The Empire
The empire was founded long ago when the Sol Consortium was losing power. In these desperate times people were looking for a leader, someone to follow. They found such a man. Arthur Bellèc was born on the planet Thalassa in the Telchines system. It soon became clear to his parents that he was capable of accomplishing great thing. He was a cunning, smart and charismatic man. when he was 18 he was working at a local factory. This factory was suffering heavy losses because of the economical downturn cost by the scale down of the Sol Consortium. Arthur managed to unite the factory's workers and enabled the factory to make profits again. It became clear that Arthur was leadership material. Soon the hole planet and after that the whole system followed Arthur. He was to lead the people of the Telchines system into a new golden age.
He kept working hard for his people and he gained more influence over time. When Arthur reached the age of 58 he was named Emperor of Thalassa. Now also happily married and father of 2 sons and a daughter, more and more systems wanted to join the Empire of Thalassa. At age 96 Arthur died and his eldest son took over. The expansion rate slowed down but the people loved their new emperor as well. Eventually, after a few more generations, the imperial expansion came to an end. All were happy within the Empire until emperor Astor Bellèc and his wife were killed in a terrible accident. The Bellèc bloodline had come to an end. A new emperor was chosen, Astor's friend Peter Bellrose. Under his reign the empire's happiness was over. Bellrose was power hungry and started a war against the free systems, hoping to rule all of mankind. Some support him, some just say they do. Those that don't are imprisoned. Never before had the empire been so divided. Humanity went into a dark age.
But there are rumours that the true heir to the throne Alysia Bellèc did not die in the accident and that one day she will return to reclaim the throne.
The Free Systems
These systems to the south are ruled by independent kings, presidents en emperors. None of them control more than three systems at a time. Some of these systems are thriving, whilst others are in anarchy. After the Empire attacked almost all the free systems realized that they could not withstand such a superpower alone. A council was gathered with representatives of all free systems. They elected a war council that had full authority over 80 percent of all ships and soldiers of a system. It was a succes. The free systems could now almost match the great numbers of the empire and they managed to stop imperial expansion. The war continued but victories were only small.
The Sol Consortium
After many failed attempts by governments and independent enterprises the people of earth realized that large scale space travel could never succeed if the human race remained devided. This realisation resulted in the birth of the Sol Consortium. It was a great success. The combined efforts and knowledge of many scientists from all corners of the globe, resulted in a major milestone. Within one year after the birth of the Sol Consortium the first man walked on Mars and a permanent research base was founded on the moon. Soon after this the first human colony was established on Mars. Then the breakthroughs came to a stop. Several decades past until man developed hyperspace travel. With this technology the way forward was open. Dozens of colonies popped up outside the Sol system and humanity was lead into a golden age.
Unfortunately, this did not last. Humanity slowly returned to its old habits and became devided once again on a galaxy wide scale. The Sol Consortium survived, but today only Sol and a few systems around it are still under control of the Sol Consortium.
Even though the Sol Consortium is small and relatively power less, it is well respected because it is considered the mother of the modern day. All that is would not have been without the Sol Consortium.
The Concord
Formed many years ago after a great war. A war between the Velcoon and Roavi. There is not much information about this war stored in the archives on Earth. All we know is that during this war both the alien races came to respect each other. They saw an opportunity. The Velcoon needed scientific minds as the Roavi needed protection, a warfleet. And thus the Concord was born. Today the Concord's influence is spread wide and they are respected and feared at the same time.
Relationships between the Concord and humanity are fragile. The Empire sees the Concord as rivals. Whilst the Sol Consortium sees a potential ally and the free systems only care about the Concord when they can gain something from it.