Mass Effect: Aftermath
Senior Councillor of the Citadel Council, 2180-2191
2180-2186:
Tesovame Tevos (Asari Republics – Independent)
2180 alongside Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent), Vuwan Valern (Salarian Union – Independent)
2183 alongside Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent), Vuwan Valern (Salarian Union – Independent), David Anderson (Systems Alliance – Independent)
2186 alongside Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent), Vuwan Valern (Salarian Union – Independent), Donnel Udina (Systems Alliance – Independent)
2186 alongside Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent), Vuwan Valern (Salarian Union – Independent), Dominic Osoba (Systems Alliance – Independent)
2186-2191:
Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent)
2186 alongside Vuwan Valern (Salarian Union – Independent), Dominic Osoba (Systems Alliance – Independent), Poriorphea Irissa (Asari Republics – Independent)
2189 alongside Dominic Osoba (Systems Alliance – Independent), Poriorphea Irissa (Asari Republics – Independent), Naerwol Esheel (Salarian Union – Independent)
Speaker of the Citadel Council, 2191-2202
2191-2194:
Marcivius Sparatus (Turian Hierarchy – Independent)
2191 elected unopposed
2194-2195:
Elspeth Murrain (Systems Alliance – Independent)
2194 def: Xeltan (Courts of Dekuuna – Particularist), Korten Merak (Krogan Empire – Sovereigntist), Veter Quentius (Turian Hierarchy – Popular Vote Sovereigntist), Hallaylise (Illuminated Primacy – Enkindlerist)
2195-2102:
Xeltan (Courts of Dekuuna – Particularist)
2195 def: Poriorphea Irissa (Asari Republics – Sovereigntist), Hallaylise (Illuminated Primacy – Enkindlerist)
2199 def: Nitesh Singh (Systems Alliance – Sovereigntist), Senal Werani (Salarian Union – Isolationist), Hallaylise (Illuminated Primacy – Enkindlerist)
An excerpt from "Aftermath: The Galaxy After the Reaper War" by Javik, as dictated to Lyleth T’Raana, published 2216.
Chapter 4 - Citadel
The Citadel had remained stranded in Earth orbit since the firing of the Crucible, and though there had been efforts to save survivors in the immediate aftermath, these were few and far between. Millions perished when the Reapers depressurised and boarded the station, and the structure was badly damaged when the Crucible was fired. The Station of Interstellar Desire had been turned into a graveyard.
The few survivors in the station's crisis bunkers owed their lives to the heroes who sacrificed their own lives to save others; Armando-Owen Bailey and the Citadel Defence Force under his command, and a vast number of civilians such as Councillor Tevos, Ambassador Calyn, Sha'ira, Dr Chloe Michel, and Conrad Verner, all of whom were recorded having given their lives to ensure that others could reach the crisis bunkers. As covered in previous chapters, the few Citadel survivors there were proved instrumental in the recovery from the immediate aftermath for a number of reasons, but the most striking one was that they provided a continuation of civilian government.
The composition of the Citadel Council had fluctuated of the course of the Reaper War, largely in terms of the human Councillor. Tesovame Tevos remained the asari and most senior Councillor until her death during the Reaper capture of the Citadel, while Marcivius Sparatus and Vuwan Valern continued to represent the Turian Hierarchy and the Salarian Union respectively. The human Systems Alliance had been represented by David Anderson just before the outbreak of hostilities, followed by the now-disgraced assistant Donnel Udina, followed by ambassador Dominic Osoba after Udina's death in the short-lived Cerberus occupation of the Citadel. The death of Tevos meant that Sparatus succeeded her as most senior Councillor, and she was succeeded as asari Councillor by her underling Poriorphea Irissa, a former ambassador.
In spite of these fluctuations, the Citadel Council had in many ways remained more stable than the civilian governments of the Council species. The destruction of Arcturus Station and the death of Donnel Udina left the Systems Alliance essentially without a civilian leadership, the Hierarchy cycled through a number of Primarchs before settling on general Adrien Victus, the participatory e-democracies of the Asari Republics had been essentially decommissioned by the Reaper invasion of Thessia, and the Salarian Union was dealing with backlash to Dalatrass Linron's unpopular decisions as leader. In this vacuum, power was effectively transferred to military leaders such as Admiral Steven Hackett and his Fleet Command, who dictated most of the immediate post-Crucible recovery efforts. The Citadel Council was able to provide necessary civilian leadership in this time, particularly alongside the new Systems Alliance Prime Minister Amaka Jelanea.
