RIGELIAN CONSORTIUM
GOVERNMENT: Merchant Confederation
FOUNDED: 1789AD
CAPITOL PLANET: Rigelia
GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE:
Supreme Trade Council
STAR SYSTEM: Beta Rigel
MEMBER SPECIES
MEMBER PLANETS
The Rigelian Consortium is a major trade organization and stellar government which operates from the Beta Rigel system. The Consortium was founded in the late 18th century following contact the Vulcan High Command and Rigel's development of warp drive. Since then, Beta Rigel has become a major trade hub on the space lanes between Vulcan and Orion space, connecting into the outer and mostly unexplored Beta Quadrant of the galaxy.
Rigelia
Rigel II
COLONIES
Rigel III
Rigel IV
Rigel X
Rigel VI
PROTECTORATE
Rigel VII
The Beta Rigel star system
Beta Rigel has an unusually large habitable zone, allowing for numerous colonies inside the star system. Rigelia and Rigel II are considered full members of the Rigelian Consortium, whose populations have voting rights in all trade matters, while the remainer of the Beta Rigel worlds are considered colonies. The Rigelians also maintain protectorate status over Rigel VII which hosts a pre-warp bronze age culture called the Kalar.
The government of Rigel operates as a democratic trade organization, with a Supreme Council elected by the populus as well as local and regional governments organized along traditional democratic lines. Rigel has no space fleet and a very small planetary defense military, with the financial hub status of the star system, as well as numerous defense treaties with trading partners, generally a deterrent to invasion.