The Interstellar Community of Sovereign States, usually called the ICSS, sets common standards for interstellar nations, maintains a standing military, and operates the Wardens as its permanent law-enforcement and space-safety service. Its jurisdiction follows practical faster-than-light capability. Its Giza Conventions also protect primitive and uncontacted societies that remain below that threshold.
Under ICSS law, every sovereign state of a Tier 2 or higher civilization falls within its claimed jurisdiction. A signed agreement, prior contact, acceptance of its authority or knowledge of its existence is unnecessary for that claim to apply. Actual detection and enforcement depend on circumstances.
The nation is the political unit. Separate states of one species remain distinct actors. A divided people such as the Net'hret consequently encounters the ICSS through many independent governments and other organizations.
Tier 2 begins with possession of a practical means of faster-than-light passage between star systems. A repeatably functioning jump drive establishes the capability before any interstellar voyage or off-system settlement occurs. Orbital flight, home-system colonies and sublight departures alone leave a civilization below that threshold.
The wider classification runs from Tier 0, Sub-Threshold, through System-Locked, Emergent, Sovereign and Apex to the theoretical Ascendant tier. It describes capability and material independence. Political allegiance and biological ancestry are separate matters.
Concord is the ICSS's official language, developed by humans for interspecies communication. Its spoken form accommodates a broad range of vocal anatomies; its fully expressive signed form uses limb movements without requiring fingers or a particular appendage shape; its written form emphasizes clarity and ease of learning.
Delegations use Concord alongside native languages, interpreters and accessible interfaces. The adopted terms of a treaty determine the authority of its texts and translations.
The credit (¢) is the primary reserve currency and the most widely used currency in the galaxy. Credits are fully digital balances held in accounts, with no physical manifestation. People transfer them directly between accounts using software; vendors accept payment through point-of-sale software interacting with customers' wallet-connected devices.
General HEX item values use credits. Local currencies apply when dealing with protected or uncontacted worlds, including Earth and Veyrath. Ordinary speech and writing use credit or credits; the full currency name is reserved for very formal contexts and its descriptive entry.
Currency reference: ICSS Credit
ICSS law permits protectorates among Tier 2 or higher civilizations, subject to applicable interstellar obligations. Such arrangements may entrust strategic defence or external military service to a stronger patron while preserving domestic institutions.
The Protectorate of Kelmar supplies a universal five-Cycle Mahruni military levy to Helios in return for defence, gate access and jump-fleet transport. Kelmar retains domestic self-government and pays no fiscal taxes, royalties or commodity tribute to Helios. Its indigenous jump drive had already made it Tier 2 before conquest. Its status therefore rests on prior practical FTL capability.
Adopted in Cycle 9876, the Giza Conventions protect uncontacted and technologically primitive Tier 0 and Tier 1 populations against exploitation and forced subordination. Protection applies to settled peoples whether their ancestors evolved locally or arrived from elsewhere. Calling an arrangement a protectorate does not remove those protections.
Direct contact that alters the society's development is restricted. Covert observation is permitted only while the inhabitants remain unaware of the observers.
The conventions arose from Net’hret experiments on Earth. The pyramids at Giza were integrated stone-and-technology devices that demonstrated Void-based FTL communication. Their sponsors chose Earth because the uncertain stability exposed a world other than their own to danger. The ICSS intervened and compelled withdrawal.
The devices' actual technology was removed shortly after the experiments. Rock structures and a few artifacts rendered useless by age remain. The sponsors found no suitable replacement test site and never resumed the program.
Earth remains under strict ICSS protection as a Tier 1 civilization within Nebkhet territory. The Giza Conventions constrain Nebkhet and other external actors, protecting Earth from exploitation, forced subordination and prohibited interference. Multiple civilizations, including advanced human societies, study the world through covert observation.
The Wardens are an international ICSS department of law-enforcement professionals. Their responsibilities include search and rescue, port and trade-lane security, criminal investigation, migrant interdiction, navigation aids, space safety, defence readiness, and protection of non-spacefaring peoples. The service was founded on stardate 9890.188 and is headquartered on Munoro IV in the Munoro System.
The Prevention Directorate handles regulatory administration and inspection. The Response Directorate provides patrol, rescue, interdiction and investigative forces. Specialized Tactical Units pursue criminal syndicates and difficult targets across jurisdictions, including lawless frontier regions beyond local police authority.
Fleet personnel crew and operate Warden ships and wear white uniforms. A patrol frigate typically carries four to twelve Operators, supported by Security, Medical, Science/Research and Maintenance departments. Operations and its support personnel use the black-based occupational dress uniforms. The most common patrol vessel is the Vigilance-class, a 300-metre, long-endurance frigate with a crew of 300, a jump drive, stealth capability, and substantial embarked assets, medical, detention and training facilities.
The ICSS maintains a standing military and the Wardens to enforce its standards. The Wardens provide permanent regulatory enforcement, investigation, patrol and public safety, together with armed security duties. The ICSS’s legal claims extend farther than any effortless ability to detect and stop every violation.
Independent Net’hret states engage in recurring rivalries, warfare and piracy. ICSS law is their principal external restraint, although compliance varies. The actions of one Net state do not define the policy of the species as a whole.