The history of the ethnic Gallente is split into five distinct epochs, each covering at least one of the standard historical ages used in other documents. The Age of the Ancients is characterized by having poor historical records and no cohesive societal or technological developments, running up to the Iron Age at most. The Age of Rouvenor is named after the king of the Garoun Empire, a large multinational kingdom that had its height during the Seafaring Age, and would ultimately have an unrivalled influence on the planet's future. The Age of Industrialization is self-explanatory, while the Age of Globalization started during the ethnic Gallente's Information Age. The current epoch, the Age of Federation, began during Luminaire's Space Age, and continues to this day.
The ethnic Gallente's history is unique in the sense it is not characterized by a single dominant ethnic group or nation assimilating all its rivals by direct or indirect means. Instead, the world went under a relatively peaceful process called globalization, where individual races (each represented by one or more nation-states) would trade with one another on diplomatic and non-violent terms. This process would begin as early as the Seafaring Age, but it wasn't until the creation of a global telecommunications network in the Information Age that nurtured a planetary identity, linking individuals with individuals, not states with states. The term 'Gallente' only emerged after encountering the Caldari for the first time, where both races would have identified themselves as simply human otherwise.
Since records began in the Age of Rouvenor, the history of the ethnic Gallente covers over one and a half thousand years.
Overview
The ethnic Gallente originate from the sixth planet of the Luminaire system, a world which their ancestors called many different names, but today is officially named Gallente Prime (though many ethnic Gallente refer to the planet as Gallentia). Most modern archeologists believe the first settlers of Gallentia hailed from a system known as Tau Ceti.
These settlers found a naturally habitable planet with a healthy level of biodiversity and a generally comfortable climate, conditions so favorable that they did not undertake terraforming or climate control efforts. Some find it ironic that the beneficial environment that later helped civilization recover and flourish may have been a key factor in the pre-Collapse settlers' leaving little archeological evidence.
The history of the ethnic Gallente covers two distinct epochs. Before spaceflight and the ascendancy of the Federation, their history and culture was contemporaneous with the history of Gallentia. However, over the past five hundred years, as the ethnic Gallente have settled hundreds of different worlds and mingled with countless different peoples, their continuing story has become but part of the Federation's history. A lack of cultural homogeneity has allowed such extreme divergences to take place, to the point that millions of ethnic Gallente have distanced themselves so much from the homeworld (involuntarily or otherwise), that they are only considered Gallente by virtue of citizenship.
Age of the Ancients
There is no clear or set date as to when civilization re-emerged on Gallentia. Though archeologists have discovered and reconstructed ruins of the planet's ancient settlements, only a few of these ruins give hints to pre-Collapse society.
The time before the rise of the Garoun Empire is known as the Age of the Ancients, where several peoples and civilizations lived either separately from one another in complete isolation, in a state of perpetual conflict, or anywhere in between. Some nations were desert empires who worshipped the Luminaire sun, while others were tribal collectives who lived in the marshlands and forests of Gallente Prime, forming a spiritual harmony with their surroundings.
Other states were monarchies or republics who fought for territory in the grasslands and plains, though the maritime nature of the planet meant that hundreds of communities were able to develop with no contact with the outside world. There was a disparate level of scientific development at this time, with an overall asymmetric pattern of advancement.
There were some empires who were able to combine technology from pre-collapse ruins with Iron Age tools and machinery, becoming disproportionately powerful regional hegemons. Many inferior nations decided to band together into coalitions to destroy these technological empires, dividing the spoils of war between them. In turn, these victors would collapse or be conquered themselves generations later, with new states springing up and falling in never-ending cycles.
The back-and-forth societal climate of Gallente Prime meant that the cycle of nations and empires rising and falling continued for centuries after the re-emergence of civilization on the planet. Eventually, cohesive political and technological development came from the continent of Garoun, whose temperate and comfortable climate enabled a specific nation in particular to bring about the influential stability that would permeate the course of Gallente history for the generations to come.
Age of Rouvenor
Rise of Rouvenor
Running from coast to coast through the center of Garoun was the Stomeve river, with the settlement of Cylle (later Caille) sitting right in the heart of the continent. Starting off as nothing more than a fishing village, Cylle developed into a large town as it exchanged hands between various empires who sought strategic control of the region. However, in 21656AD, Doule dos Rouvenor ousted the reigning vassal king of Cylle, establishing his own independent kingdom. The continent of Garoun, particularly the central regions, were the most fertile areas on the entire planet, allowing an abundant supply of food with relatively little effort. For the immediate term, this meant that Garoun had the foundations to grow quickly in population.
