Galactic Territories as of Current Date
First thing that would be prudent to do is accept the fact that the unified state of the galaxy during the Reaper War did not endure. In fact, the goodwill that was created between species during fighting together was easily undone by ideological differences, and of course, political ambitions. One thing the galactic politicians and diplomats failed to realize is that, the post-war galaxy was different than the previous one. The war changed the seats of power, old alliances were shattered and new ones have been forged.
Right after the war, there was a series of debates on how to restore galactic administration. The asari wanted to go back to the old status quo – but due to their diminished state of power, they could not get anyone to hear. The salarians wanted to prepare for the next big threat, proposing drastic measures one after another – ranging from creating genetically-modified clone armies to establishing an autocratic empire. Most of these plans were so visceral that the other participants could not bear them. Humans proposed a galactic republic, but were laughed off by the others.
Us in the Hierarchy, according to our sense of honor, proposed a galactic military to protect the inhabitants of the Milky Way. Far from the weak Citadel Fleets of yore, the galactic military would be all-spanning much like our own, working as a public service organization as well as a defense force. The asari agreed somewhat, but the salarians were vehemently against this notion (in retrospect, they don't like warfare or public service much). The humans stayed neutral.
Since the year 2202, the Citadel Council has unofficially been at adjournment, after 10,000 years of continued existence. An outward façade of harmony and peace is being maintained, the songs of unity and camaraderie chanted; but the well-informed realize, that the galaxy is anything but united now. Asari are desperate to get back to their old days of power, salarians plot devious atrocities to forward their causes and spread their influence; in an attempt to capture the vacuum left by asari. Humans rebuild rigorously to get back to their former glory, krogan and quarians leave no chance in order to build their reputations in the galaxy. And amidst this chaos, we turians hold the line, protecting them from harm.
The Citadel still remains the main hub of galactic government, all the species maintain embassies and diplomatic relations are conducted – though it remains to be seen for how long. Major council decisions are taken by ad-hoc committees meeting under heavy guard – not by Spectres or C-SEC – by their own species' warriors. The Citadel Fleet remains at port for the foreseeable future, and the battered Destiny Ascension is being requisitioned back by the asari fleet. Spectre and C-SEC Offices continue their activities as usual, however, Spectres are now being guided by their own species' Councilors, and animosity build between these agents every day. The galaxy, at the moment, is divided into four major power blocs, along with a few non-aligned regions. Galactic territories are split along these lines, and species who remain neutral are constantly being forced to choose a side.
The Asari Republics control the lower-left quadrant of the galactic disk – consisting of Silean Nebula, Athena Nebula and other clusters. Although ravaged by the war, it still represents the largest share of political and infrastructural facilities in the known galaxy. The Elcor and Raloi, allied with the Asari Republics, protect these interests as well. RATED – OMEGA [ALLIES]
The Turian Hierarchy and the volus clans control the lower-central areas, laying claim to most of the military establishments in the galaxy as well as the financial institutions. These areas also contain the majority of the dextro-amino worlds, giving the Hierarchy an advantage.
The krogan DMZ is sandwitched between these two blocs, and thus under constant threat and intimidation by the two Council powers. It is a badly kept secret that both the Hierarchy and the asari republics are ready at the edge of Tuchanka to counter any krogan intent of aggression with an armada loaded with planet-killing weapons. RATED – DELTA [POTENTIAL HOSTILE]
The Skyllian Verge is under firm control of the Systems Alliance. Some of the most resource-rich clusters, including Sol cluster, Kite's Nest, Arcturus Stream and Exodus Cluster are controlled by humans. Humans also have a controlling factor in the Hades Nexus, which has enabled them to monitor and manipulate the crucial Anansi-Ishtar shipping lane, directly impacting galactic economy. RATED – OMEGA [ALLIES]
The lower-right quadrant is controlled by the Salarian Union and its allies. Salarians control Annos Basin and other important clusters, while the hanar and drell protect Olyn Protectorate and other places of interest. The former batarian hegemony, now reduced to fighting for survival on Khar'shan, are slowly coming into the fold of the salarians as well. Salarians have mustered up a strong coalition of frontline military allies by helping both the drell and the batarians with repopulation, while the Illuminated Primacy and the Union boast the largest technological facilities in the galaxy. RATED – OMEGA [HOSTILE]
The upper-right quadrant is under the control of the Rannoch Conclave; they have an advantage on the outer rim of the galaxy. The Attican Traverse, protected by the quarian flotilla, contains vast resource worlds enriched with rare-earth minerals and valuable metals. It is a shame that the quarians cannot be called as staunch allies of the Hierarchy, as they are the only other dextro-amino sentient species. Quarians seem to be not aligned with any bloc, but they are close to both humans and salarians due to shared views and beneficial trading practices. RATED – ALPHA [NEUTRAL]
The edges of galactic space are relatively uninhabited and thus not aligned to any bloc. All the major powers have colonies in these sectors but have failed to assert dominance, mostly because of the distances from other colonies and interference from independent powers from the Terminus and the Nemean Abyss. In the upper rims, the clusters close to the galactic core form the Terminus Systems, while the edge of the upper quadrants is known as the Nemean Abyss. The council has long called the terminus as "lawless"; no more of that foolhardiness. The terminus is now a loose coalition of independent states, mega-corporations, and rogue krogan and batarian colonies. It isn't a band of criminals anymore – the terminus is a non-aligned power, able to challenge any of the council species on equal footing. Every council species hates the terminus, but is forced to maintain relations with them. RATED – DELTA [HOSTILE]
The Abyss has become the new Terminus, in fact, and it is so distant from any reasonable interests that nobody cares to venture in the sector. The region is littered with fresh garden worlds and relics of species that are long extinct. RATED – BETA [NEUTRAL]
Governments
The leadership of the Hierarchy is certainly more knowledgeable than I am about matters of government, but since I am to compile a file for the future; I will try to view this topic from a neutral point of view. Here, I will compile functioning governments on a species scale as of current date; as such races like the batarian hegemony, the vorcha, or the rachni are not a part of this. Neither are the nation-states of Earth or the Thessian republics, nor the Terminus systems or whatever number of independent colony worlds there are; if necessary, those informations can be scoured up from the galactic codex or the extranet's geopolitics domains.
