Thessian Republics
From FABT
  The Asari Republics at its greatest extent in 93 CE and prior to the Terminus Revolutions.
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Type of government: |
Federal presidential constitutional republic |
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Founding document: |
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Constitution: |
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Head of State: |
President Elarthea D'kyria (first) |
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Head of government: |
President Elarthea D'kyria (first) |
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Commander-in-chief: |
President Elarthea D'kyria (first) |
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Executive: |
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Legislative: |
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Judicial: |
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Military: |
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| Societal information | |
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Capital: |
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Official language: |
Sia (official) |
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Official religion: |
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Holidays: |
Unification of Thessia |
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Anthem: |
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| Historical information | |
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Formed from: |
Armali |
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Dates: |
1 October 726 BCE - 10 November 2215 CE
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Succeeded by: |
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- "All connected, all one, all free."
- — Motto of the Asari Republics.
The Thessian Republics, simply known as the Republics, also known as the Asari Republics and formally as the Mother Union of Democratic Republics and Thessia, was the representative body of Thessia, its nations and asari colonies from 726 BCE to 2215 CE. The origins of the Thessian Republics stem directly from the enormous world war between asari city-states known as the Enlightenment of Thessia, a war which lasted forty years and which only ended in 734 BCE when the exhausted nations finally agreed to halt hostilities, meeting under Mount Seluciphea, then the holiest of holies to the asari religion, where they signed the Treaty of Seluciphea. Before the war, tensions had been high between the city-states, but due to the asari belief in waging smaller wars to avoid devastating conflicts, any issues between states were resolved with brief, small wars which were usually resolved in about a month or so before one side was victorious or both lost interest: while examples of greater conflicts existed, these were rare, and often avoided. In the end, it was Armali which ultimately sparked the world war, by far the most powerful and prosperous of the nations who believed they had the strength to finally take on its neighbours and unite the planet under one super-state: beforehand, Armali had been a pioneer in technological advancement, most famously with their progress in space travel, with Armali being only one of four nations on the planet engaged in space research, and Armali had developed the furthest: it would later be discovered that this sudden advancement was due to an excavated prothean library, with Armali extracting its secrets to progress its own advancement. While Armali had come close to victory in the war, their leaders ultimately reached the conclusion that peace was a better habitat for unification, hence the treaty they eventually signed. After the war, Armali used its superpower status to become a world leader, revealing the existence of the prothean library they had unearthed and sharing its secrets with the world: this allowed the asari to achieve interstellar travel in 727 BCE, with Lusia establishing their first interstellar colony on Piares on 724 BCE, where they discovered more prothean ruins. With asari colonies sprouting up further and further out from Thessia, the asari nations reached the conclusion that a unified presence in space would be needed to truly unite the asari peoples and to protect their planet from potential alien influences: gathering in Armali, every asari nation unanimously agreed to sign the Armali Accords, formalizing the unification of Thessia and all of its colonies under the Thessian Republics. This time, known as the Asari Renaissance, would last until 346 CE.
The Thessian Republics was unique in that it was a nation on the galactic stage, but in political reality was an intergovernmental organization composed of many republics represented and existing on two levels of governance: city and planetary. The first level represented the original city-states that founded the Thessian Republics, but while they continued to exist politically independent, they effectively answered to the supranational Thessian government. The second level represented each of the asari planetary colonies, each of which was a planetary state in its own right and considered an independent republic. Most of these colonies were named after city-states back on Thessia itself, with Nevos, Hyetiana, Illium, Kurinth and Lesuss being examples of this naming convention. The first level was to satisfy the needs of the original city-states and their oligarch ruling class who still held significant sway on Thessia, and with the Republics, now held sway over asari interstellar policy, while the second level gave a voice to the rising colonial republics, who had grown separate from their parent states back on the homeworld and achieved large-scale autonomy on their own. This system granted administrative autonomy to these city and planetary-states, but with certain federal responsibilities handed over to the Republics which included defense, health, education, industrial relations, interstellar representation, etc. Overall, while far from perfect, the Thessian Republics was a system designed to maximize asari democracy, permitting virtually every section of their territory to have a voice in the future of their race as a whole.