Garoun Wars of Unification
With a rapidly growing population, the Kingdom of Rouvenor became a threat to the other countries on the Garoun continent at the time, and they all very quickly aligned against the young king and his people. A war on multiple fronts raged, as Rouvenor led his armies in a campaign of conquest of the entire continent. King Rouvenor used his tactical genius to successfully fight back invaders, while utilizing his charisma in swaying the local populace to his cause. These events are documented in the ancient text of the War Commentaries of dos Rouvenor.
Eventually, all of Garoun was united under one flag, creating the Garoun Empire and spawning a period of great cultural and technological progress. Notable developments included the invention of the printing press, which allowed widespread consumption of literature, as well as high culture (such as theater) becoming accessible to a much wider audience outside of the elite. The ease of agriculture in Garoun allowed these changes to take place, as the greater population found themselves with ample free time.
As technology advanced, the Garoun Empire began to send out explorers to other lands. These ship captains and their crews were mostly independent, other than the royal ensign on their vessels and the blessing of the crown. Though never empirically confirmed, it was rumored that one caravel encountered the isles of Lyace, home to a sea monster eponymously titled the Long-Limb of Lyace. Setting out from the capital of Caille, an aged King Rouvenor sailed to Lyace to slay the beast, recorded in fables and epic literature such as poems.
War with Morthane
It was during the latter years of Rouvenor I’s reign that the Garouners encountered a rival empire known as Morthane. Initially, knowledge about one another's cultures and politics was obscure. As trade increased, tensions grew over religion. Both empires had a polytheistic pantheon based on the moons and stars, specifically constellations. However, Morthane's interpretation of the same constellations stood in complete opposite to Garoun's. Though King Rouvenor did not see this as any grounds for disagreement, there was a growing movement within the Empire against Morthane. Rouvenor did his best to keep a lid on such domestic tensions, but when the nation caught wind of Morthane's practitioning of slavery, he was faced with little choice.
A war with the seven armies of Morthane followed in the deserts of the rival empire, the Garoun Empire seeking to liberate the enslaved peoples there. King Rouvenor I perished, with the throne passing down to his son. The war ended in stalemate, and the status quo was maintained. Nonetheless, the tensions would remain, even if there was reduced levels of contact due to the relative lack of trade. Artists and poets would demonize the government of Morthane as oppressors of the people, romanticizing their struggle against a tyrannical regime. Since there was little way to verify such claims, this image of Morthane was widely constructed within the Garoun Empire.
With Morthane out of sight, the Garouners continued to explore and chart the world, erecting colonies and trading posts in new lands, sometimes welcomed by the natives, other times greeted with hostility. The Empire remained a continental power despite the trade routes it established overseas, deferring naval protection duties to privateers instead.
First Renaissance
During this time, the progressive ideas of Garoun began to be exported along with its material trade goods, encouraging other nations and peoples to abolish slavery and adopt the humanitarian policies of Rouvenor. For this reason, tensions with rival Morthane grew, but never reached a second flashpoint. Hueromont, an independent maritime city-state, was founded as the seas became busy with trading vessels, and also had a significant influence in laying down the foundation for trade and diplomacy within the Gallente mindset.
Doule dos Rouvenor III inherited his father’s crown in 21714AD, and started a new calendar based on his ascension, the Age of Rouvenor (AR). An AR year is 1.21 of its pre-Yoiul equivalent, and is still used in many places on Gallente Prime. His 36-year reign was peaceful, unlike his precursors, meaning his governance was characteristically light-handed in style.
It was then that the progressive framework for multiculturalism through the peaceful interactions of different peoples began to permeate Gallente thought for the first time. Individualistic philosophy began to take root, with the ideas of the human spirit, free will and forging one’s own destiny spurring ethical policies. Precursors to the concepts of social welfare and humanitarian aid came through as edicts that saw the creation of state-sponsored temples to act as free hospitals for the sick and downtrodden.