The Council was particularly instrumental in persuading Fleet Command to delegate time and resources toward the gargantuan task of repairing the Mass Relay network under Dr Brynn Cole's team. This Herculean task was viewed with lower priority by Admiral Hackett, who was more focused on destroying hold-outs on Earth and stabilising food production, but the Council understood the importance of reuniting the alien species in Sol with their counterparts across the Galaxy. In the end, the Council's plan bore quick fruit; thanks to the ingenuity of the team under Cole's command and the application of technology reverse-engineered from the Reapers, Charon Relay was repaired in 2188, alongside the communication buoys. Arcturus Stream, the Annos Basin and the Exodus Cluster had already been reached by the advanced reclamation teams by way of traditional FTL travel by that time, which allowed the Pranas, Arcturus and Utopia Relays to be reconstructed by 2189. The reconstruction of these relays were incredibly important, as between the three of them, they restored access to the majority of the Skyllian Verge, the Attican Traverse and former Hegemony Space. This began a steady reactivation of Mass Relays spreading from their activation; the reconstruction of the Widow Relay in early 2190 was the most pivotal of these, as it restored access to almost the entirety of Council Space.
The rediscovery of the Annos Basin also allowed for the Salarian elements of the Allied Fleet to overthrow Dalatrass Linron's government in 2188, just prior to the reactivation of Charon, in what would later become known as the Kirrahe Coup. Vuwan Valern was officially replaced as Councillor by Naerwol Esheel in the same year, though Esheel would only replace Vuwan in practice in 2189, when the Pranas Relay was rebuilt.
The moment access to the Serpent Nebula was restored, the question of whether to return the Citadel to its home in the Widow system in the Serpent Nebula was raised. The station's presence in the Sol system had been a necessity while the Mass Relays were inactive, but it was always felt to be out of place. The Nebula had been home to the Citadel for perhaps millennia, and for a Council that prided itself on interspecies cooperation, it's relatively central location in Citadel Space meant that it was in a neutral geographic position. In the Sol system, conversely, the Citadel was a stone's throw from the capital world of one of the Galaxy's Great Powers.
There was a general consensus that the Citadel should be returned to the Nebula; but there was the question of
how this was to be done. The Reapers had moved the Citadel using methods previously unknown, and it was unclear whether it was even possible for the Citadel species to utilise these same methods. Scientists generally concurred that the move was made possible due to the Keepers, but it was not until the now-famed Salarian researcher Aersal Chorban re-emerged from "The Box" with Keeper 22 that the full extent of the potential of the Keepers became common knowledge. Chorban's invaluable research, however, did eventually allow for the Citadel's scientists to gain control over the entirety of the Citadel's internal network to an extent hitherto unknown, including most crucially access to the Citadel's hidden engines. The Citadel was able to return to the Serpent Nebula in late 2190, but by this point the Citadel Council was facing a much greater problem.
The division of Citadel Space into members and associate members had been controversial and long-criticised since far before the outbreak of the Reaper War. The Vol Protectorate, for example, had long held a grudge against the Citadel Council for not extending an offer of membership in spite of their essentially single-handed creation of a Galactic financial system. Similarly, the replacement of the krogan with the turians at the conclusion of the Krogan Rebellions was not without controversy, and that the Systems Alliance 'leapfrogged' several far older polities into attaining membership was also a source of consternation. These criticisms had been held under wraps for quite some time, and for the duration of the Reaper War the Galaxy was too concerned with survival to pay attention to simple politics. However, with the war won, and the peace secured, things were beginning to look quite different.
The Krogan Empire under Urdnot Wrex had emerged from the Reaper War as a united, sovereign state with a real future following the curing of the genophage. Wrex was considered a reformer and a moderniser, especially in comparison to other krogan, but he nevertheless earnestly believed that his people deserved a far more active role in Galactic politics; and in the aftermath of a conflict where krogan soldiers fought to protect and liberate hundreds of worlds across hundreds of stars, for the first time in recent history most other species were inclined to agree.
Granting a Council seat to the krogans would be hard to stomach - especially for the salarians, though less so after the Kirrahe Coup - but a manageable change.