Most of the galactic governments have followed the same structure for many millennia, including the Council races, the volus Clans, the Courts of Dekuuna and the Illuminated Primacy. Even a galaxy-wide war for survival, and in the case of asari and elcor - near-annihilation of their civilizations; have not been able to radically affect their bureaucracies. The other races, however, have seen drifting attitudes in their governments.
The Asari Republics have long existed as a confederacy of city-states, even before the citadel era. Controlled by the most influential states, colloquially known as 'The Thirty', asari subtly veil their serfdom-esque government by displaying a 'complete democracy'.
The galactic codex describes asari republics as "a free-wheeling, all-inclusive legislature that citizens can participate in at will". Nothing could be further from the truth. This all-inclusive e-democracy is actually dominated by the Policy Matriarchs, millennia-old diplomats and political think-tanks; who tend to always come from the Thirty. The states of Serrice, Armali, Mithymna, Lusia, Sanves, Nevos, Hyetiana and Illium provide almost all the Matriarchs. They dominate any policy debates while the lesser city-states have nothing much to do other than obey the wills of these political powerhouses. It's always made sure that the best interests of the Thirty come first - not all asari. In the post-war era, a lot of these major states have fallen out of power, due to the massive losses they sustained in terms of people and wealth. This vacuum is getting filled by supremacist groups like the Triune, challenging the hold of the Thirty over all asari. Until now, Serrice and Armali have been trying to secure an ironclad dominance over these groups.
The Salarian Union are ruled by the Six Families - salarian mega-clans that span over entire planets. Dalatrasses from noble houses have been ruling Sur'kesh since the stone age - the prominent six arose after the salarian industrial revolution. Their seats are currently based out of the core salarian worlds - Erinle, Nasurn, Mannovai, Gorot, Jaeto and Sur'kesh.
The Six Families play a dangerous game of political intrigue on Talat, the capital of Sur'kesh, where extremely complex electoral systems decide who shall rule over the Union cabinet. Often the elections will feature multiple assassinations, major bribery scandals and other colorful stuff. However, due to the relatively intact status of salarian territory post-war, their politics and government is stable for now.
The Turian Hierarchy is going through a volatile time, as the Reaper War saw our lives ravaged thoroughly. The historical Tier-system of citizenship was seen as outdated and biased by some, even before the war; and after the war the Supreme Primarch has brought a number of changes in the Hierarchy for the betterment of the turian people.
The Hierarchical Meritocracy of Palaven has 27 citizenship tiers. The beginner level is children; the highest is a Primarch. Client races like the Tergum, the Antillin, the Val'khana and the Lystheni are granted 1st tier of citizenship initially; they can proceed up to the 13th tier. The Volus clans are no longer a client race; they are considered an equal partner of the Hierarchy and are granted similar status to turians and can climb upto the 19th tier. To replenish lost population during the war, the Hierarchy now accepts immigrant aliens from Citadel races, mostly quarians and a few krogan and free batarians; after sufficient vetting, they are granted the similar rights as client races.
There is no class struggle amongst turians; there never has been in the fifteen thousand years of our civilization. Citizenship is linear until the 13th tier. From there, a citizen can go four ways - the Autarchy (administration and public service arm), the Magistracy (the judiciary and legislative arm), the Consulate (diplomatic and colonial affairs arm) and the Palavanus (the sciences and knowledge arm). The tribunary, or career military path, is a mandatory arm until 19th tier. A turian can become Praetor Autarch of a state on the 24th tier, Legate Autarch of a continent on the 25th tier, Autarch of a planet on the 26th, and Primarch of a cluster on the 27th tier. The high council of Primarchs is a governing body of all the colony clusters in the Hierarchy. It contains all the colony Primarchs along with the best military tribunes, consuls and magistrates. The line of succession is linear and well-guarded by Palavanus archives.