A popular idea that emerged was how the individual was a nation unto themselves, and that no other individual should have the right to meddle in the affairs of another. Though historians would later point out the irony of this considering the Garoun Empire's previous foreign policies, the idea that a single individual (the monarch) ruled over countless others started to be greeted with hostility. In response, King Rouvenor III introduced the rule of law through the introduction of one of the earliest recorded constitutions, meaning that the monarchy could only rule and govern its subjects within an established legal framework.
Collapse
Eventually, the Garoun Empire fell victim to the ideals it championed. The crown had passed to a new family, the Seitaredes, who lacked the experience and repute of the Rouvenors before them. The notions of self-determination within the peoples of the vassal kingdoms began to take hold, with many calling for secession from the Empire.
The first two provinces who declared independence aligned themselves with Morthane, who launched an invasion of Garoun from its new allies on the continent. A second war with Morthane followed, far more bloody than Rouvenor’s first wars of unification. The determination of the Garoun Empire meant that they were able to drive Morthane off the continent, emerging victorious.
However, the Empire was unable to sustain its rule over Garoun for much longer. More provinces began to secede, with very few cases of bloodshed because of it. The centuries of peace that the Rouvenor dynasty championed meant that they were reluctant to violently put down any secessions. In addition, the Seitaredes wanted to maintain their hold of Caille and their home province, and keep it free from any violence and bloodshed that yet another war might bring, fully aware that they could not hope to fight back an alliance of the new emergent states.
In 148AR (21837AD), the Garoun Empire collapsed, but its legacy on the continent and across the world remained. Without the burden of an ailing empire, even more rapid technological advances were made worldwide.
Age of Industrialization
Initial developments
Steam power was first introduced in the city of Caille, bringing about the dawn of the Industrial Age. The trade routes established generations prior meant that the technology was exchanged fairly rapidly, while plentiful fossil fuels allowed nations across the planet to industrialize quickly. As with many cases of industrialization, however, this initially brought a catastrophic amount of instability, due to the human political mindset not quite catching up with technology. The notion of industrialized warfare would bring tensions to an all-time high, but there were much more peaceful developments at first.
Seafaring ships could now be made of iron and steel, and could use coal as a fuel. It was now possible for these ships to cross the vast distances of the maritime homeworld with ease. However, the knowledge of the ocean currents lay firmly with the successor states of the Garoun Empire. The amount of moons in orbit of the planet meant that such currents were intrinsically complex and dangerous, giving the Garoun nations an edge in global trading.
The invention of railroads and motorized transport eased logistics on land, but were secondary to maritime affairs. Finally, factories could now churn out tools of trade by the hundreds, precipitating a population explosion never before seen.
Migrations
The mining and mega-project culture began to emerge in this time, with the construction of vast industrial conglomerations and hives (not dissimilar to the modern multi-tiered crystalline megalopolis) being supported by equally massive mining excavations. The maritime city-states grew in importance, while rural villages began to grow into large towns on many continents, as migrants sought to escape the overpopulation occurring in the cities.
These immigrant families escaping the urban population were mostly of the wealthy classes. Their departure from their home cities left vacant countless managerial jobs. They were filled by members of the working classes, who previously had no hopes of penetrating the higher echelons of their societies. However, despite these former workers becoming wealthy, there were many cases of these individuals and their families retaining the culture and social styles of the class they had ascended from. This essentially broke down class barriers and social segregation in many of the largest cities, something that would be maintained far into Gallente Prime's future.
It also had the effect of setting the foundations of social mobility within Gallente culture, that anyone can become anything based purely on ability and merit, and not social or cultural background. The migration of the wealthy from the cities also set the historical precedent for Gallente Prime to have an even wealth and population distribution, as well as a lower urban density of its major settlements relative to other homeworlds. However, in both cases, it would several decades for these concepts to settle and eventually grow.
Airship Revolution
Because of the maritime trading monopolies of the Garoun nations, other countries sought methods to compete internationally. Hydrogen and helium airships that wished to carry equal freight to ocean vessels would be required to travel within or beneath the cloud layer, making them susceptible to storms and bad weather. Nonetheless, a battle for trade supremacy was conducted, but the Garoun states would continue to dominate due to their unrivaled knowledge of the ocean currents.
