Federation of Mankind

Federation of Mankind
Federation of Mankind flag
Motto	"Unity in Diversity"
Anthem	"Ode of Joy"
Capital	Novaterra
Largest city	Novaterra ecumenopolis
Official languages	English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindu, German, Russian; Planetary governments may recognize additional languages as locally-official based on the native majority
Ethnic groups	Extremely diverse; most ethnicities of Mankind represented
Demonym	Humans (general) various ethnic demonyms in local use Feds (informal; usually used by outsiders) Fedrats (derogatory; used by outsiders and anti-Federation separatists)
Government	Federated parliamentary democracy
Legislature	Senate
Formation	2070
Area	at least 38 000 star systems
Population	at least 1 trillion
HDI	highly variable between worlds
Currency	Federation dollar;
Date format	DD/MM/YYYY

Federation of Mankind is the second-largest galactic power in the universe that it shares with the Imperium of Sidhae and the Skargh Empire. It is a loose federation encompassing the majority of worlds settled by Humanity.

History

Origins

The first vestiges of the Federation of Mankind were formed in the post-Confederate Era spanning the mid-21st century, i.e. 2044-2065. After the fall of the Terran Confederacy and the exodus of Confederate leadership and loyalists who would become ancestors of the Sidhae, Mankind again relapsed back into it's factionalized pre-Confederate state, divided roughly along ethnic and historical nation-state lines.

The Confederate legacy of a large-scale interstellar colonization program, however, remained. With Earth's ecosystems in a rather pitiful state following two world wars that were necessary to attain unification of Humanity, many were keen to set out for a new and more hopeful start among the stars.

In the coming two decades, millions of humans from all around the world would leave Earth to establish extrasolar colonies. Unlike the Confederate exodites, who had to leave in haste without any sort of a colonization plan, the follow-up generations of colonists did have a pretty good idea of where they were heading, dozens of new habitable worlds being discovered by astronomers and deep-space explorers in the years following the fall of Confederacy.

However, political divisions on old Terra again set Mankind on a path to war. Surviving records from this period are scarce, but all indicate a general division between two factions dubbed "Blues" and "Greens" in this period. The Blues argued in favour of a restored Confederacy in a more moderate form, citing the need for a world government to manage the global issues faced by all of Mankind, such as the ecological crisis and depletion of natural resources. The Greens in turn sought to retain the pre-Confederate principles of national sovereignity, an advisory body similar to the defunct UN being the most they were willing to agree on. Still more wanted to have nothing to do with either of the two factions, just to get on with their lives and settle somewhere off-world if necessary.

Whatever the case, the conflict between Blues and Greens eventually polarized Mankind to the point of another World war, known as the Final War in later histories. Realizing that an all-out war was inevitable, the governments of both sides organized an evacuation effort, placing as many of the civilian populations on colony ships bound for the stars as possible. The very last of these colonists would narrowly escape the final showdown of the war in 2065 as Terra was engulfed in a deluge of nuclear fire. With Terra now rendered uninhabitable, the remainder of Mankind had to start anew in the vast reaches of space.

Ironically, the supporters of Blues and Greens among the colonists were now able to strike a compromise in the interest of mutual survival. Assembling on Novaterra, the very first extrasolar colony of Mankind, in 2068, delegates from 13 human worlds struck an agreement to form a unified federal government that would pursue a centralized economic, foreign and military policy while retaining a high degree of local independence otherwise - a solution satisfactory to both Blue and Green sympathizers. It took another two years to resolve all the outstanding legal details and draft a mutually-satisfactory Constitution, until the formation of a Federation of Mankind was formally announced on July 4, 2070.

In the following decade, more than three dozen other human colonies joined the nascent Federation, sometimes less than willingly. Most local governments, however, recognized the benefits of a unified central government and the economic and military advantages it conferred, and hence needed no compulsion to join. In a relatively short span of time, the Federation controlled nearly the entirety of known settlements of Mankind.

Skargh Wars and the War of Terra

In the early 2080's, contact was reestablished with the Confederate exodites, now known as Sidhae. Despite old grudges and mutual animosity, the initial relationship between the two nations remained civil, if cool. It was only in 2098 that an all-out attack by the Skargh forced the two sides in a closer cooperation. After much argument, the Emperor of Sidhae, being the most experienced and accomplished military commander of Humanity alive, was granted supreme command over the armed forces of both sides, inflicting a series of humiliating defeats upon the Skargh, who had expected an easy victory and had no previous experience in battling a technologically-comparable foe. The joint human-Sidh victory in the Skargh Wars marked the high point of human-Sidh relations.

