The Galactic Council

The council is the ruling body of the 'evolved' races of the galaxy, specifically those who have finished their evolutionary flux (the period Earth is experiencing right now, that generates variance) and developed interstellar space flight. The Council was originally formed as a minor voice for the races conquered by the Pellambran empire. The Pellambrans once controlled the vast majority of settled space in our galaxy, and had conquered all of the 'evolved' races within that space (they did not conquer the 'un-evolved' races because they did not consider them worth the effort). When the leadership of the royal family changed over a millennia ago (see Pellambrans), this small voice for the conquered people evolved into the true governing council of the republic of evolved worlds.
    The Galactic Council acts in some ways as an interstellar United Nations, but with more authority. Most of the races within it acted together for centuries under the Pellambran yoke, and have maintained this ability to put aside their differences for the greater good. This isn't to say that there are never problems, but what problems exist are minor. The Pellambrans themselves took up a position as an equal voice on the council, but events of the last few decades have caused them to withdraw even from that and become advisors only.
    For the last 200 years the Galactic Council has been in a constant state of war, sometimes highly aggressive, sometimes barely noticeable, but ever present, due to the actions of Mortius, the renegade Pellambran Prince and his attempts to restore Pellambran dominance to the galaxy. This conflict was only recently resolved (in 1970 by Earth reckoning), and the council is beginning now to recover and stabilize their position. This war touched on Earth twice, the latter of these two instances being more appropriately described in the entry on Pellambra. The first was in the mid 1950's, when members of the !dar investigated the radio signals emanating from one of the rim worlds.
    Unfortunately, The !dar had been conquered by Mortius some time ago when he corrupted their hive-mind. Uninterested in the majority of the backwater planet, they !dar began abducting nascent and just-revealed variants, since those did have a practical value. The !dar would brainwash all who were susceptible to the powers of their hive-mind and kill the rest. This was stopped when members of the Council intercepted one of these kidnapping raids and used the human variants taken as willing soldiers. These humans joined the Council troops in obliterating that segment of the !dar, eliminating the threat to Earth. Any involvement past that is unknown, as only one of their number returned to Earth, writing up the chronicles f his adventures under the guise of mere fiction; he has no idea what happened to his erstwhile allies.
    The council is a voting body of races, with each race having a number of votes based on a complex but precise formula of population and area, which the council claims "guarantees fairness and equity" to all races. As stated above, only evolved spacefaring races are members of the council, but since the vast majority of the time these events either coincide, or evolution precedes spaceflight, nearly all spacefaring races are council members. The only exception notable from the standpoint of earth history are the Plovians. The major races on the council include:

Qax
A race of intelligent bacteria colonies with space-folding capabilities. Limited on their own, they form symbiotic relations with other species, originally with the predators of their home planet, later with members of council races. When linked with a sentient host they provide advice and input but cannot dominate the actions of their host. The Qax bond is beneficial to both the Qax and the host, but can be disconcerting for both, as the Qax is surrendering most of its freedom of action while the host has something talking in their head. The Qax abilities are best used on a planetary scale, although large or powerful colonies can warp space on an in-system range.

Sidari
Tall, bipedal humanoids with telepathic abilities, they are one of the oldest races on the council. They are excellent diplomats and traders, and form an important part of the post-war council. Qax don't bond with Sidari, since the telepaths can dominate and control the Qax. They only did so during the close of the war, producing telepathic/teleporting soldiers, a Cadre of which still hunt down war criminals. Immediately after the war ended, the Sidari military attempted a coup of the Sidari government. The leaders of this coup were captured, but managed to escape incarceration by crashing the ship onto Earth.

!dar
Insectoid hive mind race, they were corrupted by Mortius at the start of his war and served as his faithful shock troops for most of the conflict. The !dar were finally freed when the corrupted 'queens' of the hive mind were destroyed by council forces with the assistance of Earth variants. The !dar are slowly rebuilding their decimated society and birthing new queens. They have been allowed back into the council, though not without suspicion. The average !dar weighs 200 kilos counting its exoskeleton and walks on four limbs and manipulates with two, but there are many breeds of !dar, some more specialized than others; their link is the hive-mind connection.

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