The Terran Alliance was founded in 2017 as the governing body for Humanity on an interplanetary level, replacing the United Nations as the “supreme authority.” The United Nations remains active as an additional organization for Earth specifically, but it ceded oversight of extraterrestrial colonies to the Terran Alliance. Member nations retain all their sovereignty, but are subject to Alliance law. Similar to the United Nations, the Terran Alliance can enforce its will on its member states through the use of military force.
Structurally, it is actually a parliamentary federation, with diverse independent member states united under a separate governing body. It is only called an alliance because for ease of translation into different languages.
Founded: May 29th, 2017 @ UN Space Complex Freedom
Members: 213 Earth Nations (most are founding members), the United Nations (founding member), the Independent Lunar Colonial Organization (founding member), the United Martian Colonies (founding member), and the Alpha Prime Colony
Headquarters: Terran Alliance Headquarters, Tycho Colony, Moon, Earth, Sol System. Constructed outside of the Tycho Colony in the early 2020s, the Terran Alliance Headquarters houses the center of the Alliance government along with key elements of the Terran Alliance Armed Forces chain of command. While the Tycho Colony itself remains part of ILCO, the Alliance itself has jurisdiction over the Headquarters, and it is considered sovereign territory of the Alliance itself. Nobody actually is considered a citizen or resident of the Headquarters, not even the Grand Duchess and her family – they live in a facility attached to the Headquarters, but the facility is technically on ILCO soil.
Official Language: Terran Standard (being phased in very slowly, most citizens don’t actually speak it. the estimate is that the first generation of native speakers won’t be born for another 10 or 15 years.)
Secondary Languages: Countless other languages
Official Government Time: Tycho Unified Time – Tycho Unified Time is the time zone which is used for all TAAF Operations as well as all official Alliance timing. It was set as equal to UTC +0 when it was developed, and is maintained by an array of atomic clocks.
MEMBER STATES
Earth (213 individual nations, each with their own membership and representation) – As the homeworld of humanity, Earth is the most populous of the Terran Alliance’s four main population centers (Earth, Luna, Mars, and Alpha Prime). Earth is also the location of much of the internal conflict that the Alliance finds themselves dealing with on a disappointingly frequent basis. Rivalries go back hundreds of years, if not longer, and old hatreds do not die quickly.
Population: 8,000,000,000 Humans. Roughly 2,000 Teuthidoids and 200 Proximans at any given time.
The United Nations – Partially due to it’s role as the precursor to the Terran Alliance, and also due to its continued control over a sizable military, the United Nations is counted as a member state of the Terran Alliance, although it controls no territory of its own aside from administration facilities and military bases.
Independent Lunar Colonial Organization – Originally formed when the old United States’s lunar colonies broke away from their parent nation at the outbreak of World War III, ILCO expanded in the post-war environment when the other nations’ lunar colonies decided to break away as well and join the fledgling lunar state. ILCO controls the entirety of Earth’s moon, Luna, aside from a the Terran Alliance Headquarters outside of the Tycho Colony. ILCO is the third-largest population center in the Alliance.
Population: 5,000,000 Humans. Roughly 30 Teuthidoids and 30 Proximans at any given time.
United Martian Colonies – The colonies on Mars, still remain independent after seceding from their home nations in the aftermath of the Day of Fire. Originally just a collection of almost-self-sufficient science outposts, the UMC’s growth has skyrocketed in the past decade and a half, especially once it was announced that initial forays into the terraforming of Mars were beginning. The UMC is the second-largest population center in the alliance.
Population: 25,000,000 Humans. Roughly 100 Teuthidoids and 10 Proximans at any given time.
Alpha Prime Colony – The Alpha Prime Colony was humanity’s first extrasolar colony. A habitable world in the Alpha Centauri system was found and the beginnings of a colony were set down with the Terran Alliance as the initial ruling body. The colony has been steadily growing, and remains small, but the colony was granted autonomy in 2028 after becoming self-sufficient. Therefore, it has representation as an independent member state of the Alliance, but remains under Colony Board oversight as it is still very small by the standards of Earth, ILCO, and the UMC.
Population: 2,500,000 Humans. Roughly 5 Teuthidoids and 400 Proximans at any given time.
GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE
As a Parliamentary Federation with a Popular Monarchy, the governing structure of Terran Alliance is a multi-layered system.
Member states are see to govern themselves as they see fit, within reason. The Alliance is ‘hands off’ in terms of how a member state is allowed to government themselves, but if a state begins to oppress its people the Alliance will intervene in the name of human rights. Military intervention is a last resort, but sees use at a rate of at least one incident per year. Usually the military intervention is limited to a ‘show of force,’ but it has on occasion continued on into actual conflict.
The Terran Alliance itself has three branches to its government – Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
The Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch is comprised of four houses of government: the Colony Board, the People’s Chamber, the State’s Chamber, and the Corporate Council.
The People’s Chamber and the State’s Chamber work together to pass the budget of the Terran Alliance, and have numerous Oversight Committees which are formed to review and advise on various specialized topics. To join an oversight committee, a representative must have some experience in that field. For example, to join the Oversight Committee on the Armed Forces, the representative must have a history of military service. Some notable Oversight Committees include: Armed Forces, Arts and Culture, Colony Management, Economic Development, Research and Development.
The People’s Chamber
The People’s Chamber is exactly that – representatives chosen by the citizens of the Alliance. Each autonomous member state of the Alliance elects a number of representatives to the Chamber commensurate with their population (minimum of 1 seat, maximum of 3 seats). Elections to the People’s Chamber are closely monitored for signs of fraud and manipulation, and the representatives are subject to strict ethics laws in regards to lobbying and influence from the leadership of their state of origin. Colonies under the jurisdiction of the Colony Board that are not an official territory of a pre-existing member nation (such as the Jovian Economic Colonies) receive 1 seat in the People’s Chamber. The People’s Chamber works in partnership with the State’s Chamber to pass laws. Representatives serve 3 year terms, staggered for member states with larger populations.
Notable Members –
The State’s Chamber
Similar to the People’s Chamber, the representatives of the State’s Chamber are appointed by the leadership of a member state instead of elected by its people. Each member state receives only one seat, regardless of population. Non-governmental organizations can petition for the People’s Chamber for a seat in the State’s Chamber. Colonies under the jurisdiction of the Colony Board that are not an official territory of a pre-existing member nation (such as the Jovian Economic Colonies) receive a seat in the State’s Chamber, but are not considered a member state unless they seek out that status (which so far only the Alpha Prime colony has gone through). The State’s Chamber works in partnership with the People’s Chamber to pass laws. Representatives serve 3 year terms.
Notable Members –
The Colony Board
The Colony Board oversees all human settlements aside from Earth, Luna, and Mars. Each settlement receives an amount of seats on the board commensurate with their population (minimum of 1 seat, maximum of 3 seats), and representatives are elected by the citizens of each colony. They are responsible for approving new colony sites, regulating colonies, and appointing leaders for non-autonomous colonies. Representatives serve 3 year terms, staggered for colonies with larger populations.
Notable Members –
The Corporate Council
The Corporate Council is not elected, and does not have the power to pass law. Instead it advises the Colony Board and the State’s and People’s Chamber in the only allowed form of lobbying in the Alliance. Any corporation that does business beyond a planetary level can petition the People’s Chamber for a seat on the Corporate Council. Each corporation receives one seat. Members of the council serve until either their Corporation is removed from the council, or they are replaced at the whim of the corporation they represent – in the case of representatives that are not the leaders of their corporation. The Corporate Council is a frequent finger-pointing target for conspiracy theorists who fear some sort of corporate takeover of the Alliance government.
The Executive Branch
The Executive Branch is headed by the Council of Ten, which is comprised of the Consul of the People, the Consul of the States, and the Consul of the Colonies (the three of which collectively function as Head of Government), Grand Duke/Duchess (who functions as Head of State), the 6 Joint Chiefs (who function as the Commander in Chief), and a representative from the SDA. Originally the Council of Nine, it was expanded to Ten in 2024 as the SDA began to expand beyond it’s original role. The Council technically has the authority to order the TAAF to war, but it has never done so without a resolution from the People’s and State’s Chambers. The Council usually does not have to resort to voting to resolve matters, but when it does there are either a total of 6 votes (when dealing with non-military matters) or 10 votes (when dealing with military matters), with the differing number of votes being in regards to the members of the Joint Chiefs. At most, the Joint Chiefs control 5 votes (only in regards to military matters), thus preventing them from having total control over the Council. In the event of a tie, the Grand Duchess casts a tiebreaker vote.
