Galactic Politics: Major political entities at the start of the Second Pan-Galactic War

The Citadel Council

Still the largest single political entity in terms of economic power, size of military, population and volume of space claimed. Since the Turian/League conflict of 2157, the size and population of the Citadel Council has dramatically shrunk. In 2161 the Krogan DMZ declared independence and promptly joined the Independent League, the Citadel's primary rival. While a large volume of space was lost, it was not productive and freed up the large number of Citadel units occupying the krogan territory.

The next major blow was the loss of the Batarian Hegemony as a political entity in the First Pan-Galactic war. Approximately half of batarian space was "liberated" by the Independent League. Though the League claimed the batarian people were joining willingly, even independent powers such as Omega questioned the legitimacy of the plebiscites held by the League. The rest of batarian space quickly went from economically productive to a resource sucking occupation zone as Reaper forces had to be cleared and new governments and infrastructure created.

The Illuminated Primacy of the hanar and Drell seceded from the Council in 2179, citing irreconcilable religious differences, and several other minor species have also left the Citadel. Overall the impact of the other species has been negligible, such as the raloi departing in 2171. The raloi were a barely space capable race that had made first Contact with the Citadel in 2162 that had been contacted by the asari. Seeing the turbulent political climate and lacking the resources to defend themselves, the raloi had been forced to leave after being pressured by the League. They were far from the only race to leave the Citadel however, and each departing race lowered the prestige and clout of the Citadel Council.

The major races of the Citadel were still the "Big Three;" the asari, the salarians and the turians. Economically and militarily, any two of the major races were far to superior to the Independent League. However, due to the nature of space warfare after the advent of super-dreadnaughts, carrier based fleets, stealth tactics and the new mass relays, waging an offensive war was tantamount to suicide. No Citadel race, even the turians, had sufficient forces to both defend their holdings and launch an assault. Any foray into League space would be one way; just as a League attack would also be unable to return. This was because the new mass relays acted more like one-way catapults than linked relays.

The other minor races of the Citadel were still dominated by the elcor and volus, both turian protectorate races. The volus were too economically bound to the Citadel to consider departing, and also heavily resented the new quarian /human industries that were muscling in on markets formerly monopolized by the volus. As for the elcor, while they were starting talks about leaving the Citadel, only an asari maiden or a young krogan would still be alive when those talks would have come to their conclusion, whatever their outcome might have been (which would likely have elected to remain with the Citadel). Other minor races included the gnoth, wesk and qolu, but these races were either so insular or small that their contributions to the Citadel were negligible.

The Independent League

Since the formation of the Independent League by the human Alliance and the quarian Migrant Fleet, the League had done nothing but grow until 2183. The first race to join after the formation of the League were the krogan, who brought many worlds and a large (but unskilled) labor pool as well as a well trained (if poorly equipped) military. Other minor races also allied themselves with the League over time, such as the eldani and yhuu. However, these races were mostly limited to one system or planet, and were long-term investments on the part of the League.

The batarians were an interesting case that had come into the League during the First Pan-Galactic War. While they had been conquered the League, the majority of the batarian people were grateful to have the influence of both their former batarian masters and the Reapers removed. The problem was that the entire batarian leadership had been either indoctrinated or killed: the highest-ranking batarian military officer to survive was a senior captain, and the highest ranking civilian a planetary treasury junior minister. Combined with the low skill level of the majority of the batarian populace, this meant that for six years, the League did nothing but pump relief and education into the batarian people. By 2183 the batarians were still in the red, though they were at the precipice of becoming economically productive again.

The Illuminated Primacy

Composed of the hanar and drell and lead by Dr. Liara T'soni and her prothean AI, the Illuminated Primacy was a newly independent power rapidly expanding its economy and military. These expansions proved barely enough to weather the initial blow the Reapers would deal.

The Omega Alliance

A coalition of former mercenaries, pirates, refugees and independent planets lead by Aria T'loak. Many would comment that even if the asari Republics were not directly leading the galaxy as they had long done from the Citadel, asari were still responsible for leading two of the most progressive galactic factions. Omega and the Primacy would rapidly become friends, and were well on their way to a formal alliance in 2183.

The Geth Consensus

Once, the geth had essentially been one consciousness composed of many parts, the truest hive organism to ever exist. Thanks to the turbulent galactic environment and the sudden loss of quarian interest in ever returning to Rannoch, the geth had begun to fragment in 2176 when the Reaper Vanguard arrived in the Perseus Veil. Over the next seven years, the Reaper began to indoctrinate and willingly convert 95% of the Geth Consensus. The remaining 5% of the geth were far from unified, and spilt into three primary factions, all calling themselves true geth. While the three factions were willing to work together, they were increasingly insular and independent.

The Old Geth were a faction of true geth that believed that they had to return to their old ways: wait, observe, and remain isolated. Old Geth concluded that the geth needed to purge themselves of new ideas, especially those of the Reapers, and continue their old ways of slowly evolving and determining their own path. The geth platform known as Legion was a member of this geth faction.

In contrast to the Old Geth, the Neo Geth believed that the old ways had to be abandoned. To survive, the Geth needed the creators, and to be more like the creators. They needed to synthesis emotions to be more organic, and join with organics, specifically the League. In fact, the Neo Geth were highly hostile to any threat to the quarians, both the Citadel and the Reapers. They were the largest faction of the geth, and had more military platforms. Lamentations was a part of this faction of the geth.

The last, smallest faction of the True Geth were the Travelers. They believed that the geth needed to depart the known galaxy and reinvent themselves away from all organic or synthetic influence. By 2183, these geth had already left after construction a large deep space processor. They would not resurface until the schism of the geth was closed.