Khephren Confederacy

The economic backbone of the Galaxy, the feline race that rules the Khephren Confederacy is an organization that handles most of the financial and trading contracts for roughly 80% of the known galaxy. Their system of government is an oligarchy--generally the heads of the richest families and businesses in the Confederacy set policy. Their integral position at the heart of the galactic economic engine means they enjoy a unique role in interstellar politics: namely, no one can afford the potential economic damage of a conflict with the Khephren would cause, and so their stated position of neutrality is respected by every major race in the galaxy.

This has had a curious effect in that the Khephren have no standing army, as the other galactic powers are required by treaty (and their own self-interest) to defend it. For internal missions that require force, the Khephren will employ freelance troubleshooters, similar to the gunhunters and assassins common to other sectors of the galaxy.

It was the Khephren that would make first contact with Earth, visiting it during the time of the pharaohs and finding a civilization insufficiently advanced to open trading agreements with, they withdrew for a number of millennia, unbeknownst to them leaving behind enough signifiers of their presence that the Egyptians began to dress, build and act in ways similar to what they had observed from their alien visitors.

Their next encounter with Earth would come as the UEF was completing its colonization of the solar system. Intercepting communication traffic between a colony ship that was installing a listening post near Charon. Moving to investigate, a Khepren severe ship met with the UEF Avalon, and in the course of 24 hours, Earth suddenly realized it was not alone, and within 36, they had signed a trading agreement with the Khephren.

Almost immediately, this reaped huge dividends for both parties. The Khephren sold Earth a huge shipment of Space Drives, and allowed them to reverse engineer their own version, which dramatically upped the speed with which their colonization initiatives were completed. Indeed, without the Khephren it is unlikely the Century Plan's goal of full colonization of space within 100 years would ever have been accomplished at all.

For the Khephren, they found humans tolerable company and eager customers, and were all too eager to allow them to live on their various colonies. During and immediately after the Rigellian War, one colony in particular nearly approached a 50/50 split in terms of human/Khephren population.

Following the War, this would change, as the Treaty of Nova Rycon opened up the Frontier to the UEF. The Khepren helped Earth finance the establishment of their infrastructure and operate as silent partners in major projects directly controlled by the UEF.

Unlike the other major galactic powers, the Khephren have had very little in the way of upheavals or revolutions, as their general attitude towards these things to maintain at all costs a status quo that promotes a healthy economy. The story is ongoing.