The Palavanus is a separate branch of the Hierarchy which [REDACTED]
Rannoch Conclave , based on the previous Migrant Fleet Admiralty and the Geth Consensus; are ruling over their small territory in Perseus Veil. The conclave is working identically as the migrant fleet's Admiralty, with the geth consensus now added as sort of a 'fourth fleet'; represented by whichever Prime unit is close by to port with the consensus. They are busy repopulating and rebuilding; many turians and asari from Terminus and Citadel have gone over to assist and settle on Rannoch. A few humans, surprisingly, have also travelled there. The joint colonies in the Traverse near the Veil are maintained by the Conclave too. There is very few instances of political maneuvering at the moment, simply because they are busy repopulating and rebuilding.
The Volus Clans and the Courts of Dekuuna have mostly maintained their government structure; an effect of their leaders being evacuated early in the war. There have not been many instances of atrocities or rebellions in either territory - the volus disdain violence and the elcor are very much herd-oriented.
The Illuminated Primacy , too, have largely kept their infrastructures intact. Although the hanar navy is heavily damaged and their drell allies have taken heavy losses, hanar financial and technological institutes remain at functional capacity.
The Krogan Federation of Clans are going through a fervent rebuilding phase. Other than infrastructural projects, Urdnot Wrex have spared no efforts to gather all krogan doctors and scientists on Tuchanka, in order to ensure independent krogan technology and medical industries flourish, and the race have other prospects than war. But perhaps the most important achievement of Urdnot is managing to combine all the living Loresingers of the krogan; these cultural heralds are working in fervor to reinitiate a krogan cultural revival.
Finally, the Systems Alliance and the United Nations of humanity are going down a new path, one that should highly spike the interest of our intelligence.
Humans, ever since their early spaceflight era up until the Reaper War, were eagerly democratic. Valuing the suggestions and opinions of everyone, regardless of class, status and ability; they functioned on majority verdicts. This was one of the most irritating notions of an otherwise valiant and respectable race.
Since the war, they have been gradually shifting towards meritocracy. Quoting from a leaked STG file, "Today, the Systems Alliance is moving towards becoming somewhat similar to the Turian Hierarchy. Although optimistic thinkers attribute this as a temporary focus on reconstruction efforts, our own analysts say that humanity has made the irreversible step towards authoritarianism." Their Court of Lords have taken commendable steps towards securing power in the hands of the able and virtuous; and their efficiency has increased manifolds. The basic human government has remained the same - Arcturus Parliament, voted and elected by citizens, deals with Alliance-controlled worlds and territories; while the UN Plenary does the same for Earth. The CoL oversees these institutions and intervenes when deemed necessary for the human greater good. It can be generally assumed that this is going to be the permanent system of governance for humanity now.
Although this Court of Lords has a great potential to unite humanity under one rule someday, the nature of most humans are not as honorable as most turians. It remains to be seen whether this Court will be as successful as the Hierarchy that has existed for six hundred years.
Homeworlds
Following my previous methodology, I have taken the liberty of leaving out planets like Heshtok, Ekram, Antillin, Parnack and Suen. For information on these topics, please consult the galactic codex, 2250 edition.
The homeworlds of citadel-affiliated races are Palaven, Thessia, Sur'kesh, Earth, Irune, Dekuuna, Kahje, Rannoch, Tuchanka and Turvess. Amongst these, both Kahje and Rannoch contain two sapient species.
The only homeworlds relatively unaffected by the war are Rannoch (because it was empty until the end of the war), Kahje (saved by a group of valiant Spectres), and Sur'kesh (it remains a mystery how the salarians came out this intact from an all-encompassing war). Turvess remained intact because the Raloi were provided protection by the elcor. All of the other worlds were ravaged; Thessia and Dekuuna had to be evacuated, and the fate of Khar'shan was so horrific that altogether annihilation might have been a better outcome.
During the rebuilding period, Palaven has proudly shown the most progress; we have almost gotten back to our pre-war stage of life. Irune, rebuilt with the help of our engineers and volunteers; also show great progress, the volus clans can be trusted to get their world and the galactic finance back to previous stages in short order. Earth and Thessia are doing well, but our allies have a lot of destruction to replace, unfortunately.
Sur'kesh and Kahje do not have much to rebuild, and Tuchanka have shown great prowess in their rebuilding. With the help of asari and human architects, they have raised several cities and are planning for more. Rannoch has followed the same route; establishing the capital city of Siyyah with plans for more cities.
Rebuilding in Dekuuna has been difficult because of the high gravity there; but in comparison to Khar'shan, it is nothing. The batarian homeworld has been thoroughly decimated, nothing is left but charred landscapes and destroyed infrastructure. During the first stages of the war, indoctrinated factions within the hegemony waged nuclear war against rebels; the Reapers just added to it by orbitally bombarding all holdouts where evacuees were held. No allied force could land upon Khar'shan during the war; and 99.99% of the populace were either killed or harvested. Whether Khar'shan will ever be properly populated again is a question only time can answer.