There were rumblings from other places too, however. The quarians had returned to Rannoch, alongside the slowly-reactivating geth, and the newly-formed Consociation of Rannoch was eager to secure its place in the galactic community. Similarly to the krogan, the quarians and their geth associates were viewed far more favourably after the war than before; particularly among the soldiers who had been stranded in the Sol system, and had the quarian liveships to thank for their rations. So, a seat for the krogan and for Rannoch; far harder, but still difficult.
But, then, what of the elcor, of whom Ambassador Cayln had gone down in history as a martyr for his actions on the Citadel? What of the volus, who still clamoured for a seat so long sought? What of the hanar? What of the rachni? What, even, of the vorcha (the Void Devils had also attained a near-mythic status for the death-defying actions during the Battle for Earth, and their noble sacrifice thereafter)? Alongside all of these worthy claims to Council membership, the races already in possession had lost significant diplomatic capital. The revelations that the Asari Republics had conspired to hoard Prothean technology on Thessia while the rest of the Galaxy fought the Reapers burned many bridges, and the Salarian Union was still viewed with suspicion and mistrust for their conduct during the War, even after the Kirrahe Coup.
The Council was struck between a rock and a hard place, and unlike in the past there was no easy "out". In its place, senior Councillor Marcivius Sparatus embarked on an ambitious path of reform. Sparatus heavily lobbied his own government, and with support from the governments of associate members, successfully convinced both it and the Systems Alliance of the merits of a full reform of the Council. The Asari Republics signed on to salvage what was left of their diplomatic reputation, and the Salarian Union offered whole-hearted support largely in an attempt to mend severely frayed relations with the now-relevant Urdnot Empire.
The reforms were truly ambitious. The Citadel Council was transformed from an exclusive, elite club to an inclusive, broad legislative body; a far truer exemplification of the values of cooperation and equality that the Citadel long-professed to hold. The current associate members were to be offered full membership of the Citadel Council, provided they fulfilled certain criteria and conditions, with every member having one Councillor. The majority of the conditions were self-explanatory, such as a commitment to the Citadel Conventions, for example. The two that caused the most frustration were the stipulations that members had to be fully independent polities (which impacted the volus, as the Vol Protectorate was under the suzerainty of the Turian Hierarchy) and that members had to be the sole, universal representatives of their dominant species in Citadel Space (which raised questions about the Quarian Conclave and Geth Consensus, the two components of the Consociation of Rannoch). In the eventual case, the volus' case for membership was rejected until they acquired an independent foreign policy, and the Consociation was agreed to represent both the quarian and geth, under certain stipulations and with certain changes the wording of the new laws.
In the end, the reforms were achieved despite these worries. The Citadel Charter was signed in early 2191, by the incumbent Councillors Sparatus, Osoba, Irissa and Esheel, and by new Councillors Urdnot Grunt (Krogan Empire), Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib (Consociation of Rannoch), Xeltan (Courts of Dekuuna) and Hallaylise (Illuminated Primacy). The four new Councillors represented the four new members of the Citadel, while the Vol Protectorate remained an associate member with 'applicant intention'; the Protectorate entered negotiations with the Turian Hierarchy over its future the same year. Open invitations were sent to the United Batarian Provisional Government, the Omega Free Territory, the recently re-contacted Raloi Federation, the Rachni Hives, the Heshtok Bloodlines and the Yagh Packs, but of these only the Raloi Federation replied with an intention to apply.
The reforms of the Council also extended to leadership. A far larger Council necessitated a more formal position to act as a
primus inter pares of the eight members, rather than the informal system of looking to the most senior Councillor for leadership. This position was the position of Speaker. This position was outlined in Citadel Charter as the “head” of the Council, and of the Citadel government which it presided over. As the intention was for the position to be a first among equals within the Council, the Speaker was initially elected by a common vote of Councillors, and Sparatus was unanimously elected as the first Speaker at a relatively hushed inaugural meeting of the newly-expanded Council in 2191. It did not take long for calls to reform the position to use the popular vote emerged, but these were generally drowned out by the genuine feeling of goodwill that the newly-expanded and more open Council endeared from the general public.
