# The Confederacy

Alignment of independent worlds

A loose association of independent worlds opposing what they regard as Federation aggression.

The Confederacy is an alignment of independent worlds that oppose [Federation](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/federation/) expansion. Its members remain loosely coordinated. They share resistance to what they judge to be aggression without becoming a single equivalent of the power they resist.

## Independence and common cause

Humanity’s distant worlds have developed across generations of separation. Federation offers of protection and infrastructure do not settle the question of who should govern them. Some worlds refuse those terms and stand alone; others find common cause within the Confederacy.

The conflict is already decades old at the beginning of *Geometry of Grace*. Crews inherit names and histories from ships that came before them, placing individual missions inside a longer struggle.

## Deniable work

The [Rebel Ascendant](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/rebel-ascendant/) operates under Confederate sanction. Her assignments depend on extraction, disguise, and covert action. Sanction gives the crew an institutional connection, while the nature of its work requires separation between a mission’s identities and the lives of the people carrying it out.

FOLLOW THE CONNECTIONS

## Related articles

- [Opposing power The Federation](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/federation/)

- [A sanctioned covert vessel CSS Rebel Ascendant](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/rebel-ascendant/)

- [Captain of a sanctioned crew Kaid Sidorov](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/kaid-sidorov/)

- [Political assembly Congress of Member Worlds](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/congress-of-member-worlds/)

- [A political heartland Hayekar](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/hayekar/)

- [A member world Karain](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/karain/)

## Reading references

- Geometry of Grace — Reader orientation

Introduction view omits plot outcomes. Interpretive articles are readings of the fiction.