Respublica
The ashes of the old Codexian Republic proved fertile soil for the seeds of something quite extraordinary. As the Civil War was wound down, and the worlds of the fallen giant were consolidated under a new regime, neither Neo-Liberal nor fully Conservative, a sort of apathy set in. More than fourteen billion people called this new state 'home', but they found it to be a difficult place to live; fraught with instability, economic turmoil and absolutely riddled with crime. Such was the extent of the damage caused by the war that it took almost ten years just to clean up the rubble. The homeworld, especially, was a veritable junkyard. It had borne the brunt of the conflict in its most terrible stage, and had seen a host of major cities burned by nuclear fire. The living, in some respects, envied the dead. Humanity's 'Golden Age' was at a definite end. Or, at least that was true for the majority of humans.
The neighbouring Commonwealth spent the next twenty years positively BOOMING. Its relative stability, good living standards, excellent job growth and favourable immigration terms caused a vast number of humanity's best and brightest to leave the 'old world' behind during the 280s and beyond. Doctors, engineers, specialists from every profession, all seemed to be keen on fleeing the terrible mess that the core worlds had become. The new government tried in vain to stop them by offering lucrative employment packages, but was only moderately successful. The Codexian state had enough other problems to deal with and found itself unable to devote the requisite resources to retain these talented individuals. The brain drain, in turn, damaged its ability to clean up the fallout of the war, figuratively speaking. The economy simply could not shift gears, having only mildly improved in the aftermath of the 'Brotherly Conflict'. Unemployment remained high, colonial development ground to a halt, and the 'Navy' (if such a term was even appropriate, at this stage) was a pitiful remnant of a shadow of its former glory.
These were sad times. Sad, desperate times. While the Commonwealth prospered throughout the 290s, Codexia looked on, enviously. The trade that had spurred on the high economic growth of the last seventy-odd years had badly slackened, with the Raumen-Hin'in War. When that finally ended - after the failure of the Second Raumen Uprising in 284AU - a third of Raumen territory was in Hin'in hands, and a Hin'in 'protectorate' occupied another. Though things began getting better thereafter, ever so slowly, it was just not enough to make a serious difference for the Codexians. They suffered, while the ruling regime floundered. It was then that a small movement arose from the slums of the largely destroyed Unification City, and began gathering momentum, as it exploded across the homeworld and beyond. This movement was known as the 'Children of Santi Maria'; a pseudo-Christian organization with obvious Buddhist and Islamic influences. It was a religion for the New Age; all-encompassing and re-assuring of one's cosmic utility, but grounded in committed charity work and harsh discipline.
It was enormously successful in selling its image to the poor and the middle class. They, who had experienced the worst of the last fifteen years, began flocking to it from 292AU onwards, after its aggressive proselytizers had spread to many parts of the homeworld. There were no Marianite hedonists, junkies (of any sort) or (known) criminals. This was a religion for the 'unsullied', the disciplined, the pure and the vengeful. It promised salvation only through the strict pursuit of personal perfection and the rejection of all 'vices'. These vices would come to include just about every materialistic symbol: from means of sensual gratification, to drugs, to body-alteration etc. etc. It was an attractive ideology simply because it offered something the government could not. That is to say, it offered CERTAINTY. A sense of belonging and the comprehension of one's place in the greater scheme of things. Soon, the Children were nearly everywhere. By 310AU, they numbered over a billion.
The resolve and drive of the Marianites was impressive. Though organized religion had taken a backseat to secular government for hundreds of years, the trend was reversed in mere decades. The multifaceted failures of the various governments of Codexia were largely to blame for a new blossoming of belief in the intangible and the aspirational. The ruling government of the period in question did not see the mortal danger the Children presented, until it was too late. They were 'hands off' during the rise of the nascent cult, and they delayed acting when the cult began to take on a political aspect. When it formed a political party (with clear affiliations, despite legal distance), there was no reaction. When it formed lobby groups and spent tens of millions of credits on influencing various political bodies, there was no reaction. When the Charitable Party for Progress (CPP) won the second election it contested, there was still no reaction.
It would take the Marianites another decade in power to drop all pretence of democratic inclinations, but by then they had become a part of the furniture, so to speak, in any case. Led by the enormously charismatic Pure Alonso Jaymes Mariano (born to one of the first Marianite preachers on Codexia), they used every opportunity to pulverize big business, consumer culture and anything else that was seen to afflict the common man. They infiltrated various public institutions, introduced their own (very popular) schools, raised their own 'security forces' and generally made themselves the centre of public life for a very large number of people. Resistance, when it finally came, was mainly on the part of the largest corporations, the upper class and a certain segment of the population that, for whatever reason, could not stomach the Marianites, their policies or their religion. The Marianites, who did not take kindly to such resistance, crushed it using socio-economic pressure and, in a few instances, force. In 327AU, Constant La Berre, Mariano's 'successor', dissolved the Council, had its members arrested and declared that the Republic was no more. In its place, the Marianites introduced the Venerable and Resplendent Codexian Respublica (or the Venerable Respublica, in short).
There was virtually no resistance to this development. The military almost immediately pledged its loyalty to the new regime, having been guaranteed a steady expansion and increased funding in future. Citizens who were unhappy about the coup held their tongues. They knew full well what the regime was liable to do in case of aired protests. Intellectuals, too, generally erred on the side of caution. At most, the steady stream of upper class economic migrants to the Commo became a flood. By 328AU absolute power was in the hands of Wise-Earl Neymar, the first leader of this new state. The work ahead, such as it is, remains monumental. The Venerable Respublica faces many challenges. The first amongst these is a simple choice. How is the state (and Marianism) to treat outsiders?
Do you... decree that the Respublica is open to all, and that Santi Maria embraces all sentients (those who conform to Marianism, that is) lovingly? This will help ingratiate the state with its alien neighbours, specifically, and may prompt the spread of the religion, perhaps. However, such an open attitude is not very conducive to aggressive action or militarism.
OR
Do you... decree that the Respublica is repelled by alien monstrosities? Santi Maria reserves the salvation she offers for Man alone! This will adversely affect alien trade (thereby the economy) and relations, but will help inspire an us-against-them attitude in the people that may be useful in maintaining stability, and will not allow for economic dependencies, like those of our past.
came only after the complete and utter failure that was that 5-point plan) over the last dozen or so sessions. it seems very few sensible persons that actually carefully read what is written by the mighty Barbarian (and think "oh.. this sounds cool. it's like *insert lame SF scenario or whatever*" instead of "hmm.. considering what we know so far, this seems like the most plausible outcome so that and that would be the most sensible choice") are left in the council. and that saddens me. no (serious) butthurt involved... only disappointment
) with the "coolest" (read: most radical) idead.. well, you can guess how it ends 
