Senate of Thessia
Basic information
Type:	Bicameral
Houses:	President's Chamber (Upper House) People's Chamber (Lower House)
Leadership
Leader:	President of the Republics
Overseer of the President's Chamber:	Luet D'coriana (last)
Speaker of the People's Chamber:	Porara Dantini (last)
Elections
Last full election:	29 October 2207 CE
Recent legislation:	Thessian Land Reforms Act (2214)
Additional information
Status:	Dissolved
Founded:	1 October 726 BCE
Dissolved:	10 November 2215 CE
Headquarters:	Water Gardens of Armali, Armali, Thessia

The Senate of Thessia, variously referred to as the Asari Senate, Thessian Senate and Senate of the Republics, was the executive and legislative branch of the government of the Asari Republics that represented all asari impartially and without nationalistic bias on the galactic stage. The Senate was formed in 726 BCE with the birth of the Thessian Republics, initially consisting of elected officials from each of Thessia's city-states, but eventually broadening to include elected officials from asari planetary-states as well as they developed self-autonomy and republic status. The Senate was split into two houses: the People's Chamber, which consisted of politicians whose membership was decided by popular vote and whom represented individual electorates and city/planetary-states, and the President's Chamber, consisting of the President, their cabinet, the overseer and the clergy. The design of the Senate ensured that every single facet of asari society would have a voice in the direction of the asari race as a whole, intending to create a form of direct democracy within the confines of a republican system of government. The Senate represented the formalization of democracy as the core function of government for the rest of asari history, replacing the oligarchies, ecclesarchies, autocracies and elective monarchies that had governed asari nations prior to the Enlightenment of Thessia, all of which had vaguely grasped at notions of true democracy without fully committing to the ideal. The process of choosing an asari councilor to sit on the Citadel Council was handled much in the same way as a presidential election in that candidates can run for the position and compete with each other for the popular vote: the candidate left with the most votes succeeded as the new asari councilor, with popular vote and Senate votes both being counted. The Senate itself was seated at the Water Gardens of Armali, a government building that had once served as the residence of the Armali government, the Council of Ten. The Senate was specifically housed within a special building built specifically for them within the complex, known colloquially as the World's Palace, which was built just after the Thessian Republics was founded, with the original Armali government housed within the Gardens as they always were.

The Senate of Thessia was evacuated to Fort Befzenos, a top-secret asari military facility located within the deepest part of Thessia's oceans, when the Reapers lay siege to the planet in 2186 CE at the height of the Reaper War. Largely safe from Reaper attack, the Senate continued to maintain asari government throughout the Fall of Thessia, but were finally forced to evacuate when the military abandoned all efforts to defend Thessia, with a significant portion of the government killed in the evaucation, including the President. The Senate reconvened on the Citadel, but suffered further casualties when the Reapers attacked and captured the station not long after, with less than half making it to safety in time. After the Reaper War, the Senate was left to pick up the pieces of the massive political scandal surrounding the discovery of asari harboring of prothean technology for personal gain. The entire Senate was once again evacuated to Fort Befzenos when the Galactic Dominion broke through to Thessia towards the end of the Post-Apocalyptic War, hoping to wait out the inevitable siege: unfortunately, the Senate was caught mid-transport when the Dominion began their massive nuclear assault upon Thessia, with their transport caught within the shockwave of a nuclear blast, crippled by the initial EMP before it was brought down along the eastern seaboard of the Pesconoi continent: most of the Senate was either killed in the crash, or later died from intense radiation exposure due to their proximity to the blast that brought them down. With the surrender of the Thessian Republics not long after and its subsequent dissolution, the Senate of Thessia would be replaced by a Coalition puppet administration.