Systems Commonwealth
| Universe | Andromeda |
|---|---|
| Type | intergalactic organization |
| First appearance | "Under the Night" (2 October 2000) |
| Location | Local Group |
The All Systems Commonwealth or simply the Systems Commonwealth is a fictional intergalactic government from Gene Roddenberry's science fiction TV series Andromeda. It was born out of the Vedran Empire. The Vedrans, originating from Tarn-Vedra, which was their homeworld and the capital of their empire, were the first known race to discover the Slipstream, the only known way to travel faster-than-light. They built their empire by traveling to the different star systems and conquering the inhabited and colonizing the uninhabited worlds. The Commonwealth was a democratic federation of planets, drifts (space stations or orbital habitats), and systems. Depending on where you look, the Commonwealth (and its preceding Empire) was spread across Three Galaxies (referred in the fourth season of the show simply as "Tri-Galaxies") or Six Galaxies. It lasted for about 5500 years, starting with a time of political reform and ending with a violent civil war started by the Nietzscheans and subsequent invasion by the terrifying Magog.
After discovering the Slipstream, the Vedrans founded their Empire as they travelled from system to system subjugating other worlds. The Vedran government was an absolute hereditary monarchy, with the empress as the head of state and government. As the Vedrans continued expanding throughout the Andromeda Galaxy—the galaxy in which they originated—and the nearby Triangulum Galaxy, and Milky Way Galaxy, they eventually encountered the Kalderans in the Greater Magellanic Cloud. The Kalderans managed to somehow capture Vedran Slipstream technology and reverse-engineered it for their own use; it was not long before the Kalderan Alliance formed to offset Vedran incursions into their system. This was one of few active attempts at resisting Vedran imperialism and eventually escalated into a brutal war between the Kalderans and Vedrans for control of the Magellanic Cloud territories. The conflict ended with the Vedran bombardment of the Kalderan capital, Kalderash, and the forced integration of the Kalderan Alliance into the Vedran Empire.
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