The All Systems Commonwealth or simply the Systems Commonwealth is a fictional intergalactic government from Gene Roddenberry's science fiction TV series Andromeda. It was born out of the Vedran Empire. The Vedrans, originating from Tarn-Vedra, which was their homeworld and the capital of their empire, were the first known race to discover the Slipstream, the only known way to travel faster-than-light. They built their empire by traveling to the different star systems and conquering the inhabited and colonizing the uninhabited worlds. The Commonwealth was a democratic federation of planets, drifts (space stations or orbital habitats), and systems. Depending on where you look, the Commonwealth (and its preceding Empire) was spread across Three Galaxies (referred in the fourth season of the show simply as "Tri-Galaxies") or Six Galaxies. It lasted for about 5500 years, starting with a time of political reform and ending with a violent civil war started by the Nietzscheans and subsequent invasion by the terrifying Magog.
Read more about Systems Commonwealth: The Long Night, The Restored Systems Commonwealth, Member Races of The Commonwealth
Famous quotes containing the words systems and/or commonwealth:
“The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air- conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“I’the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all,
And women too, but innocent and pure.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)