A major technological development in this area occurred in the regions inhabited by the Morthane successor states. Large deposits of osmium were discovered, which could be used to create metal-clad airships resistant to storms and bad weather. Even with Garoun's knowledge of the ocean currents, these airships could traverse the globe much quicker, especially when combined with the latest propulsion techniques. Their altitude ceiling was significantly higher than the cloud layer as well, making them immune to cases of bad weather that sea vessels were often susceptible to. The richest deposits of osmium were in Morthane itself, with varying levels in other areas.
States without large osmium deposits, including the Garoun nations, believed they would find themselves outdone and outmatched by others. Those with strong land armies or sea navies invaded weak states for their resources, while the Morthane successor states were too weak to prevent themselves from having their territories cut up and divided between the larger empires. Metal-clad airborne warships (ranging from fast-moving sloops to massive metal fortresses held afloat by propellers) were constructed, obliterating their standard dirigible rivals and seagoing battleships with ease. As many countries still had a decidedly imperialistic outlook, rulers of industrialized nations could now pursue their agendas with more bloodshed than ever before.
Sky Wars
With the invention of metal-clad military airships, wars were launched with different pretexts than resources (at least outwardly), ranging from cultural disagreements to drumming up old animosities. Trading and mining companies that found themselves in control of the osmium supply profited immensely from these conflicts, penetrating the ruling classes and influencing governments' inclination towards hostilities. The vast distances between continents and islands meant these wars would primarily take place in the skies.
However, when nations deployed seafaring warships to defend coastal settlements, both were indiscriminately targeted and destroyed. Nations with no airship fleets (or at least inferior fleets that did not use metal-clad vessels) found their towns and cities levelled. Other industrial era developments, such as rifles, artillery and tanks, only added to the ferocity of these conflicts further.
To many historians, the period of industrialized conflict and fatal instability that cast Rouvenor ideals of peace and cooperation aside represented the humans of Gallentia adapting to the epic technological leap in the form of ‘growing pains’. The cataclysmic loss of life thanks to these new weapons of war meant that the continuing violence would not last forever. General fatigue across the globe saw conflicts come to an end, with millions dead over a period of decades, and hopes for the future that such wars would never occur again. The invention of the jet engine would usher in a new generation of airships and other aircraft that would be used for peace, and not war.
Perpetual Peace
The splitting of the atom and the birth of nuclear technology came after the Gallente had enough of war, meaning they were not victim to the same calamities as countless civilizations on other worlds that had eradicated themselves through nuclear exchange. International organizations based on trade were established. Thanks to industrial technology, freighters, trains, and aircraft would assist the growing influence of these trade blocs, and blur the economic borders between nations. With the Gallente having had enough of the atrocities of total war, they soon fell back on the notions of trade and diplomacy that the pre-modern kingdoms and old republics had once championed.
Secularization also became popular during the latter years of the Industrial Age, while the democratic republic gradually became the more fashionable political model rather than a dynastic monarchy. Despite the gradual eradication of religion from government policy, several cultures had a spiritual undercurrent which encouraged a stewarding role towards the natural environment. Efforts were undertaken to reinvigorate areas ravaged by war or heavy industry, while technologies in ecological preservation were developed. What was assumed to be permanent damage to some regions was reversed. For the indefinite future, the prospect of environmental damage to Gallentia was effectively eradicated.
Age of Globalization
The Information Age
The Information Age on Gallente Prime was marked by the explosive increase of telecommunications. While the Industrial Age brought about the faster exchange of material goods, the ease of worldwide communications now facilitated the exchange of ideas and ethical notions. Combined with faster and safer jet travel, Gallentia was smaller than ever before.
Trade, be it economic or cultural, was no longer restricted to wealthy tycoons, politicians, and other members of society’s upper strata. Individuals of a culture from one nation could now exchange ideas and communicate with another from the opposite end of the world. Instead of bringing about conflict and tension that the interaction of foreign peoples would otherwise bring, it stimulated cooperation and cross-cultural communication. This was because governments did not have control of computer-based communication, and thus interaction was not politicized or nationalized, leaving users to interact on a purely individual basis.
The trade organizations that were founded just before the Information Age began to evolve into supranational entities, as economic interdependency combined with popular post-nationalist ideals began to blur the lines between borders. However, governments had yet to catch on to these fundamental changes to all Gallente societies and cultures that were taking place. They attempted to polarize world politics once more in order to gain a upper hand in global economic and social control.
