A successor state to the late Batarian Hegemony. External borders remain largely unaffected, but internally the Confederacy is fractured. Its constituent parts are autonomous, and central authority is minimal.
The Confederation
Those now governed by ex-slaves and casteless had no sense of how to establish the vast bureaucratic machine required to function on an interplanetary scale. The only truly common feature of the various batarian worlds was that none of them wanted a new Hegemony. After tense discussion between varying parties and the acknowledged leaders of numerous factions, most of the newly slave-run worlds took a cue from the major government they knew best besides their own: The <a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22Citadel%20Council%22%2C%22link%22%3A%22Citadel%20Council%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Atrue%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%5B%5BCitadel%20Council%5D%5D%22%7D" data-rte-instance="153494-12413267125a2d5dff78c2a" href="/wiki/Citadel_Council" title="Citadel Council">Citadel Council</a>. Where some of the colonies declared themselves independent, and others formed the Batarian Council, some worlds held tightly to traditional cultural rights, namely the right to own slaves. Their leaders were quick to declare themselves the rightful successors of the Hegemony. When communications were restored, these colonies quickly found themselves surrounded by planets on which government was now handled by former slaves, and when these other colonies refused to recognize their authority, they bonded together to protect their rights from the abolitionists, forming a council of their own. This body consisted simply of leaders from all the pro-slavery colonies. These worlds - most of them agrarian or hosting otherwise manpower-heavy industries - began a quick reconstruction, alarmed that the hugely outnumbering abolitionists would attack them to set the slaves free.
Supporters of this ideology colloquially referred to Erszbat as ‘Wastebin’ and Camalans as ‘Scumlords’, arguing that too much freedom leads to chaos, and that the lesser castes weren’t ready for the burdens of leadership and power. Definitions of ‘ready’ varied planet by planet; the most traditional ones believed the lower castes would never be ready, that generations of ‘bad blood’ had made them genetically inferior to the upper castes. Some planets, however, believed that they should begin to educate the lesser castes, then gradually empower them so as to avoid a politically immature populace pushing their society into chaos.
The slave-holding, or "Na’Hesit" worlds were certain that the Council would invade them immediately, sure that in their new fervor they’d feel a compulsion to completely eradicate slavery from the galaxy. However, the Na’Hesit were mistaken. Where some of the more radical leaders of the Batarian Council did advocate war to destroy the reactionary oppressors, most of the planets weren’t very keen on waging another conflict so quickly - and against their own people, at that. The Council and the Na’Hesit both recognized the threat of the Terminus Systems, which now ran almost completely unchecked by any foreign power, and realized that divided they’d be much easier targets for invasion. After much deliberation, the Batarian Council decided to send an envoy to the Na’Hesit to discuss unity. At first, the suspicious Na’Hesit leaders refused to even meet the envoy, deigning not to negotiate with abolitionist traitors. Further, they believed the overtures to be nothing more than a plot to deceive them, and tried to stall as long as possible. The Council kept trying to contact them, while turning its attention to the neutral colonies simultaneously, beginning to influence these worlds’ antislavery factions. In light of this latter move, the Na’Hesit realized that they couldn’t remain isolated and allow their own influence be gnawed away, and so they caved in and met with Council representatives.
The negotiations lasted for weeks, both sides storming out several times due to disagreements. At times, it was thought that war was the only possibility, especially after the Na’Hesit threatened to launch an assault to stop abolitionists from gaining power on several neutral colonies. Eventually, though, an uneasy peace was brokered, with the leadership of both parties forming something akin to a parliament. Thus, the Batarian Confederation was born. Not long after, other factions were given membership - colonies undecided or unaligned with either movement, uneasy protective alliances formed by the crews of remaining spaceworthy ships, as well as representatives of the Khar’Shan theocracy and the Erszbat Cabal, both of which proceeded to quickly leverage their unique positions to gather influence and further their own goals.
While an impressive show of post-war unity, the Confederation at first remained a virtually powerless entity, unable to stop border wars even between its own members. Every major attempt at decision-making led to a deadlock, with Batarian Council members (collectively known as Ub’Hesit, or anti-slavers) and the Na’Hesit opposing one another even on mutually beneficial proposals. As a result, worlds among both factions tended to their own affairs and effectively ignore the grand pronouncements of their ostensible representatives.
The Fleet returns
The discovery that the galaxy outside the Kite’s Nest had survived, that the Citadel worlds had survived in better shape than those of the Hegemony, and that the final battle had taken place over <a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22Earth%22%2C%22link%22%3A%22Earth%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Atrue%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%5B%5BEarth%5D%5D%22%7D" data-rte-instance="153494-12413267125a2d5dff78c2a" href="/wiki/Earth" title="Earth">Earth</a> itself surprised everyone. Despite past hostilities and the enmity between batarians and humans, the latter had now contributed something that even the most die-hard Hegemony fanatics couldn’t deny, and so a grudging respect for their old rivals spread throughout the Confederation. Ub’Hesit members saw the relative success of the worlds beyond the Nest as vindication, proof that their approach was the correct one, and tried to use this line of thought to heighten their influence among the neutral colonies, though with only minor success. This may have led to a gradual waning of Na’Hesit power, had not the fleet also brought news from the rest of the galaxy.