These relations would steadily decline in the coming years, however, as all three established powers began to plot for the retaking of Old Terra. After deep-space scouts had determined that Terra hadn't been completely extinguished of life, and the ecosystems were beginning to make a slow but steady recovery, both the Imperium and the Federation forged plans to retake their original homeworld for themselves, success no doubt providing a huge morale and political boost to whoever succeeded in that goal. This in turn prompted the Skargh to conceive a plan for the conquest of Terra as well, exacting revenge on the Terrans for the defeat in the Skargh Wars by claiming their homeworld for themselves.

The tensions culminated in 2124, when battlefleets of all three sides met in the orbit of Terra, engaging in a heated exchange that was only halted by the intercession of a native Terran leader named Verlock D'Averain. Impressed by his rhetoric, the three powers agreed to a cease-fire, which was later upgraded to a full armistice and the signing of Treaty of Terra.

In Treaty of Terra, all three sides agreed to relinquish their claims on Terra and recognize it as a sovereign neutral world. In truth, with much of Terra's industrial capacity and infrastructure of the past gone, and the population being reduced to a few dozen city-states and nomadic tribes of mutants and scavengers, neither power had much reason besides purely political ones to invest serious resources in claiming Terra for themselves. With the galaxy's economic and political centers having shifted elsewhere, Treaty of Terra essentially enforced Earth's status as a largely-forgotten backwater that it retains to the present day. However, the Treaty of Terra also marked the beginning of an unprecedented age of peaceful development and commerce later known as the Age of Peace.

Age of Peace

With the earlier disputes resolved peacefully, the Federation would turn the entirety of its resources to the pursuit of industry, commerce and peaceful expansion. In the coming century, thousands of worlds were colonized and developed into rapidly-growing settlements. Economy thrived, Humanity attaining thereto-unseen levels of prosperity, when even the lowliest working-class citizens could afford a private house with two cars on the more developed worlds. Culture and art thrived, many cultural masterpieces being created in this period of peace and plenty. Trade with the Imperium and the Skargh likewise flourished.

Yet for all the seeming idyllic peace, there was an invisible war for influence going on. Espionage by all sides was rampant, and all three powers continued to build up their armed forces, ostensibly to maintain the "guarded peace", in an ever-increasing arms race. While never advertised widely, and largely unknown to at least the Federation's citizens, the arms race was a fact to those in the know, no expense being spared to stay competitive at it.

Ideological differences further deepened the divide. While the Skargh, being aliens, were naturally viewed as the likeliest enemies by both Mankind and Sidhae, their own mutual differences grew as well. Sidhae had initially regarded themselves as stewards and protectors of Mankind, destined to protect the rest of Humanity despite their rejection of Sidh ways - a view cemented by the experiences of the Skargh Wars. However, in the post-Skargh War period, the humans made it abundantly clear that they neither desired nor welcomed any such protection, preferring to strike out on their own, more often than not at the expense of Sidh interests. From a human perspective, Sidh efforts to assume the role of protectors were seen as nothing short of patronizing and thinly-veiled attempts of domineering. Further ideological conflicts arose from their drastically-different takes on the desirable government system, with Federation continuing with the established pre-Confederate Western traditions of parliamentary democracy, while the Imperium embraced the starkly-different hybrid system of elective monarchy/stratocracy.

The Federation intelligence services were keenly aware of the ongoing succession disputes in the Imperium after the Emperor of Sidhae announced his intent to retire within the next 10 years in 2230. This prompted the Clans of the Imperium to fiercely compete in hopes of advancing their own candidate as the next Emperor, the competition sometimes going as far as devolving into violent skirmishes. Disgusted by their bickering over a throne that wasn't even vacant yet, the Emperor proposed his own daughter, the future Empress, as a candidate of his own for the throne. His candidacy was technically valid, the Emperor and his personal domain and armies meeting every criteria to legally propose a candidate for the throne save for being formally recognized as a Clan. This in turn sparked a heated argument between the four most powerful Great Clans and a number of lesser client clans, who saw this as the Emperor's renegation on his own laws and an infringement on their privilege to elect a new emperor, and loyalist Clans who supported the Emperor if only to spite their rivals, being unlikely to land their own candidate on the throne in any case.

What happened next is a matter of ongoing historical controversy. Some historians argue that the Federation involved themselves in the dispute over a mistaken belief that the four dissenting Clans intended to make pro-democratic reforms, changing the Imperium's government to something more acceptable to the Federation sensibilities. Others dismiss this, claiming that the Federation authorities were keenly aware of the Sidh clans having no such intentions, and merely supported them to sabotage their long-standing rival and replace the Emperor with someone hopefully more pliable. Whatever the case, Federation intelligence services were instrumental in the conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor as hatched by the four dissident Clans, providing vital intel and materiel for the assassination by means of diplomatic mail. Consequently, the Emperor of Sidhae was assassinated in September 1, 2232, heralding the infamous Age of War.

Age of War

Almost immediately after the Emperor's assassination, the Imperium of Sidhae descended into a maelstrom of civil war, the Loyalist Clans rallying around his daughter whom they recognized as their rightful Empress. After a perilous three-month journey from the Frontier known as the Flight of the Luminon, the Empress assumed throne on New Aedun, the capitol world only being preserved in Loyalist hands through the valiant efforts of the Imperial Guard. In order to prevent the Sidh reunification around her as the Emperor's successor, the Federation authorities would grant full open support to the Traitor Clans. However, as it became evident that the Traitors had no intentions of placing a cooperative, easily-manipulated candidate on the throne, but merely intended to pursue traditional Sidh policies according to their own interpretation of them, Federation pulled their support and instead opted for a full-scale invasion of the Imperium with the intent of either annexing it, or in the very least, effecting a full regime change there.

Keenly aware that they lacked the military power to take on the superior Sidh forces alone, the Federation leaders invited the Skargh in an unholy alliance against the Imperium, enticing them with the promise of revenge and rich spoils. The Skargh, themselves having long looked for an excuse and opportunity to wage war against the Sidhae, gladly accepted the opportunity.

The Sidhae would never forgive Mankind this betrayal, especially after their involvement in the assassination of the Emperor became known. As the war dragged on, all sides committing unspeakable atrocities against one another, Sidh attitudes towards Humanity (and more broadly all non-Sidhae in general) devolved from simple bitterness and ordinary rivalry to a rabid xenophobic hatred.

Despite the successful Imperial reunification after Battle of Kentares in 2245, and the following Sidh victories in Battles of Crodoss VII and Charybdis Rift, Federation-Skargh coalition was making steady gains. In their desperation, the Imperium would develop the ultimate method in attrition tactics - the Omega Protocol, which entailed planned destruction of planets about to be overrun. The tactic proved effective at the cost of 28 destroyed worlds, decimating the human and Skargh forces to the point of stalling the advance. Eventually, the offensive was thwarted entirely in the Battle of Hades Gates, buying the surviving Sidhae time to evacuate their remaining worlds into uncharted space.

While the Sidhae retreated into unexplored space, effectively leaving the war, the extreme casualties and minimal gain led to infighting between human and Skargh commanders, each side blaming the other for the losses and failure at securing strategic objectives. Common bickering soon devolved into violent skirmishes, the alliance eventually collapsing into an all-out war as the two former allies began to battle over the spoils of war. Untold destruction was visited by both sides upon the other, war raging on almost incessantly for two centuries until eventually expiring in an exhausted stalemate, neither side able to secure victory. Both rivals settled down for an unspoken armistice, frequent border skirmishes continuing well into the 2400's, but nowhere near the extent of the wars of previous centuries. In the meantime, Sidhae were all but forgotten, presumed extinct or having left these parts of the galaxy for good.

The overwhelming need to finance and supply the war effort during the Age of War led to the pre-eminence of mega-corporations that formed the Federation's military-industrial complex. During the Age of Peace, various megacorps, some of which had carried on from old Terra, existed but did not really stand above government authority. As their wealth and influence grew during the Age of War, however, mega-corporations oftentimes became essentially synonymous with government especially where it became too costly for the central government to maintain it's authority directly. Consequently, tasks like administration, law enforcement and security were increasingly outsourced to private contractors, many of whom were subsidiaries of megacorps. This eventually led to megacorps attaining equal status to planetary governments in the Federation Senate, having their own senators and private armies rivalling the largest planetary defense forces in size and power.

Reconquest Wars

The first half of the 26th century was the high mark for corporatocracy and political corruption in the Federation. While still formally retaining the trappings of popular democracy, Federal government had essentially become a privately-owned entity, political candidates without the backing of megacorps effectively being reduced to non-entities with only a symbolic authority. Vying for power, the megacorps were locked in a constant struggle, no method including sabotage and assassination being off the book. Although violent struggle was mostly restricted to covert operations, on occasion the private security forces of the megacorps would even clash in episodes of open warfare, lending the first half of the 26th century the name of Corporate War era.

During the Corporate Wars, entire planetary populations were essentially reduced to serfs in all but name, the government policies dictated by corporate interests keeping the majority in perpetual wage slavery. Dissidents were dealt with ruthlessly by corporate security forces or PMCs on their payroll. In reaction to the excesses of corporate rule, many worlds would develop strong nationalist sentiments and rally around nationalist leaders. On quite a few occasions, these leaders would increasingly promote separatist tendencies, regarding the Federation as hopelessly corrupt. The Federal government had to deal with dozens of rebellions and separatist insurgencies at this time.

