Chapter 16: Contention

Figure 1: State of the Galaxy at the Signing of the Treaty of Mimban:

Part 1: A Contention of Time

The sixteenth and final chapter of this chronology concerns the current galactic epoch: the Contention Period. Owing to the contemporary nature of the era, its official designation remains the subject of considerable debate among historians, academic institutions, and the governments of the successor states themselves. Among the more prominent alternatives is the term Warring States Period, first popularised in Wottlet Scarsir's widely acclaimed Historia Galactica.

Given the ongoing historiographical dispute surrounding the nomenclature of the present age, the opening section of this chapter will concern itself primarily with explaining this chronology's adoption of the term Contention Period over Warring States Period and other commonly proposed designations.

To understand this debate, it is first necessary to examine how galactic epochs traditionally acquire their names. More fundamentally, one must ask at what point the galaxy collectively recognises that it has entered a new historical era. In most cases, epochal divisions are formalised centuries, if not millennia, after the events themselves, allowing historians the benefit of distance and comparative perspective. Only through such detachment can broad historical developments be categorised with any degree of objectivity.

The clearest examples of this practice are the millennial epochal divisions of the Rianitus, Subterra, and Manderon Periods, all of which were defined long after their respective eras had concluded.

On rarer occasions, however, events of such extraordinary magnitude occur that contemporaries themselves become aware they are witnessing the close of one age and the beginning of another. This phenomenon was observed only a single epoch prior to our own, when the Ruusan Reformations heralded the beginning of what would later become known as the Great Peace of the Republic.

Herein lies the second aspect of the debate. Even when historians recognise the emergence of a new epoch in real time, by what authority can they presume to name it without the benefit of hindsight? For this reason, contemporary chroniclers of the Ruusan Reformations initially employed the tentative designation Ruusan Period, named simply for the event that precipitated it. Only centuries later, once the extraordinary absence of large-scale galactic conflict had become apparent, did the era acquire the title by which it is now universally remembered: the Great Peace of the Republic.

Likewise, virtually all recognised academic bodies today agree that the Great Peace effectively ended in the year 13 GrS with the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, also known as the Clone Wars. In the years following the Treaty of Mimban, numerous independent historians and institutions sought to define the era that followed, only to encounter the same dilemma that had confronted their predecessors millennia earlier: how does one name an epoch whose ultimate character remains unknowable to those living within it?

It was during this period of uncertainty that Wottlet Scarsir, in Volume 71 of his widely acclaimed Historia Galactica, first coined the name Warring States Period. This designation, alongside other contemporary labels such as the Shattering, the Anarchy, and the Galactic Struggle, gained considerable popularity during the immediate post-Mimban years.

Scarsir's terminology, however, reflected the prevailing pessimism of the age in which it was coined. To him, and to countless citizens across the galaxy, an uninterrupted volume of galactic history had ended in apparent catastrophe. Through fifteen epochs and twenty-five millennia, the Galactic Republic had stood as the sole hegemon of the galaxy. Though challenged at various times by powers such as Xim the Despot, Mandalore, Zakuul, and the Sith Empires, history had consistently reaffirmed the Republic's permanence. Rival powers rose and fell, and the Republic remained.

This continuity had become so deeply embedded within galactic civilization that the existence of a politically unified galaxy under the banner of the Republic came to be viewed as an historical constant, even the natural state of galactic civilization.

For the first time since recorded galactic history began, the Galactic Republic had ceased to exist as a singular governing entity. As various successor states fought over its crumbling remains, it was hardly unreasonable for contemporaries to believe they had entered an era defined primarily by endemic warfare, unstable alliances, and widespread societal collapse.

And in a sense, that was not wholly incorrect.

Yet as the years passed and the initial upheavals of the post-Republic era subsided, the galaxy gradually settled into a new astropolitical equilibrium. Conflict remained endemic, but with the emergence of durable states, regional powers, and increasingly formalised diplomatic systems. The condition of the galaxy evolved beyond the implications of the term Warring States Period, which, while perhaps appropriate during the immediate aftermath of Mimban, grew progressively less accurate with time.