Three Bloc Era
The first union emerged from the Garoun continent, championing ancient Rouvenor ideals of democracy and humanitarianism. Its powerbase lay in the political and ideological influences it wielded worldwide. The nations of Morthane, seeing nothing but a second Garoun Empire forming in all but name, soon banded together behind their own supranational entity. They stood behind the values of independence and non-interventionism, and were prepared to use hard action against Garoun's soft power. Their powerbase came from a large population and industrial base.
Finally, the city-state of Hueromont became the capital of a third bloc which emerged as equally influential, covering the peripheral states of Gallentia and encouraging neutrality and diplomacy, with their power coming from its corporate ties in the transnational economy. Though standing for different ideals outwardly, all three were essentially concerned with forwarding their own power and agenda. There were plenty of countries who did not subscribe to any of the blocs, and found themselves kept under their heel as a price of non-alignment.
Despite attempts to politically re-polarize the world map, a global social society connecting individuals with individuals, not nations with nations, had long been established, and was only growing stronger as technology improved. Attempts to control the digital communications network by the three blocs failed in the face of massive mobilization by tens of millions of users. Though telecommunications had certain homogenizing effects, the unwieldy nature of the three power blocs saw flashpoints develop within them, which instead elevated the cause of local identity in harmonium with a global ideology. It was now easier for individuals to learn of the plights of oppressed peoples across the globe, while said peoples could utilize technology to better organize their causes (and in some cases, resistance).
Even if said global ideology originated from the Garoun continent, the connection was only made by politicians in rivalry with one another, and not by the world population. Several unfashionable regimes, such as dictatorships and theocracies, took measures to put down the local uprisings in their borders that were being facilitated and encouraged by the global movement.
Democratization
In response, the major power blocs were forced by popular mobilizations to work together to launch interventionist campaigns to assist independence movements against undemocratic regimes and rogue states. Though there were several instances of using proxies to fight against one another, their continuing rivalries were increasingly being perceived as outdated and immature. Multinational corporations would sometimes exploit the opportunities these flashpoints would offer, even manipulate them over time.
The development of precision weaponry, such as guided missiles, allowed these conflicts to take place with minimum collateral damage. Moreover, such wars would last days instead of months or years, with very little attrition leading to one-sided conflicts that would be over quickly. Pushed by the popular forces, the major blocs weeded out anachronistic governments and regimes, establishing democracy and libertarianism as the dominant political and philosophical ideology across Gallentia.
Independence movements saw the amount of nations on the world map multiply significantly, with larger countries breaking down into a variety of smaller territories. Eventually, the three supranational entities collapsed bloodlessly as a result of a series of financial crises combined with popular pressure. The nations of Gallentia instead formed the World Democracy League as an international diplomatic and peacekeeping forum (the WDL remains the Federation-recognized planetary government of modern day Gallente Prime). Corporations, long entrenched in the transnational system, became the dominant controllers of the global economy.
The Space Age
In 906AR (22463AD), towards the latter years of the Gallente’s globalization, an astronomer from the Republic of Lyace called Vivien Tolouti discovered the Caldari on the seventh planet of their solar system (initially known as Cephalin), who were visible thanks to the start of their Industrial Age. The revelation that the Gallente were not alone in the universe had an unprecedented effect on the people, and they rapidly came to believed it best to set aside differences with the other peoples of Gallentia in order to present a united front to 'aliens' (at least in outward company).
Though Gallente Prime remained divided between nation-states, cultures and religions, the ideologies of liberty and individual freedom was nonetheless shared between most, if not all, countries and peoples by this point. It was soon decided on the international level that space was to become the future focus of the Gallente, declaring the homeworld as nothing but a cradle of civilization to depart from. A multinational space agency independent of the World Democracy League was formed, called the International Space Cooperative (or ISC), and technologies to cross the interplanetary distance became the primary focus of all future scientific development.
The first manned expeditions arrived on Caldari Prime in 971AR (22517AD), following several probe missions that baffled the Caldari nations. Gallente first contact with the Caldari was the first instance either race referred to themselves by their modern names, with Gallente simply being the word chosen by the ISC captain to describe the people of her homeworld. A communications link was established between the two worlds, and there was mass jubilation on both sides (particularly on Gallente Prime) over the discovery of a new race. Several vessels were dispatched from Gallente Prime to bring the Caldari out of their industrial era and into the Space Age. The ISC from Gallente Prime inaugurated several Caldari countries into its organization, though states from the former world always had a greater influence in the agency’s affairs, due to being the primary financiers of the institute.