This was helped by the fact that the population of the Citadel station proper was still recovering from its lowest point in recorded Galactic history. The population of the Citadel had stood at somewhere close to thirteen million prior to the Reaper War; by the time of the Citadel’s return to the Serpent Nebula, it had recovered to just under one million. This was by far the largest drop in population recorded of any centre of civilisation across the Galaxy; even first-hit Earth had ‘only’ lost one third of its pre-war population. A population of such a small size relative to such a large station meant that the clamouring for reform largely fell on deaf-ears; instead, there was renewed focus on the Ward Councils, which gained greater control over their local affairs (the Presidium remained under the direct control of the Council proper).
The four-year term of the first Speaker was fairly muted. Sparatus had acquired a great deal of respect in the Citadel proper and in the partner governments, with his approval rating generally never falling below 65%. This was a far cry from his pre-war reputation as someone who refused to face facts; the Reaper War – and his steadfast support for the Allied efforts, up to and including covert support for then-Commander Shepard – arguably saved his political career. His wise reform of the Council was the cherry on top.
The main achievements of his term were those that you would expect from the first Speaker of the Reconstruction Era. He firmly re-established the soft power of the Citadel Council, which had been waning, and ensured the Citadel remained a place of Galactic power. He oversaw the rebuilding and repairing of the Citadel wholesale, and during his tenure the population quickly began to bounce back, doubling to two million by 2192, and reaching three million by 2194.
The most recognisable legacy of Speaker Sparatus’ tenure was the establishment of a greatly expanded and improved public transit network for the Citadel, expanding on the rag-tag collection of private shuttles and taxis that operated prior to the Reaper War. The new Shuttle Service Network (SSN) was an impressive feat in and of itself, but it also helped spur on the development of the station by improving connections between the different Wards and the Presidium; research suggests that Ward Subsections with an SSN Station experienced almost twice as much growth in the Reconstruction Era as those without! The SSN Stations were also, of course, among the many Citadel attractions which were named in honour of Reaper War martyrs and heroes, from Shepard Memorial at the Citadel Tower to Anderson Memorial at the Presidium Commons, and from Thane Krios Memorial in Mid Bachjret to Tarquin Victus Memorial in Upper Zakera.
His term also saw the ascension of the Raloi Federation to the Citadel as an associate member in 2192, as part of the process of applying for full membership. Sparatus also took part in the Ilium Negotiations, as an impartial mediator alongside the asari, but despite his efforts the Turian Hierarchy and the Vol Protectorate were unable to come to an agreement about a future agreement that would allow the volus enough independence to apply for Council membership, while still ensuring turian protection. In other foreign policy matters, Sparatus generally preached the idea that any species could eventually join the Council; words that were seized upon by – among others – Batarian co-leader Grothan Pazness.
The Sparatus years are remembered fondly on the Citadel to this day, as a period of collective harmony and general optimism, and Sparatus continues to rank among the highest on historic lists of Speakers, not least for his reforms that may have preserved the Council’s existence in the long-term.
Yet nothing good, as humans say, lasts forever. An incredible list of achievements behind him, in 2194 Sparatus was offered the position of Primarch of Digeris, considered by many the second-most important position in the Turian Hierarchy after the Primarch of Palaven. He accepted the offer and announced his intention not to seek a second four year term as Speaker. This was arguably one of the only black marks on his post-war record, as to Citadel citizens it appeared as if Sparatus had used the Speakership to advance his political career in the Hierarchy. Despite this, his popular reputation remained, and when he made the announcement, every potential successor vied for his support.
The race to succeed Sparatus was a crowded field, but there was two distinct factions emerging on the Citadel Council, the Ward Councils, and in wider Citadel society. On the one hand were the Particularists, who believed that the Citadel occupied a particular, unique space within the Galaxy, and was itself growing into a distinct society. They believed that the Citadel ought to act more like a sovereign state in its own right – while still acting as a forum for international discussion – instead of continuing to exist at the whims of the Galactic powers. On the other hand were the Sovereigntists, who believed that the Citadel was and should always be subservient to the member states which had signed the Citadel Charter, and remained more aligned to their home nations than to the Citadel as a distinct entity. There was also a small, third faction known as the Federalists, which opposed both major factions by arguing that the Citadel Charter should be the first step towards the unification of the entire Milky Way into a single, federal state. This factionalism had emerged during Sparatus’ speakership, but due to his immense popularity and political expertise he was able to keep it from spilling out into the open. This was about to change.
On top of this factional divide were the growing calls for a more democratic mechanism of electing the Speaker. Generally, the Particularists were in favour of a popular vote while the Sovereigntists remained in favour of the status quo, but it was not split as neatly down factional lines as the sovereignty issue was.
