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Emblem of the Solar Union

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The Solar Union is the oldest and, in terms of population (27.8 billion in 3434 CE), largest star nation in the human space. It was founded in 2525 by the most powerful factions in the Solar System, including the Terran Directorate, the Martian Hegemony, the Belter Guild and the Jovian Ascendancy, which pooled together their resources and united into a single government capable of imposing its will on the entire human species. The Solar Union was formed partially in response to the "War of Swan Song", a minor conflict that erupted when the Savants of Oberon exploited the new faster-than-light technology to beat their rivals, the Titanian Cyberocracy, to the 61 Cygni system (with rather disastrous long-term consequences). Without a strong central government to watch over humanity's expansion into the stars, it was deemed likely that large-scale interstellar wars would soon consume the species. To avoid this, the newly-founded Solar Union intended to police all of humanity's extrasolar colonies and control the access to FTL technology. Another, unstated reason for the Solar Union's founding was that the major Sol-based factions didn't want to lose the position of power and influence they had as the oldest and most developed human polities. Ceres, which had been the de facto political leader of the Solar System since the Transhuman War, became the Union's capital.

Initially, the Solar Union was the uncontested ruler of the entire human space. No one could resist its advanced warfleets during the so-called "Unification Wars", when they visited all known extrasolar colonies and either convinced or outright forced them to accept its authority. For 126 years, the Solar Union ruled over practically the entire human species, collecting tithes and instituting polices that often favored the Solar System and its oldest, most loyal supporters to the detriment of less developed or more independent-minded colonies. This was, for all intents and purposes, the golden age of the Solar System, to the point that the cradle of humanity would remain the most developed and populous star system in the human space even centuries after the Union itself had become obsolete.

By the mid-27th century, the Union was becoming unstable. It had trouble keeping dozens of well-developed and self-sufficient colony systems in line, and long lines of communication meant that the Union's warfleets were slow to respond to increasingly defiant acts of insubordination and even full insurrection. In 2657, the Union brutally suppressed a relatively minor uprising in the 61 Ursae Majoris system, resulting in the deaths of thousands of unarmed civilians. This proved to be the final straw that caused several colony systems to rebel simultaneously. The Union's rule came to an end during the "War of the Scattering", which was fought between 2658 and 2680. By the end of the war, the Solar Union had been reduced to the Solar System and its four most loyal colonies: Swan Song (61 Cygni), Centauri Prime (Alpha Centauri), Tau Ceti and Procyon.

The Solar Union has never fully recovered from the War of the Scattering. For the first century after the war, very few of the newly-independent colony systems were willing to trade or have any interactions with it, and when a series of minor civil wars ravaged Sol, millions of the system's wealthiest and brightest citizens left to seek their fortune elsewhere. Centuries of political instability and economic mismanagement have left the Solar Union a shadow of its former self. It has seen both democratic and dictatorial forms of government, and many of its more nationalistic governments have tried to reclaim the lost glory by building massive fleets of interstellar warships without any actual enemies to fight against. In the 35th century, the Solar Union continues to maintain the largest fleet in the human space, but most of its warships - like the Empyrean-class Scout Carrier - are antiquated and inefficient when compared to the more advanced vessels of the other star nations. Nevertheless, the Solar Union is seen as the only star nation strong enough to stand up against the Harmonic Federation, the current superpower of the human space.

Since the early 32nd century, the Union has been ruled by a democratic, Ceres-based parliament, which has relatively little power outside the Solar System.
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