Grand Duke/Duchess
The Head of State functions as the head of the Executive Branch of the Terran Alliance government, and is currently held by Grand Duchess Diana, who, by popular demand soon after the founding of the Alliance, who resigned as head of the United Nations (early on in her second term) to become the first Head of State of the Terran Alliance. Created as a form of Popular Monarchy to separate out the positions of Head of State and Head of Government, the Grand Duchess was originally seen as a largely ceremonial position, but it does have certain duties and rights conferred upon it. As the head of the Executive Branch, the Grand Duchess can dismiss a Consul of the People, Consul of the States, or a Judge from any of the three High Courts (see Judicial Branch) if they have good reason to do so and have the support of the people. The Head of State also has the Right of Pardon, functions as Chief Diplomat for the Alliance – both to external entities and to its constituent member states, and have the right to grant knighthood. The title of “Grand Duchess” has come under fire from anti-monarchial states and organizations, but since nobody has suggested an alternative title, it remains in place. As the laws are written, the title of this position is chosen by the person who holds it, so in theory the next Head of State could be called anything from the “Emir” to the “Grand Poobah of Solar Space.” The position is not hereditary, and is instead appointed by popular vote, with votes taken every 2 years to determine if the people still support them. Although the role of Grand Duke/Duchess is not hereditary, the family of the Head of State is viewed with the same reverence (or illogical obsession, in some people’s eyes) as a ‘true’ royal family.
Grand Duchess – Diana Frances, United Kingdom
Consul of the People
The Consul of the People presides over the State’s Chamber, and is granted a double vote in the voting matters of the Chamber. They are selected by alliance-wide vote, and are frequently former members of the People’s or State’s Chambers. The Consul of the People is expected to serve in the interest of the people and can be removed by a vote of no confidence in their administration by the people. The Consul of the People serves a 6 year term.
Consul of the People – Katerina Petrov, Russian Federation
Consul of the States
The Consul of the States presides over the People’s Chamber, and is granted a double vote in the voting matters of the Chamber. They are selected by vote of the current State’s Chamber, and upon appointment they are in turn replaced by a new appointee from their state of origin. The Consul of the States serves a 3 year term.
Consul of the States – Yong Song, People’s Republic of China
Consul of the Colonies
The Consul of the Colonies is a chosen representative from the Colony Board that serves to represent the viewpoints of the colonies among the Council of Ten.
Consul of the Colonies – Rasa Simonis, Alpha Prime Colony, Centauri System
The Joint Chiefs (5 of them)
The Joint Chiefs collectively represent the position of Commander in Chief of the Terran Alliance, and make up five of the seats on the Council of Ten – however, they only get one vote when voting on non-military matters, and five votes when voting on military matters (to inhibit the possibility of the military directing the course of actions). The Admiral of the Navy, General of the Army, Brigadier of the Marine Corps, Postmaster General, and the CEC General posted at Tycho are the six members of the Joint Chiefs. They oversee all military matters in the Alliance, and maintain the bureaucracy of the relation between the overall Terran Alliance Armed Forces and the armed forces of its member states. The Administration service branch is not represented on the Joint Chiefs, as they are commanded by the Joint Chiefs.
Admiral of the Navy – Kavi Patil, Indian Republic
General of the Army – Matthew Zimmerman, Eastern States of America
Brigadier of the Marine Corps – Sarah Delaney, United Kingdom
Postmaster General – Robert E White, Interior States of America
CEC Representative – Rotating Position, dependent on what member the CEC General’s Council is stationed at Tycho. At some point in the future an O-9 CEC rank may be created.
SDA Council Representation
The SDA was granted a full seat on the council in 2024, before that time they were usually present at Council meetings but had no voting privileges. Typically, the chief of the 1st, 3rd, or 4th directorate represents the SDA on the Council, but on occasion all 8 chiefs have been present for Council meetings (which tends to spook the Joint Chiefs and the Consuls). The 2nd Directorate chief is barred from representing the SDA in voting matters now that it has a vote, due to the fact that their viewpoint is better represented by the Joint Chiefs.
