A human interstellar polity centered to antispinward of Earth, the FWR began as a group of fiercely independent and unauthorized wildcat colonies, first founded between 2225 and 2260 in an effort to escape the restrictive policies of the Earth-governed Terran Interstellar Union. Contact and conflict with the nearby Kyran clans prompted these colonies, led by the Frontier system, to form a military alliance against the hostile aliens. Shortly after the allied victory over the Kyrans at the Battle of Frontier in 2272, the alliance was formalized as the Coalition of Free Worlds (CFW), which would then evolve into the more unified FWR in 2320.

The Coalition was described by its first commander in chief, legendary Admiral Rance “Starbird” Wolfe, as “diverse worlds united by a single spirit,” and the same largely holds true today. The Republic is governed by an elected bicameral legislature and a popularly elected president, with an independent judiciary. Even in the era of the Compact, the FWR maintains a loose federal structure, with each of the member worlds or system-states retaining a wide latitude in domestic affairs. Similarly, each of the larger worlds, such as Freedom, Beacon, and Jayu, are split into multiple smaller provinces and states, each of which retains significant control over local affairs, and so on down, in some cases, to the municipal level.

Mandatory service is perhaps the most salient federal law enforced by the FWR. At the age of twenty-one, all citizens must choose between two years of military or community/civil service. Most choose the latter, resulting in a lower degree of automation in the FWR compared to the other human polities. However, a significant portion (around 25 percent in peacetime) choose military service of some kind. Most often, these individuals choose to serve in their local Planetary Defense Forces, but service in the ICDF also counts toward the two-year quota. Individuals who refuse either military or community service lose the right to vote in federal elections or run for federal office; only on some worlds, such as Freedom and Horizon, do they also lose this right at the local level.

Free Worlders tend to guard their liberty zealously and are renowned for their bluntness and their openness regarding political issues and debates, leading to a reputation for being argumentative. While in-utero elimination of various diseases and conditions is common in the FWR, most forms of post-birth gene editing are prohibited. Conversely, cybernetic augmentation is only loosely regulated at the federal level, resulting in a much higher degree of adoption throughout the FWR relative to the TIU or the UCC.