The Earth Republic

The Earth Republic is a Federal Republic, established, roughly, in the 48,000s. Its president is Neo Exelor and the population of Earth, its capitol, is 10,320,062,706. The Earth Republic is majorly Roman Catholic but also has small groupings of other religions, as it has freedom of religion. It controls several colonies in Sol as well as colonies in many surrounding systems. Its diplomatic relations are strained with the Anzats and COG, but are good with the Astartine and Crogarian Empires. It has yet to establish real diplomatic tied with everybody else, though they do keep good communications with some.

History
It all started in 47,665. A small planet, tucked away from all knowledge of the zealots who inhabited the Earth, existed in the asteroid belt. It was called "Francisco"; it was inhabited by Europeans and Americans who left the Earth sometime before or during the Age of Strife, nobody is exactly sure. What was sure was that they were European, and they took their culture, language, and most importantly, religion, Roman Catholicism, with them. And they inhabited this planet for thousands upon thousands of years, their culture or religion not changing, but their technology changing. They were the last remnants of what we deem "technology age society".

They were not the original cause of schism in the Empire though; since the near fall of the Empire 6000 years prior, people had always been upset about something, realizing that their run away drafts or lack of public funding were absurd (though these claims soon "disappear" after the entrance of an Inquisitor). People also began to question the power of their "god emperor", since he was almost of no help in the 41st century when the aliens had the Empire on its knees. Still, most wanted to believe in the Empire and wanted to believe in their emperor. The empire was not the same, though, the unrest and refusal to answer the draft had left the empire short-handed; ships were unmanned or not even completed. Thousand year old ships that had fell into disrepair were still the ships of the line. As a result, smuggling and piracy became much more common, even in Sol.

This gave the people of Francisco a golden opportunity. Missionaries were sent in bulk to the Hive World of "Terra", what the people once knew as Earth. Those who had doubts were the easiest targets. Casual worshipers of the Emperor were also easier. The hard-liners and zealots were hard to convert, though. They needed some solid proof, not just references to the 41st Century brought up by the new converts to Christianity. The Christians knew that, to convert the people, they would have to take advantage of the rebels and the unrest. They would have to wage war on the crumbling Empire and create a just state.

At first, it was harmless. There was no violence, just millions of people raining the Imperial Palace with rocks, curses, and general protest. But then, the Space Marines attacked. The masses, mostly former and current Imperial Guard, took massive casualties but were eventually able to completely overwhelm the small amount of space marines. The inside of the palace was raided and the truth was found; the Emperor was just a corpse; bone supported by a machine, the "Golden Throne", and had been so for some time. The zealots were confused and crushed; they had no choice but to accept this new religion. The idea of the warp guiding Emperor who held off the chaos was just a myth; it was really just the nature of the warp and completely physical. Once the Imperial Palace Raid happened, the Empire rapidly fell. Once Holy Terra became "Earth", all of the Imperial Colonial governments had nowhere to turn to for help, and the masses took over. The colonies eventually fell out of place and became their own species (a process that had been going on for awhile anyway), but the remains of the Empire in ruins still remained.

There were some, however, who did not believe. Hard-core zealots and high ranking Imperial officials who wanted to keep their power escaped Earth and formed their own "Empire", dismissing the Emperor's corpse as a "fake". They supposedly had snuck the "real Emperor" away before the raid. They left for a far-away colony called Capella, becoming the Astartine Empire. Other zealots, trillions of them, took themselves into space and committed suicide by exploding their ship. A new "debris belt" circles Earth, composed of ship pieces and corpses.

Now, the Republic has existed for over 350 years. The Earth Republic was established by almost a unanimous referendum after the collapse of the Empire. Most of Imperial Earth has been leveled and, through heavy terraforming, the Earth has been transformed back into a blue-green marble. The atmosphere was returned back to its old state. The only piece of Imperial architecture that remains visible and whole on the surface was the bottom part of the Golden Throne, but it is now adorned with a golden statue of "The Great Patriot", a representative of those who died in the Imperial Palace raid. There are ruins of the Empire on the planet though, and these will never allow the humans to forget their dark past.