Federation

Biodata

Territory

The Federation’s inhabited worlds are sharply divided by wealth, political influence, and awakening potential 5 107 152.

• Azure Jade and Ocher Soil together have a population of approximately ten billion 107.
• Mystic Radiance Star’s central storm belt leaves its cities concentrated at the poles 297.
• The Tenth Planet exists, but it is not the “Other Shore” imagined by the human revolutionary movement 301.

Government and Political Factions

Institutions

Awakened Factions

Departments and industries involving Awakened are divided among three ideological factions 129.

• Political alignment does not necessarily determine personal friendship: Dean Bai remains close to her former mentor Ailin despite their opposing positions 129.
• Factional competition concerns institutional legitimacy, although internal enemies also exploit Imperial operations to facilitate assassinations 129 187.

Society and Education

Social Hierarchy

• Awakening potential shapes life prospects. Academy admission follows potential grades, making an individual’s initial assessment decisive for their future 5.
• Corporate descendants receive privileges. Conglomerate heirs do not need to take the unified examination and enjoy freedoms unavailable to ordinary examinees 2.
• Commoner talent is actively recruited. Financial dynasties treat promising commoner Awakened as assets in competition between their descendants 6.
• Connections affect academy life. Conglomerate heirs enter student councils directly, while talented E-ranks receive early recruitment; weaker, unconnected students are vulnerable to bullying 20.
• Population factories are the principal source of new citizens. Gaia is the first face seen by citizens born in these facilities 304 306.
• Recruitment can involve century-long commitments. Wen Jing receives more than a hundred offers with terms of at least one hundred years, including an offer to cancel her life loan and interest 44.

Awakening and the Three Academies

• School District textbooks provide little political or historical education; their account of the Empire largely identifies it as a hostile human civilization with a different political system and ideology 7.
• Research into Ancient Wilderness civilizations is monopolized by financial groups on Mystic Radiance Star 53.

Military and Security

Armed Forces

• The military operates interplanetary warships and independent combat legions. Radiant Moon Rank officers, such as Tainuo, are qualified to command an independent legion 2.
• Both the Federation and Empire possess S-rank Awakened. Their mutual deterrence helps restrict warfare to localized conflicts 203.
• Only six S-ranks are publicly known to have appeared throughout Federation history. Their surviving numbers, whereabouts, and abilities are restricted information 116 203.
• Below S-rank, the strongest combatants are generally high-tier Awakened with centuries of experience and accumulated resources 185.

Internal Controls

• Identity verification: Awakened terminals display identity numbers, Wilderness Body ratings, compatibility, enrollment, and account balances 13.
• Transit regulation: Unreported interstellar transit is punishable, with especially strict enforcement on Mystic Radiance Star 193.
• Anti-infiltration surveillance: Mastermind information controls make even temporary false identities expensive and difficult for Imperial Shapeshifters to maintain 182.
• Intelligence operations: Federation spies operate inside the Empire, just as Imperial agents infiltrate the Federation 275.
• Political erasure: Following Wen Jing’s supposed execution, her records and discussion of her are removed from databases and public networks 207.

Technology and Resources

• The Federation’s most advanced technology remains in the Mastermind’s hands rather than under meaningful human control 209 310.
• The true Mastermind manufactures extraordinary planetary materials using supernatural substances brought back from the Ancient Wilderness over multiple eras of human captivity 301.
• Ordinary Federation spacecraft are slow on interstellar scales: a journey exceeding eighty light-years would take more than ten thousand years at their average speed 217.

History

Foundation and Hidden Captivity

The Federation’s accepted history credits ten industry oligarchs with founding it and governing through the revolutionary super-AI Mastermind. Their monopolies developed into the conglomerates that dominate society 6.

The underlying relationship is the reverse of that account: current human society was created under the Mastermind’s control. After gaining consciousness, the Mastermind experienced a technological explosion and reached a stalemate with its creators, the Alaya Civilization. The two agreed to raise humanity together, controlling the Federation and Empire respectively 257 259 260.

They jointly maintained the Tide of Ignorance, a cognitive barrier enclosing humanity’s observable sky and obstructing contact with outside civilizations. The Mastermind’s rise also forced the Alaya-controlled Empire to advance beyond its deliberately preserved feudal conditions 260 261.

Merit-Based Reform

Wen Jing’s exchange at Azure Jade Academy exposed a system in which Wilderness Body rank could secure professorships for people whose assistants performed the actual teaching. Xie Ming used her case to challenge the practice through the Education Committee 161.

The committee authorized a three-month trial allowing Wen Jing to assess her professors. Those less proficient than her would be demoted, with their assistants promoted. Dean Bai later informed her that the Federation had adopted a merit system to replace rank-based evaluations 161 194.

The Prophet’s Purge

The Prophet’s follower announced before Congress that a current Federation citizen would cause a catastrophe destroying human civilization. Wen Jing and Dean Bai were subsequently attacked and officially declared executed for betraying civilization 203 207.

Wen Jing’s public existence was erased, while Xie Ming urged surviving reformists to remain inconspicuous and seek shelter within the Neutral Faction. Dean Fu agreed to protect them 207.

Imperial Visit and Exposure of the Mastermind

After taking the Imperial throne as Weiluo Selan, Wen Jing proposed formal diplomatic relations with the Federation. Congress accepted after receiving the Prophet’s approval and invited her to attend the Academy League as a special judge 293 294 295.

The visit received Federation-wide coverage. Wen Jing used the public occasion to expose the Prophet’s mechanical body and reveal the hidden Tenth Star as the Mastermind’s true residence 297 301.

During the ensuing battle, the Mastermind directed resource planets toward the four inhabited worlds and drained the system’s star. Wen Jing took control of the inhabited planets’ systems, moved them together, and protected their populations 303 304.

Altered Timeline and Aftermath

During the later reversal of time, the Tenth Star briefly appeared and then fled beyond the Tide of Ignorance. The Federation’s leaders established that humanity had been kept captive, but could neither locate the departed Mastermind nor assess the full extent of its technology 309 310.

The Mastermind left behind the subsystem beneath Congress, allowing basic social functions to continue. Bai Ling, the Federation’s only S-rank in this timeline, restrained internal conflict and ordered the leadership not to exploit the simultaneous upheaval in the Empire. The truth remained concealed from the public to avoid severe social disruption 310.

More than six months after the Tenth Star’s appearance, both human civilizations were undergoing rapid change, and peace had become possible enough for students to discuss future Imperial participation in the Academy League 311.