History
The Planetary League was the successor organization to the United Nations, founded in the year 2***, by the Treaty of Kepler. The founding members of the Planetary League were Earth, Mars Venus and the Moon. The Planetary League was a democratic body representing most of the inhabitants of human-dominated space, including hundreds of alien species encountered during the diaspora. Even some of the more complex robots were allowed a limited form of citizenship.
In its earliest form, the Planetary League was a loose federation of nearly independent colonies. This was a technical necessity because the vast distances between planets and star systems took a prohibitively long time to traverse or even to communicate across. This changed in GSC 135 when scientists in the Planetary League unlocked the secret of spatial compression technology. After that point, a stronger central government was formed, and each of the original colonies held a referendum on the new government. Most opted to remain in the Planetary League, but there were also many that left.
The Planetary League quickly became the most technically advanced nation in the galaxy, and its citizens enjoyed one of the highest standards of living. The Planetary League was an inherently open society dedicated to exploring the universe, learning its secrets, and peacefully co-existing with the other life forms it encountered.
After the government was fully formed, the Planetary League was governed by a President, a unicameral Senate consisting of delegations of three representatives plus some additional number based on population from each member planet, and a supreme court which consisted of fifteen judges, five of whom were randomly selected to hear each case.
Throughout Era-1, the Planetary League encountered various life-forms and cultures, including the states that broke away from the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns. The Planetary League started out with a policy of leaving planets with intelligent life alone to develop on their own. This was known as the non-interference doctrine. During the First Convergence War, the Alien Assistance Act was passed, allowing the League to help aliens in need, and creating the Alien Assistance Agency. Many of these planets peacefully joined the Planetary League, while many others remained independent. Wars were rare, and tended to be small in scale.
The Planetary League started as a very idealistic, forward-looking institution, but as time went by, it gradually compromised its original principles. As Era-1 reached its midpoint, the Planetary League started to become corrupt. Monied interests and lobbying groups slowly amassed power behind the scenes, and public officials gradually gave in to temptation and bribery. By the end of Era-1, the Planetary League was barely recognizable as the institution that it started out as.
When the Planetary League finally made contact with the E1MS in GSC 938, it was partially this corruption, (in addition to the perceived menace of an enormous alien empire), that the people reacted against when the Holy Empire of Man rose up in the Great Reckoning. That war was fairly brief, since long years of peace had left the Planetary League unprepared to face a well-armed enemy intent on its destruction.
The broken remnants of the Planetary League fled to the outer rim of the galaxy, where they formed the original basis of the Galactic Republic.
Planetary League Organizations
The Department of Artificial Justice (DAJ) was a law-enforcement agency centered on the crimes of robots and AI.
The Planetary League Alien Assistance Agency (PLAAA) is the Planetary League’s outreach arm to alien civilizations, especially those undergoing any kind of humanitarian crisis.
The Planetary League Astrophysical Survey (PLAS) is the organization responsible for scouting and exploration of unknown regions and worlds.
The Planetary League Interstellar Navy (PLIN) is the Planetary League’s main military force.
The Tardigrades are dedicated to search and rescue, as well as disaster recovery.