Made up of varied elements from across the former Hegemony, and fresh from witnessing the final defeat of the Reapers, the batarian fleet was itself a house divided. Upon its return to the Kite’s Nest, only the charisma and influence of Admiral Ka’hairal Balak kept it from splintering along faction lines the way the Hegemony itself had.
While the Confederation worlds possessed basic military forces, mostly militia and transport shuttles, they were nothing compared to the strength and professionalism of even a fragment of the former Hegemony fleet. Balak therefore found himself a powerful political figure whether he intended to be or not. To his great credit, in a move which would cement him as one of the first heroes of the post-Reaper era, Balak didn’t use his military strength to forge himself an empire or to eradicate one of the two Confederation factions. Instead, the fleet applied itself to maintaining balance and neutrality between the two sides. This wasn’t an entirely benevolent gesture, of course; without the element zero from Camala and the industrial base of Erszbat, the fleet wouldn’t have long survived, and the traditionally conservative military couldn’t commit itself to the cause of the Ub’Hesit without fracturing along the same lines as the Confederation itself.
Even the otherwise isolationist Cabal took notice of the fleet’s arrival, and after tense, lengthy and secret negotiations, the group reluctantly placed their support behind Balak’s fleet, their factories supplying it with desperately needed spare parts and equipment. By maintaining neutrality, Admiral Balak ensured that his much-reduced military would survive, while strengthening the Confederation by neatly averting a war between its two largest factions. In return, the Confederation incorporated the military as a restricted voting member, capable of breaking deadlocks. The stabilization provided by this arrangement led to the development of an unofficial hierarchy of worlds within the Confederation; while no one planetcould claim to be the capital, three rose to similar status: Khar’shan, for its religious and historical significance, Erszbat, for its industrial and technological advantages, and Camala, as a result of its wealth. While the Na’Hesit worlds initially possessed no similarly influential planets, their greater unity provided them with the voting influence required, and the reestablishment of communication with Lorek gave them a symbolic if somewhat distant equivalent.
The first major act of the Confederation following the fleet’s return was a blanket amnesty for all Terminus batarians. This surprising move, proposed initially by the Camalans, struck a chord with nearly every political interest in the new alliance: the Na’Hesit saw it as a meansof bringing the slavers and merchants of the Terminus into their fold; the Ub’Hesit saw it as an opportunity to spite the defunct Hegemony by bringing home political exiles; and the fleet saw a chance to expand its own capabilities by incorporating former pirates into the ranks - rather than have them run wild among the ruined systems and worlds of the Kite’s Nest. There was also opposition, however. The more hardline members of the Na’Hesit weren’t particularly keen on accepting exiled criminals and other dishonoured batarians, and the Ub’Hesit didn’t wish to welcome more supporters of slavery into the Confederation. Some factions inside the military were also wary of integrating badly-trained and questionably motivated pirates as a part of their combined forces. The supporters of the amnesty overruled the cautious faction, and this agreement was the first in its kind where a substantial number of council members broke the Na/Ub party line.
The slavers of the Terminus systems sometimes proved unwilling to work within the bounds of the law; political exiles brought with them radical new ideas and entire ideologies which often ran contrary to what had been established since the end of the Reaper War; and pirates frequently proved both competent and resistant to military discipline, unwilling to fully incorporate into the Confederation. The only world which saw entirely the expected result was Camala, where the crimelords expanded their influence and brought their surviving pre-war business partners into the Confederation, to plant the seeds of an even more powerful Grusto. Nevertheless, despite the new problems it introduced, the amnesty did accomplish its primary goal of rapidly increasing the population of decimated Confederation worlds.
Growing Pains
As the Confederacy’s post-war reconstruction efforts continued, representatives of many temporary refugee settlements throughout Khar’Shan, Erszbat and other worlds began calling attention to issues related to organized crime. With government services for disenfranchised citizens limited due to lack of manpower and resources, many had fallen under the patronage of racketeers who provided unofficial aid to refugees (including food, clothing, blankets and other essentials), often selling them at a profit for goods and services rendered. Several of these racketeers turned into full-fledged crime lords with influence over entire counties and districts, even providing freelance security services in place of official law enforcement in some regions. Eventually, reports reached the Council of gang violence between rival syndicates, with civilians caught in the crossfire. Several legislative solutions were put forward. Na’Hesit Councilor Tew’re Narak proposal to reorganize the Batarian Internal Forces as a domestic police force to curtail the criminal elements, but this was met with sharp criticism by elements of the Ub’Hesit including Councilor Uana Gan’Xerek, who proposed an alternative scenario of increasing aid to recovering districts through private investment. As the Council continued to deliberate, some citizens began to take matters into their own hands, forming private militias or neighbourhood watches to curb the influence of the gangs.