

▲ Xalayin Planetary Alliance

▲ Evadne Republic

▲ Sovereignty of Erorum

▣ Eskra

Military Influence

Nations which hold Federation military assets.

▲ Talarian Union

▲ New Union of Xeriphas

▲ Empire of the Hand

▲ Carremmat Ro'kasa

▲ Vauratin Empire

▣ Imperial Falacian State

▲ Clans of Azan

▣ Evadne Republic

▣ United Alliance

No Full Relations

No Greater Opinion
Nations which the Commonwealth has no greater opinion of.

▣ Roquarri Imperium

▣ Eskra

▣ Alsuran Empire

▣ Communities of Siron and Khoasin

▣ Federate of Varaltin-Zartha

▣ Burumal

▣ First Federation

▣ Various Hider Groups

▣ Karvel Clans

▣ Celeas

▣ Federation of Callurim

▣ Keren Guard

▣ Callurim Ascendancy

▣ United Planets of Garsan-Jal

▣ Amali Union

▣ Nezuran Union

Not included: any other states which the Kareland encountered on its travels, as they are too remote to have regular contact with

Negative and Hostile Relations

Concerned By
Nations whose governments or standing of power may cause issues to the Federation.

▣ Roquarri Imperium

▼ Marakat

▼ Voyorras

▼ Clans of Azan (Clan Siratkar)

▼ Sovereignty of Erorum (Clan Siratkar)

Hostile
Nations which the Commonwealth has unfriendly relations with.

▼ Kaegan Sovereignty

▼ Falacian Dominion

▼ Falacian High Rule

▼ Sovereignty of Erorum (Clan Siratkar)

At War With
Nations which the Commonwealth is waging war against.

▼ The Void (prior to 13.10, 150)

Demographics

While most smaller nations are dominated by a single species, the Vernarcan Federation is at its very nature a multispecies society, with no single race or culture overpowering the others and diversity standing as a paramount cultural value. However, there are still several species who make up the majority of the population, and clear patterns of species distribution exist.

The most major species of the Vernarcan Federation are of course the species which dominate its most major member nations – the Eitri, Tarasze, Alorath, Kuna'uashi, Lrenn, Verna, and Ravoryl together make up ~90% of the population of the Vernarcan Federation, found primarily within the Dosi Confederation, Tyran Free State and Enolian Coalition, Verdan Federation and Perim Union, Campuran Coalition, Erdathian Federal Republic, Delnar Empire, and Quantan Interstellar Alliance respectively.

Due to the widely varying environments required by each species, only some can practically reside in the same physical space. Thus, cultural territories can overlap massively like a splattered painting, with habitats filled with liquid methane residing in the same cloud as those filled with ammonia or water or even hydrogen fluoride. Individuals who enter another species' environment generally don nanotech-based protective gear to prevent contamination in either direction and still allow easy interaction.

There are a great many other species within the Vernarcan Federation who make up much smaller shares of the population. The Falaci, while dominating the coreward end of the Vernarca Nebula, are largely restricted to the area around the Avor and Lekna Systems within the Federation. The Eanai are native to the superterrestrial world Earen, and primarily remain around the Lekna System as well. The Kesstra are beginning to return to the Verda System, but remain in the area of Riojan. The Vilir are found primarily around the Kedr System, and the Bahnags live in the vicinity of Quantis along similar lines to the Ravoryl although they are much less populous by nature. The Azani can also be found in and around the Veshar and Avinna Systems, and populations of other species have also emigrated to Federation space from their homelands for a variety of reasons.

Finally, Federation territory is home to the last survivors of several critically endangered sapient species, including the Saladi, Enolians, Xelhas, Titoalu, Yhroranh, and Nerbahisn.