Councillor Xeltan emerged as the Particularist candidate while Councillor Korten Merak took up the mantle of the Sovereigntists, after many rounds of deliberations. Councillor Veter Quentius continued on as a pro-popular vote Sovereigntist, hoping to use the memory of Sparatus to win the support of the masses, while Councillor Hallaylise stood on a single-issue platform of Enkindlerism. All the candidates vied for Sparatus’ support, but the first Speaker declined to speak in favour of any of the candidates. Instead, Sparatus leant his support to a relatively unknown new Councillor, who he hoped could lead as a non-factional candidate. Elspeth Murrain, who had succeeded Dominic Osoba as the Systems Alliance Councillor in 2192, was this compromise candidate.
Speaker Murrain was duly elected in 2194 at a far less hushed Council session, and her tenure was far more eventful than that of her predecessor. Murrain had far less of a reputation than Sparatus, and while Sparatus benefited from being seen as a leader who won the war and then the peace, Murrain suffered from being seen as a relative nobody. Her political career had begun in local politics, having run for Zakera Ward Council prior and during the Reaper War. She had at the time fallen afoul of dodgy financial backers such as Elijah Khan, Aria T’Loak, Tela Vasir and the Patriarch, but was eventually elected, and later rose to prominence as one of the few survivors of the Citadel’s capture by the Reapers. It was after this that she rose from Ward Councillor to Systems Alliance Ambassador, at the behest of the governing Democratic People's Party, and when Dominic Osoba announced his retirement, she was the natural fit for Systems Alliance Councillor.
On the sovereignty issue, Murrain essentially wanted to preserve the status quo, which placed her closer to the Sovereigntists despite her status as a compromise candidate. Instead, she wanted to focus her term on reforms, such as reforms to election financing to help root corruption out of Citadel politics, and reforms to housing allocation which were believed by many to be discriminating against krogans, batarians and quarians.
In the end, however, Speaker Murrain had very little say over her own speakership. It did not take long for her past dodgy dealings to come to the fore, and when they did less than a year into her tenure, her fellow Councillors held her to ransom in order to advance their own factional agendas. The Particularists demanded that Murrain established Citadel Embassies on member and associate worlds, to mirror the embassies held on the Citadel, while the Sovereigntists intervened to prevent Murrain from amending the Citadel Charter at the Particularists’ behest. Those in favour of a popular vote also mobilised, and pushed for Murrain to make the Speaker an elected position, and then for her to resign. They were, of course, opposed in this by those who were opposed, and there was a deadlock.
In the only defining moment of her speakership in which she had any agency, Murrain muscled all her remaining influence, and managed to get both sides to agree to a compromise. The agreement – which became known as the Murrain convention – stipulated that the position would still be elected by and from the Councillors, but it was agreed that the Councillors themselves would have to be subject to more democratic scrutiny than they had been at any point in their history. Councillors would, from this point on, be subject to regular confirmatory votes by citizens of their respective states who had been resident on the Citadel for longer than one standard year. In this way, there was more democratic accountability for the Council, and by the transitive property, for the Speaker. As well as being a compromise between pro- and anti-popular vote activists, the convention was also something of a compromise between the Particularist and Sovereigntist camps, as in effect, Councillors were now both representatives of their sovereign states and representatives of their species on the Citadel. Murrain resigned from her position in 2195, as promised, while her colleagues fought to replace her.
As became something of tradition, Councillor Hallaylise once again stood on a single-issue platform of political Enkindlerism – which it must be placed on the record again, this author finds to be very amusing. Hallaylise was a fringe candidate as usual.
The real contenders belonged to the still-simmering political factions. On behalf of the Particularists again stood Councillor Xeltan, who had gained a reputation by this point –unusually for the traditionally non-emotive elcor – a something of a political firebrand. This public persona was popular, but it was not the whole truth. While crowds gathered in the Presidium Commons to hear Xeltan blast the Sovereigntists’ positions with characteristic passion, behind closed doors Xeltan was known as a pragmatist willing to compromise, which is unsurprising for a former diplomat. Regardless, Xeltan quickly consolidated the support of the other Particularist Councillors, and emerged as the frontrunner.
