500 AU
No definitive date has ever been established for the foundation of the Graedian Confederacy, but it is generally accepted to have been around 500 years after Terra Nova Unification. Over these centuries, many worlds had banded together to form more powerful conglomerates and thus control the flow of wealth in the region. But as each independent world or state began to reach a critical point of competition, something unusual happened. Most states – planetary or galactic – in such a position might have gone to war. Instead, after a series of economic theorizing and probing, the various Graedian states foresaw greater profit in unity, much as Terra Nova’s three main races had achieved.
Thus the Graedian sector became the Graedian Confederacy, ruled by a combination of wealthy Clans and corporate bodies. They maintained nominal autonomy, but an overall governing of interstellar trade was set in place as were regulations regarding potential need for centrality in a crisis. This unity caused an explosion of growth and prosperity in the region and helped fuel the movement of people both north and south, thanks to the newfound security of the Graedian starlanes.