Age of Federation
Though the Federation would not be founded for another five hundred years, historians agree that the construction of the first stargate out of the Gallente and Caldari home system in 1057AR (22588AD) marked the beginnings of the democratic alliance’s foundation. The period of rapid expansion under the authority of the multinational space agency mostly benefited the Gallente. This was because the International Space Cooperative was structured in a way that nations with the larger population had the greater sway in decision-making. Although this was deemed a fair system when the organization was first founded on Gallente Prime, the much smaller population of Caldari Prime meant that the latter were constantly at a disadvantage.
Cultural expansion
The dominance of the Gallente over the Caldari meant that the modern society of the latter effectively became a product of the former. A Caldari nation-state was shaped to have a civilian government ruling over citizens with codified legal rights and entrenched bureaucracies, along with a free market and capitalist modes of production. Though the countries on both planets would remain fundamentally polar opposites on the cultural and social levels (with the Gallente leaning towards libertarian and the Caldari towards authoritarian), they followed the same structural styles regardless. This became known as the Luminaire Model, and became one of the most prolific exports of the Gallente civilizations, going as far as to influence the structure of contemporary interstellar society.
A notable vehicle of Gallente cultural projection took place in 1109AR (22631AD). The Cultural Deliverance Society (CDS) was founded by several Gallente philanthropists, business tycoons, and many other multinational figures. This was in response to the instability and low-level armed conflict that had erupted on the Caldari homeworld as a result of planetary politics being unable to adapt so quickly to the sudden technological leap. Though it was explicitly apolitical and did not represent any one nation from Gallente Prime, it was discovered decades later that the CDS had the funding of several major powers on the homeworld at the time. It arrived on Caldari Prime that year, and set up several endeavours across most Caldari nations, including, but not limited to, charities, schools and humanitarian projects.
The CDS also introduced corporate capitalism to the Caldari to a more extensive degree, with the first Caldari megacorporation being founded in 1173AR (22684AD), known as Isuuaya. Both the Cultural Deliverance Society and the international space agency went a long way to influencing modern Caldari society with Gallente concepts over the years, though Caldari culture was resilient enough to adopt many ideas for their own benefit, instead of being warped completely. An example of this was the megacorporation, which combined Caldari pragmatic authoritarianism with their collective outlook perfectly.
A golden age dawned on Gallente Prime while the stars were being charted, with the first green arcology cities and crystalline megalopolises appearing in this period. The second and third planets of the Luminaire home system, known as Corufeu and Astrin respectively, had terraforming colonies established on them, while a brief overpopulation panic on Gallentia saw several nations negotiate the construction of underwater cities on Caldari Prime. Large segments of the ethnic Gallente population began to become diluted with Civire and Deteis ethnicities, starting the trend of the former becoming a true interstellar race.
Further encounters
In 1306AR (22794AD) and 1324AR (22809AD) respectively, Gallente vessels encountered the Intaki and Mannar homeworlds. Both were at a very primitive, pre-industrial level of development when they were encountered, but were swept into the modern age with one swift stroke. The ethnic Gallente were very keen to interact with the two new races. The Intaki quickly developed democracy as an organic development with minimal Gallente influence, making the two cultures naturally affinitive to one another (though the Intaki certainly demonstrated much more restraint and discretion than the Gallente).
Meanwhile, the Mannar’s loud, expressive and somewhat alien culture meshed well with Gallente artistry, creating numerous hybrid offshoots, before the lines ultimately blurred. However, the Mannar’s stubborn and xenophobic tendencies resulted in some friction; many felt the Mannar were a mixture of the Gallente and Caldari cultures. They would adopt the Luminaire Model with significant growing pains and armed conflicts, attributed to the Gallente's initially inexperienced and clumsy (though eager all the same) methods of cultural uplifting.