With the advantage of retrospection, this chronology therefore adopts the term Contention Period as the more precise descriptor for the present epoch: an era characterised not solely by open warfare, but by continuous political, military, economic, and ideological competition among the successor powers of the former Republic.

It must nevertheless be acknowledged that all epochal terminology remains inherently provisional. Historians writing a thousand years hence may well regard our chosen designation with the same inadequacy we now perceive in the earliest attempts to define our own age.

For the present, however, it remains the most suitable term available to us.Part 2: One Empire and Three Republics

The One Empire and Three Republics Period is the current era of political upheaval and division within the Galactic Interior since 16 GrS. Toward the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Senate of the Galactic Republic granted increasingly expansive executive powers to the incumbent Supreme Chancellor, Sheev Palpatine. Mounting war exhaustion and growing institutional distrust culminated in the publication of the Gallian Manifesto, a widely circulated political treatise condemning the Palpatine administration and the Senate's management of the Galactic Civil War, calling for a return to free democracy and the "Restoration of the Republic."

In the succeeding weeks, the Alliance to Restore the Republic publicly claimed authorship over the Gallian Manifesto, precipitating the secession of over a dozen sectors from the Coruscanti regime. This included Core Founders such as Alderaan, Chandrila, Corellia, Duro, and Humbarine, with roughly a third of the Core Worlds seceding with them concentrated in Arrowhead and Corellian Run. Collectively, these sectors proclaimed themselves the legitimate continuation of the Galactic Republic in opposition to the Coruscanti government. Henceforth, this polity became known variously as the Restorationist Republic or the Secessionist Republic. It is also referred to as the Chandrilan Republic, even despite Chandrila's eventual fall to the Loyalists, owing to the prominence of its founder, former Chandrilan senator Mon Mothma, who has served as Chancellor since the state's formation.

The Restorationist secession was soon followed by the withdrawal of the Tapani Federation. Long resentful of increasing Coruscanti overreach and bureaucratic and military centralisation in the northern Core, the Tapani Noble Houses exploited the upheaval to formalise their autonomy. Unlike both northern republics whose respective governments continued to claim legitimacy over the former Galactic Republic in its entirety, the Tapani Federation pursued no broader reunificationist ambitions and instead focused on consolidating its hold over the Freeworlds of the Southern Core. Although formally organised as a republic, political participation within the Federation remained historically restricted to the hereditary aristocracy of the Tapani Sector and the members of the Great Council, which elected the office of Prime Minister. Originally, the Freeworlds were denied any meaningful role in the government, but recent internal pressure and unrest compelled the Tapani Noble Houses to expand suffrage and representation beyond the traditional aristocratic class.

Despite the major secessions, the remaining Galactic Republic retained extensive territory and considerable institutional continuity. Half of the Core Worlds remained loyal to Coruscant, together with the overwhelming majority of the Northern Dependencies and New Territories in the Inner Rim, Expansion Regions, and Mid Rim. This Loyalist Republic, as it is known as, continues to assert legal and astrographical claims over the entirety of the former Galactic Republic and regards itself as the sole legitimate galactic government. While nominally retaining the constitutional framework of the pre-war Republic, the Loyalist state has become increasingly associated with the prolonged rule of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who has repeatedly declared his intention to remain in office until "the Republic is restored to its former glory." Such declarations have placed the Loyalists in direct ideological and territorial opposition not only to the Restorationists–whose own government claims identical legitimacy–but also to the wider constellation of successor powers throughout the galaxy.

In the Deep Core rules the Empire of the Deep Core, or the Tetan Monarchy, a hereditary monarchy with an unbroken lineage dating back over five thousand years. During the Galactic Civil War, the ascension of Empress Eara Lota marked a decisive shift in imperial foreign policy. Seeking to escape Coruscanti domination, the Empire entered into a clandestine alliance with the Confederacy of Independent Systems. In exchange for rebelling against the Republic, the Confederacy provided the Tetan state with military advisors, industrial materiel, armaments, and logistical support. Facing rival states vastly superior in population, industry, and territorial scale, the Empire subsequently adopted a defensive strategic doctrine centred upon heavily fortified hyperlane chokepoints, hidden Deep Core routes, and a comparatively small yet highly disciplined military establishment trained according to Confederate doctrine.

