In Archaic times, the Spinward Confederacy formed, splintering from the Core Commonwealth. A group of disenfranchised rebels felt that the Commonwealth was too huge and cold to effectively represent its planets and people. They felt that the Commonwealth was too concerned with military and trade and not focusing on improving lives through making necessities like healthcare, food, and technology available to all. The Commonwealth would not rally its resources against obviously cruel and primitive races like the Makkuth, nor would it force Empirical members like the Ourii to adopt democratic systems of representation. The rebels gathered their resources on the new Commonwealth colony of Silver, renaming it Garrison to represent its determination to succeed and to hold out against the assault of apathy and indifference.

The Commonwealth initially failed to respond to the separatist activity, thinking it was a minor inconvenience on the fringes of the empire. The hardworking and highly vocal colonists on Garrison would quickly recruit the established world of Jorum to succeed from the Commonwealth and join the newly named Spinward Confederacy. There followed a brief period of consolidation between the two worlds, which also featured considerable tension and some limited armed conflict as the Commonwealth asserted military pressure to regain control of Silver and Jorum. The conflict would scare and dishearten many Commonwealth members, in particular the world of Hadjel, which would outright switch sides and stand up for the fledgling Confederacy. In the face of internal pressure, the Commonwealth was forced to let its worlds go, though a bitter taste remained.

The Confederacy would enter a period of slow colonial growth, using the resources of its more mature worlds to settle and build up worlds like the colony and military base on Jezanne. There would be many trade, political, and armed disputes between the Confederacy and the Commonwealth over the years, leading each government to pressure its members to sever trade with members of the other. This served only to isolate members from their respective empires, suddenly being told not to deal with worlds they had historically traded with. A number of planets banded together on the planetary level to form the UTP and demand the right to trade independently with each other without interference from either empire.

The Spinward Confederacy still begrudges the Core Commonwealth and stale relations still occasionally erupt into conflict. While neither government is happy about it, individual worlds from the two empires trade freely under the Universal Trade Pact.

Cultural
The Spinward Confederacy is a predominantly human separatist alliance, whose worlds join voluntarily or are settled by the central government. "Soft aliens" who are humanoid, like the Bjaki, are tolerated but any race resembling lizards, bugs, beasts and squid are generally considered sub-human and inferior.

The original intention of the Spinward Confederacy was to form a more socially more aggressive and progressive alliance of worlds focused on people before business. Its biggest problem is that its member worlds tend to disagree on everything from policy to process. The Confederacy, though now a relatively mature power, never really got over the initial growing pains of empire. It is mired in the problems of Confederation. On one hand, its members agree that a strong central leadership is necessary to drive forward the growth of the greater good. On the other hand, individual worlds disagree on the exact extent and role of the central government. And because of its immense size, the central government spends most of its time just administering the government and trying to come to workable decisions rather than actually performing the duties the founders criticized the Core Commonwealth for shirking.

Local planetary governments are independent entities and form local governments on their own terms. They are strongly encouraged to implement democratic processes in their local government. The central, official Confederate government maintains local offices of each federal Branch that interact with the planetary governments.

The Confederacy is run from a number of key positions. Every five years, a President and Vice Presidents are elected through a popular vote. Each planetary government elects its own Vice President to represent them on a Federal level. The President is elected in a separate campaign and represents the interests of the Confederacy as a whole.  The Presidency is primarily an internal position, with the President residing on Garrison, setting policy for the Confederacy, and guiding and shaping the laws and attitudes of the empire. The Vice Presidents act as advisors to the President, guiding local and federal policy and act to implement the President's vision.

The Confederacy is additionally run by administrative Branches:
The Records Branch deals with record keeping and statistical information.
The Legislative Branch devises and changes the laws that apply to all members of the Confederacy.
The Justice Branch requisitions resources from the Spinward Arm to enforce the laws devised by the Legislative Branch.
The Developmental Branch is in charge of building and physically maintaining infrastructure including local buildings and transport systems necessary to give the central government a presence on member planets, wormhole jumps and safe trade lanes between and around member planets, and actually producing the equipment and material requisitioned by the Spinward Arm.
The Systems Branch is in charge of staffing and ensuring the ongoing function of off-planet facilities, space ports, stations, and other federal systems resources.

The Spinward Arm
The Spinward Arm is the organization where the real action and power of the Spinward Confederacy lie. The Spinward Arm is an enormous, complex Branch responsible for law enforcement, exploration, defense, and trade matters. It is comprised of a starfleet and ground forces responsible for the defense of its members and policing of stellar trade lanes, an intelligence and enforcement branch responsible for on-world policing and security of its members, and an exploration and colonization branch responsible for locating and exploiting new worlds and resources. The Spinward Arm requisitions materials, supplies, and equipment from the Developmental Branch. The Justice Branch requisitions equipment and manpower from the Spinward Arm to provide enforcement, policing, and protective services to member planets.