Further intermingling took place between the ethnic groups of Gallentia and Caldari, now along with the Intaki, Mannar and other minor homeworlds. The reaction to this was generally positive, with the only clear streak of negativity coming from a few conservative Gallente nations on the outskirts, most of whom disliked the off-world races on principle. Established international law on Gallente Prime outlawed any form of racism or institutional discrimination based on ethnicity, and while there was still some indirect persecution, such beliefs were for the most part considered outdated. The first heads of state on Gallentia who had at least some Caldari descent came into office during this period, while many Intaki and Mannar individuals began migrating to Luminaire VI, filling in a variety of job openings as many Gallente started to shift to off-world colonies.
The Founding
The Federated Union of Gallente Prime was jointly founded in 1702AR (23121AD), as a democratic supranational authority over all pre-existing nation-states on the four major homeworlds and their associated colonies. By this point, the ethnic Gallente races were not only mixed extensively with one another, but with the off-world races as well. This was seen as the justification required to initially center the new Federation around the Gallente homeworld, the first cosmopolitan planet in known space. Cynics would simply point out that the Gallente's superior population gave them equally superior political leverage at first, which would shape the Federation's political culture and habits for the rest of its history.
When the Gallente-Caldari War erupted in 1743AR (23155AD), the ethnic Gallente had their first taste of planet-scale authoritarianism. Several nations on Gallente Prime attempted to secede from the Federation due to vehement disagreement with the methods of the Ultra-Nationalists, but they were subjugated quickly by both major planetary powers and the Federation itself. The Hueromont Incident early on in the war precipitated the toppling of the fascist regime, however, and it took some time for the previous status quo to be reestablished on the homeworld.
Second Renaissance
The brutal flashpoints that had taken place in Luminaire as a result of the Caldari secession created a distrust of interstellar government amongst the ethnic Gallente, something that has never truly dwindled. Large volumes of ethnic Gallente began to migrate from the capital system to settle elsewhere, either forming their own politically autonomous systems as new Federation members, or moving onto completely independent areas of space such as what would become Solitude. Though the union would reform significantly in the early years of the war to become a far less heavy-handed body, the perception of Federal government being a meddling entity would continue indefinitely, even when the capital was moved from Luminaire to Villore.
The encounter with the Amarr Empire in 1773AR (23180AD) had a notable impact on the ethnic Gallente, as it did on the rest of the Federation. Initially, the ethnic Gallente found the Amarr a curious entity, perceiving their Empire as resembling a pre-industrial kingdom on the former's homeworld. However, the fact that it had expanded to be much larger than the Federation and remain culturally homogeneous was considered baffling; for a long time, the ethnic Gallente considered their Federation to be the only logical interstellar development of human civilization, founded on post-racial and post-national principles (even if the invention of an FTL media earlier had allowed the Gallente to perpetuate their homeworld's culture across other planets).
For the Amarr Empire to appear like a single planetside nation perpetuated across the stars left a mark on interstellar ethnic Gallente culture. In response to what was seen as the discovery of an "old-fashioned" empire, the ethnic Gallente looked back to their own histories, particularly those that originated from the Garoun continent. Older cultures were revived, updated for the contemporary era. The Rouvenor kings became popular again, as did many fashion and aesthetic habits from that period. These habits in looking back to Garoun history so far past its prime would remain amongst ethnic Gallente culture for the future, with the design of the Nyx-class supercarrier being a notable product of such a habit. All of this became known in ethnic Gallente history as their Second Renaissance.
To the Stars
As the Federation expanded over the following decades, the influence of Gallente Prime began to dilute and weaken. It became a cosmopolitan world of many different ethnicities, and thus Federal representation began to take the interests of non-ethnic Gallente into account. Moreover, as the Federation increased in size and population, the overall level of representation and standing of the Gallente homeworld politically began to decrease, as the people were now distributed over countless different planets. The ethnic Gallente could no longer be considered a single entity, as they were in the Federation's early years.
Many worlds began to rival the size of Gallentia by population, and thus they became key political actors as a result. The penetration of the Intaki into the government also tipped the balance of interests away from Luminaire significantly. The mass migration of the post-rebellion Minmatar who did not choose to settle in the Republic only accelerated this process, and ethnic Gallente encountering the tribal culture emphasized the effects of the Second Renaissance's neo-classicalism further. Today, the interests of the ethnic Gallente are not only distributed across the great expanse of the Federation, but also include the wishes and desires of the many other races they live alongside.