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Relations among the four major powers of the Galactic Interior have since been characterised by intermittent warfare, fluid allegiances, and shifting balances of power. Although the stated political objectives of both the Loyalist and Restorationist governments remain fundamentally irreconcilable with the continued existence of rival successor states, ideological hostility has not prevented temporary alliances of convenience. Since the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War, each of the four powers has acted, intentionally or otherwise, as a counterweight against the ambitions of the others, resulting in a precarious equilibrium sustained through strategic opportunism. At various points throughout this period, the Confederacy of Independent Systems has also intervened in Interior affairs, typically in pursuit of maintaining division among the former Republic territories.Part 3: Expansion in the Outer Rim

The Confederacy of Independent Systems emerged from the Galactic Civil War as the single most powerful galactic polity, spanning much of the Mid and Outer Rim. Having secured the majority of its wartime objectives through the Treaty of Mimban–primarily the formal secession from the Galactic Republic–many contemporary observers regarded the Confederacy as the galaxy's inevitable new superpower. Possessing the largest standing military in existence, an ideologically energised populace, and immense territorial depth, it was widely feared that the Confederacy would soon continue its Coreward campaign within years.

Such expectations ultimately proved premature.

The brief post-war honeymoon that followed Confederate Victory quickly gave way to extreme internal instability. The doctrine of Separatism, while highly effective as a revolutionary and wartime ideology, proved insufficient as a unifying principle for governance once its central objective–the defeat of the Galactic Republic–had been achieved. Unlike the rigid ideological systems employed by many historical states, Separatism had never demanded political, economic, or cultural uniformity among its adherents. Its sole prerequisite had been opposition to Core rule and support for secession from the Republic.

As a consequence, the post-war Confederacy inherited an exceptionally heterogeneous political landscape composed of competing alien species, incompatible economic and political ideologies, rival regional identities, and sharply divergent visions for the future of the state itself. Exacerbated by the schism between the Raxus Government and the Serenno Government, the immediate years following the Treaty of Mimban left the central administration paralysed.

It is out of this instability emerged the so-called Triumvirate Government, an informal balance of power between three dominant blocs; a powerful military caste in the Confederate Armed Forces, the megacorporate monopolies, and the civilian bureaucratic elite of Parliament. Bereft of inherited institutions from the Galactic Republic, the constant uphill challenge of constructing an entirely new state apparatus while simultaneously mediating the conflicting interests of the triumvirs led many contemporary analysts to believe there existed a genuine possibility that the Confederacy would fragment before it could fully consolidate its victory.

It was at this critical juncture that one member of the Triumvirate moved decisively to break the deadlock.

In 17 GrS, General Sev'rance Tann, Supreme Commander of the Confederate Armed Forces and Grand Marshal of the Armies of the Outer Rim, delivered an ultimatum before the Confederate Parliament. Unless a new unifying national doctrine could be established, Tann warned, the Confederate Armed Forces would be compelled to take "drastic measures" to preserve the integrity of the state. Widely interpreted as an implicit threat of military intervention, the declaration nevertheless succeeded in forcing unprecedented cooperation between the triumvir factions, culminating in the adoption of the National Unification Doctrine, more commonly abbreviated as the Nat-U Doctrine.

To this day, the Nat-U Doctrine is regarded by many historians as among the most consequential legislative and ideological developments in modern galactic history, and arguably the direct catalyst for the rise of the contemporary Confederate superpower. Rather than pursuing immediate confrontation with the fractured successor states of the former Republic, as many within the galaxy had anticipated, the Doctrine abandoned the fragile wartime rhetoric of 'common enemy' that had characterised classical Separatism. In its place, it emphasised the necessity of a permanent 'national mission' intended to provide the Confederacy with a long-term unifying purpose beyond mere resistance to the Interior.

Thus began the Expansion Period in the Outer Rim.