The question for the Sovereigntists then became who could beat Xeltan. Councillors Poriorphea Irissa, Nitesh Singh and Korten Merak all vied for the honour – almost the entirety of the Sovereigntist faction on the Council. They were bogged down in infighting, and even after Irissa emerged as their candidate, her reputation had already been damaged enough by the run-around that Xeltan was an easy pick for the undecided Councillors.
Speaker Xeltan was duly elected in 2195. As the first Speaker to be directly aligned with a political faction, his election to Speaker was controversial, and the Council session where he was officially elected saw his primary opponent and Sovereigntist leader Irissa storm out of the chamber. This was the last major event of Irissa’s Citadel political career, as not long after her loss, she resigned her Council seat and returned to her adoptive homeworld of Illium to fulfil her role as a Matriarch, being replaced by Linenthux Lidanya, who secured a landslide victory in the first confirmatory vote for a Councillor, largely due to her reputation as a war hero and former captain of the Destiny Ascension. Irissa’s position was one of the most extreme of the Sovereigntists, however, and most other Sovereigntist Councillors continued to serve. Lidanya’s election had reminded them that under the terms of the Murrain convention, they would face a major challenge in the form of confirmatory votes, and that they now had to take the thoughts of their ‘constituents’ into account.
By most accounts, those views were broadly in favour of Speaker Xeltan. Obviously, by this point the Speaker elections were still closed-off affairs in a secluded Council room, so he had made no promises and the Citadel public had been promised nothing. Nevertheless, opinion polls routinely showed that Xeltan was viewed as the first Speaker to be truly ‘rooted’ in the Citadel, and most of the policies he began embarking on also polled well among the Citadel public. This was also, of course, a tacit show of support for the Particularists in general, which put the Sovereigntists on the back foot.
Xeltan therefore had a strong start to his speakership. His first action was to begin to act on the policies which polled well among the general public; in 2195 he legislated and negotiated to make the Council (and in effect the Speaker) the commander-in-chief of the Citadel Fleet and Defence Force, ending a long-running legal fiction wherein each ship officially reported to their parent navy. He also pushed to end the turians’ effective hegemony over the Citadel military by providing incentives for other races to apply to join the Citadel Defence Force and C-Sec in 2195, and accepting an offer from Urdnot Wrex to triple the size of the krogan commitments to Citadel defence in 2196.
His hallmark policy, however, was tackling the discrimination against that many species faced, particularly in housing allocation. It was, by this point, an open secret that many Ward Councils and private landlords actively discouraged settlement by krogans, batarians and quarians – among other species – despite this being in direct violation of the Citadel Charter in both the letter and spirit of the law. The offending actors had circumnavigated this in the historic way, by basing their discrimination on characteristics that weren’t officially protected, but were heavily associated with the targeted groups; such as, for example, banning the use of “energy intensive augmentation”, which effectively banned the enviro-suits which the majority of quarians were still reliant on at this time. Xeltan’s plan, unveiled in 2197, was to completely re-write Citadel housing law, and to set up a Special Equalities Commission with the powers to punish and investigate offending actors. In time, the scope of this Commission would grow to also encompass complaints about C-Sec and other Citadel institutions. The policy was popular with the majority of the Citadel public, but faced a backlash from the housing industry, which began funding movements to oppose the Commission, including the anti-batarian Group Against Criminal Neighbours (GACRIN) and the anti-geth Movement For Organic Life (MOFOL). Despite the setbacks wrought by this newfound opposition, the reform package easily passed through the Council, and Xeltan remained a popular Speaker.
As his first term came to a close, Xeltan confirmed that he would seek another term as Speaker. He had hoped to campaign on his record of domestic reform; however, his domestic triumphs would become overshadowed by foreign affairs; as 2198 saw the outbreak of the Batarian Civil War. Relations between the two major figures of the batarian resistance and reconstruction effort had been frosty since the end of the Reaper War, but former Governor and reformer Grothan Pazness and former terrorist and traditionalist Ka'hairal Balak had managed to lead the United Batarian Provisional Government together since their return to Kite’s Nest in 2190. The frosty peace was broken in mid-2198, when military forces loyal to Balak staged a coup d’etat on Khar’shan, ousting the transitional civilian government and declaring martial law under a junta. Pazness had enough time to flee, and with his supporters established a base of operations on the colony of Camala. Balak sought to restore the Hegemony in full under his leadership, and had viewed a military coup as the only way to prevent Pazness from modernising batarian society; as he had planned to establish a federal government and to abolish the slave caste. Pazness also reportedly sought Council membership; something which incensed Balak, who abhorred the Council species.
