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The Alliance holds that it is ready to accept a two nation solution, with both nations being represented as separate political entities with their own embassies and representation. The Alliance, while officially having no position in the matter, refuses to acknowledge the Emperor’s status as the Emperor of Mankind and also rejects the Faith of Abraham as a state religion. The Empire holds that the Alliance has strayed from “the grace of God” and seeks to absorb Alliance into itself. The Empire holds that it has the right, due to its long membership, whereas the System Alliance claims that the Empire speaks only for itself, but the Alliance represents a larger variety of human traits and hold that the Empire is only a fraction of humanity’s history yanked out of its context.
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While the two sides do not have official grievances, the appearance of the Systems Alliance on the galactic stage has raised questions over which one is to be the representative of humanity on the Citadel. The Human Situation refers to the political situation involving the Holy Star Empire of Jerusalem and the Systems Alliance. Therefore, it is also our duty to repair the damage from this mistake.” The turian reparations for the incident came quickly, helping smooth over the issues that could arise from it between the Systems Alliance and Turian Hierarchy, with Primarch Fedorian saying “The occupation of Shanxi was a mistake, one born of upholding duty. Realizing the mistake that had occurred, the turians withdrew and a ceasefire was soon established and peace followed, with the Systems Alliance being granted observer status in the Citadel until their decision to seek affiliate status. Surprised, the Empire responded that it did not have such a colony. The situation was soon resolved however, when the Turian Hierarchy informed the Council and the Star Empire of the Empire’s supposed violation of Citadel Law and the occupation of Shanxi. A turian patrol, meeting Alliance vessels activating a relay, opened fire on the humans and followed the survivors to the colony of Shanxi, which they proceeded to occupy as a police action.
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The Relay 314 Incident, also known as the First Contact War by the Systems Alliance, was a two week long conflict over the colony of Shanxi.
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The Empire is also widely held as an aggressive nation, particularly after their Crusade against the Batarian Hegemony from 2412 to 2422 GS. Imperial missionaries are a common sight in Terminus Systems, though their official presence is limited. The Empire is ruled by the Emperor, who is both head of the Holy Church Of The One God and is said to receive an heavenly mandate to rule over the Empire and humanity. This event is generally held as the birth date of the Empire, though its formal founding was not until later. His speech of ending the schism of three former conflicting religions, (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and of how it was wrong for God’s children to hold such deep divisions lead to a merging of the three into a singular religion. The Holy Star Empire of Jerusalem is highly religious nation, with it's main religion being the Faith of Abraham, formed after the appearance of the prophet Peter the Second. As such, they were offered a small planet to colonize. The Citadel Council was unable to trace back the route used by the slavers or locate the homeworld of the humans. While initially mistrustful and superstitious of Citadel species, the humans eventually accepted the aid after suffering food poisoning from local flora. The Citadel offered its assistance to the dislocated humans after being informed of their situation. The Holy Star Empire of Jerusalem is composed of the descendants of humans captured by batarian slavers in 1692 GS (Galactic Standard), who managed to overpower their captors and crash landed on the salarian colony of Dinalin.
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