Alliance Diplomatic Corps
Another major component of the Executive Branch is the Alliance Diplomatic Corps (ADC). The ADC is the Terran Alliance’s equivalent to a nation’s State Department or Foreign Ministry. Civilian members of the Diplomatic Corps function as negotiators, while TAAF members assigned to Diplomatic Corps duty are usually security forces. However, any TAAF member assigned to the Diplomatic Corps does undergo diplomatic training.
The Diplomatic Corps currently has established embassies in all member nations of the Terran Alliance, an embassy with the Teuthidoids on Europa, and an embassy with the Proximans on Proxima Centauri c, and they are beginning to look into setting one up in the Tau Ceti system once formal relations with the Unity are reached.
The Judicial Branch
The Judicial Branch is the comprised of the three High Courts: the Court of Commons, the Court of Corporations, and the Court of Concept. Each Court consists of nine judges, appointed by the Council of Ten, who serve 9-year terms (or shorter, if they are disbarred or step down). A judge can step down at any time, or they can be disbarred by the Grand Duke/Duchess or by majority vote of the People’s Chamber. In addition to the courts, there is the Terran Alliance Judicial Bureau, which serves many roles.
Court of Commons
The Court of Commons sees all “Person vs X” cases submitted to the High Courts, regardless of if the person is the plaintiff or defendant. Thus, if a person sued by a corporation, the case will be seen by this Court. “Person vs Alliance” cases are only handled by the Court of Commons if they are matters if personal liberty and the like.
Notable Members –
Court of Corporations
The Court of Corporations sees all “Corporation vs Corporation” and “Corporation vs State” cases submitted to the High Courts.
Notable Members –
Court of Concept
The Court of Concept rules on if laws passed by the legislative branch are in accordance with the Terran Alliance Charter, and on all other matters not overseen by the Court of Commons and Court of Corporations.
Notable Members – Avery Edghill, Western States of America
Terran Alliance Judicial Bureau
Office of Bounties and Inter-Planetary Enforcement (OBIPE) – OBIPE has two primary functions: the certification of bounty hunters and control of the bounty board, and the management of Sector Rangers.
- Bounty Board: The Bounty Board is essentially a government-maintained classified ads service, but it has a section set aside that can only be accessed by Certified Hunters (see below). Anyone can post a bounty on the bounty board, provided their request is legal. These requests range from locating lost property, finding the answer to a question, or simply postings looking for people to do some contract work. There’s also a section for missed connections, which has led to some bounty hunters specializing in this slightly creepy field of finding people who have only met each other once and arranging for them to meet each other again. The section set aside for Certified Hunters is where the OBIPE maintains the listing of cross-jurisdiction criminals who there are standing bounties for. The Bounty Board is an Alliance-wide service, with the central OBIPE headquarters on Luna overseeing it, but the day-to-day operations of the Board are left to the local offices of the OBIPE. Traditinoally, the Board is available on local Nets in the OBIPE’s node, but some OBIPE offices also keep physical postings of the board available in their office’s lobby.
- Bounty Hunters (Certified Hunters): Since the Terran Alliance does not employ an actual Alliance-level police force, the Alliance licenses citizens to hunt down and capture suspects and other targets who have crossed lines into different jurisdictions. These Certified Hunters have to follow a set of laws which regulate their behavior, but for the most part they are given free reign in how exactly they operate. Some of them track their targets through magic or psionic abilities, others find their marks by word of mouth, and still others use contacts inside the underworld to locate their targets. Most bounties offered to Certified Hunters are for live-capture only, though occasionally an bounty is posted for a ‘dead or alive’ capture, or for a bounty to exterminate a pest in a given area.
- Sector Rangers: The Sector Rangers are like the ‘police force’ of the Terran Alliance, except their primary duty is to police the police, their ability to act as police towards civilians is secondary, and their authority to monitor and regulate Certified Hunters is tertiary. They have the authority to take over cases from local jurisdictions (unless the case is managed by the TAAF), but they are few in number, heavily regulated, and spend more time doing paperwork than actual field work. Sector Rangers can deputize local law enforcement, civilians, and in some cases, TAAF personnel. All Sector Rangers are Certified Hunters for the purposes of the bounty board, and some of them find it easier to do their job overseeing local law enforcement by acting as a bounty hunter instead of openly operating as a Sector Ranger.