In 18 GrS, with the support of the Confederate Armed Forces, Parliament ratified the Anti-Slavery Act, formally condemning and outlawing all forms of slavery within Confederate territory, including indentured servitude and debt bondage. The legislation proved immensely popular among the Confederate public and rapidly became one of the defining political initiatives of the early Nat-U era. Enforcement actions carried out by the military, however, inflicted severe economic losses upon numerous megacorporations operating throughout the Rim, many of which had relied extensively upon exploitative labour systems. Forced to emancipate indentured workforces and rapidly expand paid employment, the corporations soon demanded substantial compensation from the state.

The military leadership responded by proposing the opening of new prospection and settlement zones within the unclaimed territories of the Outer Rim. Simultaneously, buoyed by the political success of the Anti-Slavery Act, the bureaucratic triumvirs successfully expanded the scope of the legislation itself: from prohibiting slavery "within the Confederate territory" to opposing slavery "throughout the Outer Rim" as a whole.

An ultimatum was subsequently delivered to the Zygerrian Slaver Empire in the Trans-Hydian frontier demanding the immediate abolition of slavery. At the insistence of Zygerrian Prime Minister Atai Molec, the ultimatum was rejected.

Within days, the Confederate Second Fleet Group under Admiral Trench entered the Trans-Hydian in force, followed closely by tens of thousands of prospecting, industrial, construction, and colonial vessels operated by the corporate triumvirs. According to later accounts, Queen Miraj Scintel of Zygerria, upon witnessing the arrival of the Confederate fleet in orbit, ordered the execution of her Prime Minister, Atai Molec, before immediately offering unconditional surrender to Admiral Trench.

The Confederacy did not stop at the abolition of slavery in the Trans-Hydian. Hundreds of previously independent worlds were subsequently colonised or incorporated into Confederate administration, and eight new sectors were formally integrated into the state. This campaign became known as the First Expansion, or the First Anti-Slavery Crusade.

This cycle of ideological self-justification and territorial expansion would become the defining mechanism of the Nat-U Doctrine, with half a dozen subsequent expansion campaigns following in rapid succession.

The Second Expansion, also known as the Second Anti-Slavery Crusade, brought the Confederacy into direct conflict with its principal rival power in the Outer Rim: Hutt Space. The campaign concluded with the annexation of large portions of the western marches previously dominated by the Hutt clans. The Third Expansion witnessed the reactivation of the Confederate First Fleet Group, whose inaugural campaign focused upon reclaiming the Hydian Way from the long-estranged Serenno Government. During the Fourth Expansion, the Third and Fourth Fleet Groups advanced deep into the Trailing Sectors, eliminating remaining Republic holdouts while expanding into extensive tracts of unclaimed and independent space in the Outer Rim.

Following the precedent established during the First Expansion, each subsequent campaign was framed not merely as a military operation, but as a grand 'national project.' The Nat-U Doctrine effectively harnessed the collective power of all three triumvir factions–the military, the corporations, and the bureaucratic apparatus–toward a singular expansionist mission intended to unify the disparate peoples of the Confederacy through shared purpose and perpetual mobilisation.

Successive parliamentary incentive programs encouraging economic investment in developing member-states, coupled with the ever-growing material demands of the Confederate Armed Forces, propelled the Outer Rim into an era of unprecedented industrialisation, infrastructural expansion, and demographic migration. Vast military-industrial conglomerates and megacorporate enterprises became the primary architects of this transformation, reshaping entire sectors through colonisation, resource extraction, and strategic development.

The Confederacy of Independent Systems remains the preeminent power of the Outer Rim, its economy and political order increasingly dependent upon continuous expansion and the maintenance of the National Mission. Its relentless pursuit of 'national unification' has repeatedly brought it into conflict with rival powers such as the Hutt Cartels, the Three Republics of the Galactic Interior, and numerous independent frontier polities. Yet despite periodic military setbacks and mounting criticism abroad, the Nat-U Doctrine continues to command broad domestic legitimacy within Confederate society, and has become inseparable from the very identity of the modern Separatist state. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Figure 2: State of the Galaxy in the Year ██ GrS: