Intermission: Excerpts from Kexpedia

[Access requested… User authenticating… User identity confirmed.]

[Welcome to the Kexpedia, Sage Constance Rainsford.]

Kextera

Official name: the Kexteran State

Established: [DATA CORRUPTED]

Head of State: Council of Seven

Capital: Anchor 0, Bibliotheca Aeterna

Population: 1.04 million

Government: Councilist Cyber-Democractic council federation under a de facto technocratic oligarchic central government

Politics of Kextera

…The depopulation caused Kextera’s political landscape to change drastically. With the dream of a post-scarcity economy achieved due to prolonged peace and a greatly diminished population, Kexteran households or individuals now live on essentially self-governing and self-sufficient estates that neither pay taxes nor require any involvement from the capital, as local councils are more than capable of solving most issues.

…Only extraordinary issues, such as issues of foreign affairs or the maintenance of shared infrastructure such as the drone courier system, are handled from the capital. Indeed, of the approximately 10,000 Kexterans in public service, only 1% of them work for the Central Government. Given the small number of members, it is customary for Archons to personally lead their subordinates.

…and thus the Kexteran State’s new political order firmly established itself around two parallel institutions: the Council of Seven and the Archivist Institute they lead, serving as the core of the central government; and Councils of Estates which tend to local affairs. While the Institute — and by extension, the Council of Seven — is still composed of members elected by Estate Councils, Estate Councils and the general population have little interest in the affairs of the Central Government; therefore, the Archivists in the central government are appointed de facto.

Archivist Ranks

There are three ranks for Archivists: Scribe, Sage and Archon.

Except Archon which requires an election to the Council of Seven, the other two ranks have similar responsibilities and authority; the distinction was made purely to identify persons in training.

The promotions are made at the Council of Seven’s discretion. The time it takes for a Scribe to become a Sage varies; theoretically the Council can grant someone Sagehood on Day 1. Usually it takes less than 10 years for one to become a Sage.

Earth Federation

Official name: Federation of Nations of Earth

Established: 11 Nov 2161 C.E.

Capital: Singapore, Earth

Motto: Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno

Government: Federal constitutional democratic republic

History of Earth Federation

…After the end of the relatively bloodless Third World War in 2057, in which a country imposed cultural and political hegemony on the entirety of human race for the first time in history, a prolonged period of peace and globalist prosperity followed. Despite that, formal unification was never achieved. Even as space exploration took off in the late 21st Century, each country of Earth remained its own sovereign entity, with the United Nations all but a place of diplomacy for the hegemon and other powerful nations, as the hegemon preferred to keep potential rivals as political pawns.

With the advent of faster-than-light travel, however, the status quo began to break down. Europe colonised the Teegarden’s Star System in 2135 C.E., with India and Australasia following similar feats shortly after. Japan and Korea both established their first colonies around 2140 C.E. The hegemon did not finish its first extrasolar colony until 2155 C.E.; and by that time the power balance and status quo had been broken because of the growth of the hegemon’s rivals.

Furthermore, the colonies had began to grow in power in comparison to Earth, but patchwork colonial administrations meant that colonists suffered a higher de facto tax rate and enjoyed a lower living standard to those who live on Earth, which bred resentment between the colonists and Earthlings. An expert predicted in 2157 C.E. that humanity will either fight another World War between nation-states, or a War of the Worlds between the Metropole (Earth and inner colonies) and the Provinces (outer colonies) in 20 years.

War did come, but not in a way anyone expected. Following the Enterprise Incident, in which the colonists of Enterprise were massacred during the first contact with the first extraterrestrial civilisation — Elves, the First Human-Elven War broke out in late 2160 C.E.

The Elves quickly overran humanity’s outer colonies due to the disparate human defence forces, and began to threaten Earth itself. Thus in desperation, nations of Earth elected to form a new supernational entity — the Earth Federation was born.

… The newly combined Federal forces fought the Elves in the Battle of Sigma Draconis in May 2162, which halted the rapid Elven advance, and the war entered a stalemate. The war would continue with low intensity until the decisive Battle of Sirius in December 2178, in which Federal forces achieved a decisive victory against Elven forces, albeit at a great cost. An armistice was signed soon after, but formal negotiations would continue for almost two more years until the Treaty of Paris was signed on 21 Sep 2180, which resulted in the Federation’s loss of a few now-deserted colonies — including Enterprise itself.