The conflict had quickly spiralled after the coup, with Pazness’ Confederacy securing control over the colonies and Balak’s new Hegemony securing Khar'shan. Involvement from outside Batarian space also emerged, as thousands of citizens from Citadel Space signed up to join the so-called Interstellar Brigades, fighting for the Confederacy. The most of these brigades was the Normandy, under the command of Spectre James Vega. In addition, thousands of batarians from the Terminus Systems who had previously lived as mercenaries and pirates also joined the conflict, largely joining the side of the Hegemony. Bray Gok'baral, who had previously served under Aria T'Loak, was one of these mercenaries; though unlike many others, he sided with the Confederacy.
As such, the 2199 elections were sometimes collectively described as the ‘Thanix election’, due to the wartime conditions and also due to the higher number of Reaper War veterans among the Councillors and Speaker candidates, such as Lidanya, Singh and Itatus. They were also the first Citadel Council elections to be highly publicised, and the first in which ordinary Citadel citizens had a direct impact, due to their participation in the confirmatory elections for the Councillors, including the Speaker himself.
The stance that Citadel Space should take in response to the conflict was a key issue during the elections. Every Councillor came out with a stance prior to their confirmatory elections, and the Speaker candidates similarly did. Singh – who emerged quickly as the Sovereigntist candidate – called for Citadel Space to intervene directly in the conflict on behalf of the pro-Citadel Confederacy led by Grothan Pazness. This was not a popular position among many Sovereigntists, and spoke to their weakened position that they were willing to accept Singh as their candidate. In contrast, the Salarian Councillor Senal Werani emerged as an Isolationist candidate, and maintained that the Citadel should avoid entanglement in the conflict. Speaker Xeltan was far less interested in foreign affairs than one might expect of a former diplomat, and so his campaign made an attempt to bridge the gap between the isolationist and interventionist positions, in order to try focus on his domestic record. This hurt his appeal to both groups, but ultimately he remained popular, and the Councillors opposed to him could not unite around either Werani or Singh.
Xeltan was therefore re-elected for a second term as Speaker, in a highly publicised Council meeting. The majority of incumbent Councillors kept their seats in the confirmatory elections; notable exceptions to this being the krogan Councillor, Korten Merak, who was suffering allegations of corruption, and the turian Councillor Veter Quentius, who was rumoured to also have been offered a promotion back in the Hierarchy. In the end, they were replaced by Urdnot Wrill and Orinia Itatus respectively.
Xeltan hoped that the Batarian Civil War would end quickly, so that he could focus on further domestic reform, but video leaks showcasing the depravity of the Logasiri slave mines combined with refugees telling of the Hegemony army’s depravity pushed public opinion fully toward intervention, and Xeltan was forced into a position of support. He signed the Ordinance Act in 2199, which directed materiel support to the Confederacy, and recognised the Confederacy as the sole legitimate Batarian government in 2200. He nevertheless refused to commit the Citadel Fleet to the conflict, warning that the Reaper War had shown the dangers of leaving the Citadel under defended.
One major boon that the Xeltan administration did grant Pazness' government, however, was the use of Citadel extranet servers and communication buoys. These proved instrumental to the success of the Emancipation Algorithm which freed thousands of batarian slaves from bondage via compliance chips, and radically altered the course of the conflict as slaveholders sympathetic to the new Hegemony dealt with widespread slave revolts. The Algorithm spelled the death warrant for Balak's government, as partisans on Khar'shan loyal to Pazness were able to successfully capture the capital city in 2201, with Balak ending his life and the vast majority of his forces surrendering, defecting, or fleeing to the Terminus Systems. Pazness returned to Khar'shan, and his government created the modern Confederacy we know today, simplifying the caste system from twenty-seven castes to six, abolishing the slave caste, and successfully leading the batarians into Citadel Space.
This should have been a diplomatic coup for Speaker Xeltan; forced into a position of support, he held true to his convictions while still bending for the Citadel public. As we now know, however, it was actually the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Xeltan administration. By any rate, the Batarian Civil War and the Citadel’s response to it signified the end of the Reconstruction Era on the Citadel, and the beginning in earnest of the Roaring Two-hundreds; which we will continue to discuss in the next chapter.