THE TERRAN ALLIANCE CHARTER
The Terran Alliance Charter is the term used to describe the collection of laws that govern life in the Terran Alliance. Originally it was just a set of “this is how the Alliance government works” rules, plus some basic declaration of rights that was barely agreed upon by the member states, but it has grown to include numerous other laws and acts since the founding of the Alliance. Some of these laws are listed below.
Decision Against Corporate Organized Militias (DACOM): DACOM, as it is commonly known, was an addition made to the Charter written in the wake of the Belt Rebellion. DACOM reiterates the importance of the role that corporate extraterritoriality has in preventing nation-on-nation conflict over resources, but at the same time criticizes what happens when corporations have military force and use it – as was seen in the Belt Rebellion. DACOM rewrites the original rules put forth in the Charter that allowed for corporations to maintain their own militias, heavily restricting the force types that they can have at their disposal and limiting them to defensive and anti-espionage operations only. In essence, corporate militias were turned back into what they were originally intended to be – a replacement for rent-a-cops – instead of being forces that corporations could use against their own employees or other corporations. The compromise that was made as part of this legislation was a drastic reduction in the restrictions against arms ownership in the Alliance, which led to the current Licensed/Restricted/Military/Illegal system of equipment licensing.
Government Registry of Abilities (GRAB) Act: Passed in 2025, the GRAB Act opened up the TAAF Armed Forces’ qualifications system to civilians, allowing for the training and qualification of civilians in a wide range of skills. The reasoning behind this was that it would allow first responders to know exactly what skills they have on-hand from nearby civilians in a crisis situation in rural environments. Critics of the Act believe that it is a form of government monitoring for people who ‘might cause trouble.’ Participation in the qualification system by civilians is entirely optional.
Human Organism Modification Edict (HOME): Passed in 2020, this legislation allows for and provides a funding pool for research into the genetic modification of humans to be more resistant to disease, radiation, and other factors. The original text of the proposal allowed for human cloning, but this was removed before it was passed into law. In the 10 years since this law has passed, some progress has been made in developing genetic therapies to increase radiation resistance in humans, but it is nowhere near market ready. Every few years some politicians make a push to modify HOME to allow for cloning of human organs inside animals such as pigs for transplant purposes, but these attempts at amendment end up stagnating in subcommittees.
Terran Alliance Defense Act (TADA): The Terran Defense Act authorized the creation of the Navy, Marines, and Army as standing militaries. Members of the Terran Alliance Armed Forces (TAAF) can either come from members of a member state’s own military or from the civilian populace who choose to serve the Terran Alliance as a whole.
During the Belt Rebellion, the Defense Act was modified to allow for field commanders to transfer command of troops in other branches of the TAAF to their own command, provided they outranked the troops. It also allowed for them to assume command over non-military SDA forces in the absence of an SDA-trained Officer, provided they are of O-3 rank or higher. TADA has numerous amendments, and several are listed below.
- Amendment 1 – In the event of large-scale military conflict, the TAAF has the authority to call up soldiers from member states’ militaries to serve with the TAAF. (Amendment struck from TADA in 2024 when TAAF staffing levels were deemed sufficient)
- Amendment 9 – Field commanders of sufficient rank may temporarily assume command of troops ranked lower than they are, regardless of the service branch of the troops in question.
- Amendment 10 – In situations where Amendment 9 comes into play, officers ranked O-3 or higher may assume command over civilian SDA Agents in the absence of an SDA-trained officer.
- Amendment 11 – In the event of extreme circumstances, civilians accused of Level 1 and Level 2 offenses and TAAF personnel undergoing disciplinary action for similarly-categorized offenses can be granted parole to participate in Defense Operations at the decision of the Joint Chiefs after consulting the Council of Ten. Service shall be compensated with monetary compensation pursuant to services rendered, and with the possibility of eventual full pardon. Civilians and discharged TAAF personnel shall be treated as civilian contractors of the Alliance for the duration, but are not considered Armed Forces personnel.
Terran Alliance Postal Service Act (The TAPS Act): The TAPS Act was added to the Charter following the foundation of the Alpha Centauri colony, authorizing the creation of a government-run postal service to facilitate speedy communication between the Alpha Centauri colony and the Sol system.