Following asari unification in 726 BCE, the Thessian Republics continued the already rapid asari expansion, colonizing world after world as they moved out from their home cluster to begin colonizing the systems around them. With the galaxy having been "reset" for thousands of years following the Prothean War with the Reapers, the asari were the only species in the Milky Way Galaxy engaging in interstellar travel at the time, and it wouldn't be a while until they eventually ran into another species. In 580 BCE, the asari discovered the Citadel in the Serpent Nebula, which was quickly claimed in the name of the Thessian Republics and rapid colonization of the station began shortly after. In 520 BCE, the Thessian Republics made first contact with the salarians when they came across the Citadel and made contact with the asari population there: this sent reverberations throughout the asari world as first contact was established with an alien race, something of which they weren't even sure existed beyond the prothean ruins they had discovered. As diplomatic relations were established between the Thessian Republics and Salarian Union, the two peoples grew more trusting, and it became clear by 510 BCE that further peaceful relations between the Republics and the Union would be in the best interest of the asari, creating a galactic community that they could spearhead from the Citadel, much like what they believed the protheans had once maintained before they mysteriously vanished. Shortly after the Thessian military heavily classified and covered up the existence of the prothean library on Thessia in 500 BCE, the Asari-Salarian Pact was signed and ratified, giving birth to the Citadel Council, with the Thessian Republics as the unspoken leader. As the centuries passed and more and more species joined the galactic community, the Thessian Republics grew larger and more powerful, long having become a galactic superpower and one of the most revered nations on the galactic stage, heralded for their advances in technology, democracy, economics, philosophy, religion, and more: before the arrival of the Turian Hierarchy, they also fielded the most powerful military, with the largest active army and most advanced fleets. This period of asari supremacy would be enjoyed for the majority of the Thessian Republics life time, and despite the Asari Renaissance ending in 346 CE, the Thessian Republics "Golden Age" only ended in 2186 CE with the Reaper War.
The Reaper War in 2186 CE marked the beginning of the end for the Thessian Republics and for the asari golden age. While Republics space was largely spared from the initial stages of the conflict, it wasn't long before Reaper forces eventually began their invasion, punishing asari space and leaving a swath of destruction through their territory on a scale unseen by the asari in all of their history until finally Thessia itself was under siege, its grand megapolises being reduced to ruins. The Fall of Thessia sent shockwaves throughout the asari world, demoralizing the asari people as their homeworld, for the first time in history, was not only under attack, but had fallen to a foreign invader. Even after the war ended, the Republics was exhausted militarily and economically. Worse still was the discovery of the prothean library during the war by the Normandy Squad, unearthing the asari conspiracy to harbor prothean technology for themselves (in direct contravention of Council law to share all discovered prothean technology for the greater good of the galaxy, a law which the Thessian Republics proposed and helped to pass) and subsequently the secret to their technological edge for centuries. Demands from the New Council to give up the library were conceded, depriving the asari of their best kept secret, while the Republics were slapped with sanctions as punishment, accompanied by a reduced role in the New Council, as well as their removal as a major influence on the Council itself. All of this pressure began to mount, and civil war as a result of planetary-states threatening to leave the Republics was only averted due to the high possibility of New Council intervention: despite this, Illium would finally cast off the last of its political connections to Thessia in 2191 CE, becoming a fully independent nation and the second asari interstellar power to exist. The decline of the Republics continued all the way up to 2205 CE when the Post-Apocalyptic War broke out, throwing them into another expensive war, this time being one they couldn't afford. The hope was that the war could be ended quickly in order to avoid any long-lasting detriment to their economy, but this hope was dashed aside when New Council and Dominion offensives alike were swatted aside by both sides, and with the Titan Covenant's entry into the conflict, it became clear it wasn't going to end anytime soon. By 2212 CE, the Asari Republics was virtually bankrupt, with the other New Council governments essentially having to prop up the ailing nation to keep it from collapsing: when the Turian Hierarchy and Salarian Union fell to the Dominion, and soon the other smaller nations, the Republics didn't have these either by early 2215 CE. With the nuclear annihilation of Thessia, and tying down of their remaining military forces, the Thessian Republics finally collapsed under all the pressure and its surviving military and political leaders formally surrendered to the Dominion on 8 November 2215 CE, two days after the Thessian Fallout. The surrender was formalized on the Citadel in on 10 November 2215 CE with the Asari Intrument of Surrender, an agreement that saw the dissolution of the Thessian Republics and the formation of the Asari Occupied States. While asari independence would eventually be restored, the Thessian Republics would never rise again and the asari golden age was permanently over.