It was in this condition that the Sidhae found the Federation when they decided to strike back after centuries of rebuilding their empire, and exact a terrible vengeance for all past betrayals and grievances.

Although intelligence reports had warned of Sidh activity in the outer regions of the Federation for over 2 years, the authorities had paid them little heed, dismissing them as little more than pirates using derelict Sidh ships from the Age of War era. Consequently, the bulk of Sidh invasion fleets arrived at the outskirts of the Federation entirely unchallenged in 2549. Commencing on September 1, the anniversary of the Emperor's death, the invasion simultaneously struck over 50 star systems. Most of them fell within a week, the invasion progressing at such a pace that local authorities were still arguing on what to make of the received distress calls reporting a massive invasion when they were overwhelmed by Sidh invaders themselves, unable to relay the information further. In the initial shock, the Federal authorities tried to cover up the extent of the invasion to avoid mass panic. Over 500 star systems had fallen by the end of the year before the Federation government formally acknowledged the Sidh invasion.

The ineffectiveness and indecisiveness of the corporate-run government sparked a revival in Federation politics, a new generation of non-corporate politicians being elected into power and passing legislation that considerably curbed the corporate power. However, it took almost a decade and the loss of over 5000 worlds before the Federation was able to halt the onslaught of the Sidh juggernaut. Driven by a thirst of revenge, Sidhae would commit unspeakable atrocities upon the conquered human and Skargh worlds, wholesale slaughter of entire planetary populations being enacted at the slightest provocation. For the Federation, matters were complicated by the centuries-old fear and distrust of the Skargh who were expected to take advantage of the distraction provided to the Fed armed forces by the Sidhae, even as they themselves were faced with the same threat.

After a brief lull to regroup and rearm around 2560, the Sidhae continued their offensive, but this time, the Federation was able to counter them more effectively, having upgraded their forces and tactics during the brief lull in the fighting. From 2575, the war was largely reduced to a stalemate, Sidh forces making only minimal gains and even losing ground on occasion, other disputed locations changing hands dozens of times with no decisive result.

The Reconquest Wars eventually ground to a halt in 2583, shortly after the infamous Purge of Pnakotas, the Sidh suppression of a pro-Fed rebellion on the conquered human world of Pnakotas that saw the extermination of 250 million civilians, essentially the entire population of Pnakotas. Despite the outrage it caused, the Federation military was simply in no condition to wage further offensive war, human diplomats hence resorting to attempting an alliance of convenience with the Skargh. Faced with the prospect of a human-Skargh coalition, Sidhae too ceased further offensive operations, the war pewtering out to minor skirmishes without any of the sides attempting further major offensive actions.

Present day

As of the present day, the Federation continues to maintain a bitter feud with the Imperium and the Skargh. Despite incessant border skirmishes and tens of millions of casualties yearly, the seemingly-perpetual war has effectively ground down to a stalemate once again, neither side willing to risk escalating it to another Age of War by mounting a major offensive. Informal agreements exist among all three belligerents that should one power attempt a wholesale destruction of another, the other belligerent would rush to the defender's aid. Matters are further complicated by the fact that all three nations are powerful enough to fight off even the combined efforts of the other two, albeit at a terrible cost, there being no victors in such a scenario where the surviving remnants of the warring nations would collapse in on themselves afterwards. This essentially sets the stage for the ongoing perpetual war between Mankind, Sidhae and the Skargh.

Overview

Despite being named so, the Federation of Mankind is more of a confederacy of semi-independent human worlds than a true federation. While the planets of the Federation pursue a joint economic, military and foreign policy and have agreed to adopt certain federal laws, member worlds are otherwise largely independent from the central authority. Consequently, local forms of government vary dramatically, ranging from direct democracies to hereditary monarchies and military dictatorships. While a formal requirement exists for member worlds to have a democratic form of government, it is little more than a legal technicality, non-democratic planetary governments have found plenty of ways to bypass the law, such as by maintaining nominal trappings of democracy.

Ideologically, the Federation is comparably diverse, with ideologies ranging from social liberalism to hardcore Stalinist communism, with everything including Fascism in between. Although the overall ideological tone of the Federal government can be described as market liberal, it is hardly a universal trend, predominating mainly on the core worlds. Things are furthermore complicated by the eminence of megacorporations, which shun any ideological affiliations and are merely interested in maximizing their profits.

Generally speaking, the diverse peoples of the Federation have little if anything in common politically and ideologically besides the common desire to survive against the alien menace, and it is largely this threat that keeps the Federation from falling apart, there being ample grim examples of worlds who decided to strike out on their own only to end up swallowed whole by Mankind's enemies.