Treaty of Farixen

The Farixen Naval Treaty, later known as Five Powers Treaty was a treaty among the major interstellar states of Citadel space, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction following the aftermath of the Krogan Rebellion.

At the top of the pyramid is the peacekeeping turian fleet which makes up most of the Citadel Fleet. Second, are the other Council races - the asari and the salarians. Council associate races, like the hanar and volus, are at the bottom of the list.

It was negotiated at the Farixen Naval Conference, held in Turian space, from 710 GS to 725 GS, and it was signed by the governments of the Asari Republics, the Turian Hierarchy, Salarian Union, Vol Protectorate, and Batarian Hegemony. It limited the construction of dreadnoughts between different Citadel races in their given fleets. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, corvettes and frigates, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited below 800m in terms of length and height.

The ratio of turian to Council to associate dreadnoughts is 5:3:1, which essentially means for every five dreadnoughts the turians construct, the asari and salarians are allowed three, and all other Citadel races one. Signing the Treaty of Farixen is a requirement for any race wishing to open an embassy on the Citadel. This however was changed when the Federation joined the Citadel.

An exception is made for the Krogan, who after the events of the Krogan Rebellions and the subsequent release of the Genophage are not permitted to build any heavy ships at all; instead a Demilitarised Zone has been established around Tuchanka.

Later naval arms conferences sought for compromises between expansions and limitations of warship production following the inaugurations of the Terran Federation and Systems Alliance to the Citadel. The terms of the Farixen Treaty were modified by the Second Farixen Naval Treaty of 2662 GS and the Shanxi Naval Treaty of 2664 GS. By mid 2660s, the Batarians renounced the treaties, making naval arms limitation an increasingly untenable position for the other signatories.

Carriers are megalithic ships that have a similar general design to that of Dreadnoughts. The only difference is that Carriers are designed to carry and transport mass amounts of vehicles, fighters, interceptors, and troops across the galaxy. Dreadnoughts are specifically designed to combat enemy ships in a space combat environment and/or bombard planetary targets. The construction of Carriers is not included in the Treaty of Farixen policy resulting in no legal limit upon building any number of Carriers for any race.

Non-Signatories
The Treaty of Farixen is not obligatory to any associated government in Citadel space, but instances in which associate member states have constructed dreadnought fleets exceed the embassy ratio (1:5 versus the Hierarchy) tend to be frowned upon and often raising concerns in Citadel community.

Terran Federation
The Terran Federation is currently in possession of the largest fleet of Dreadnought-type vessels in Citadel space, estimated at hundreds of battlecruisers and a dozen super-dreadnoughts currently in shake down run with thirty more under constructions.

The simplified, utilitarian nature of the John A Warden design is indicative of Federation doctrine. Being relatively reliable and cheaper to build than their dreadnought counterparts, Federation battlecruisers were the most prominent dreadnought-type vessel in any combat engagements and capable of bearing the brunt of frontline assault with their heavy armor and powerful laser array. however, these vessels, while designated as dreadnought type, were only in doctrinal fields, and not in length, meaning they were not technically under the purview of "Dreadnought" scale ships, a convenient loophole.

As of 2662 GS, All the current John A Warden class battlecruisers in Federation Fleet have been extensively refitted. Their length have been extended to 750m to accommodate extra mass accelerators and a powerful kinetic barrier generator, nearly making them a full-fledged dreadnought in terms of firepower and size. The improved John A Warden class is often referred as the perfect representation of a Line-Breaker Battlecruiser, having both powerful shielding and heavy armor, augmenting its performance in frontline assault roles that it has been designed for from the beginning. However it still suffers from base design flaws in its shipbuilding, and its side armor is considered fragile for even cruiser level ships.

Systems Alliance
The Alliance has two dreadnought classes, the super dreadnought of Everest class and the John A Warden class battlecruiser (refitted variant). The Everest class is a 1,100 meter long dreadnought with a main gun capable of accelerating a 20 kilogram slug to 1.3% the speed of light (4025 km/s) for a kinetic energy yield equivalent to 38 kilotons of TNT. It is armed with 80 broadside laser cannons, 20 on each side including the "Top" and "bottom". In addition, the ship also includes numerous missile launchers across the hull. The Everest is currently undergoing trials while 2 more incomplete hulls of the class have been planned for conversion into the first Fleet Carriers of the Alliance Fleet due to overrunning costs of the Alliance Dreadnought program.

About fifty refitted John A Warden class Battlecruisers from the Federation is currently in Alliance service. Aside from the second-hand John A Warden class, a small number of Petolemaiac Dreadnoughts have been donated to the Alliance by various Petolemaiac nations after the One Year War to avoid them falling into Federation hands.

Another Alliance battlecruiser project, Design 1457, Codename: Kilimanjaro is also planned as a response to concerns over Batarian pirates incursions in Alliance territories, however it is unknown if this design ever made beyond drawing boards given the overruning costs of the current Everest class Dreadnought.

Petolemaiac Hegemony
The Petolemaiac faction under Warlord Tel'Rock command is reported to possess a sizeable fleet of decade old dreadnoughts dated back from Bug Wars Era known as Hegemony Dreadnoughts. These vessels also formed the core of the Hegemony Fleet, but are only 650 meters long at most. Despite their larger size, they are surprisingly, fast enough to keep up with smaller vessels of the Skinnie raider fleet.

In addition to forming the core of Petolemaiac fleets, these dreadnoughts could serve as a flagship for officers in lieu of larger, dedicated flagship designs, up to the rank of Fleet Lord. One notable exception was the prototype dreadnought which was commissioned and commanded by the Traitor General James Projak.

It is unknown how many Hegemony Dreadnoughts the Petolemaiac have built, and indeed how many still remain in service to this day, as the shattering of their society hundreds of year ago is only now being reformed. But it appears that these ships, despite their numerical inferiority in combat, were made with better materials and have more sophisticated equipment compared to the Federation battlecruiser designs. Their combat performance are also superior to the contemporary Turian Exactor dreadnought design of the era. This is because of its specialized equipment, like the Harmonic Shield generators that could magnetically deflect the massive slugs and Federal missiles.

After the war, the Turian Hierarchy managed to salvage a small number of these vessels and have reverse engineered many useful technologies and equipment from these advanced ship designs and incorporated them into the current Turian ship designs. A number of these ships also fell into Alliance hands, through donations of former Tel'rock aligned Petolemaic nations facing demilitarization.

Batarian Hegemony
The Batarian Hegemony often protest against its limitation in dreadnoughts during the Federation inauguration to the Citadel. While dreadnought construction is not illegal, the size of the Batarian dreadnought fleet remained inferior, a trait that continually frustrated the Batarian government in attempts to bridge the gap between the Hegemony and the Federation ship production. Even when the Treaty was revised drastically, the Batarians still denounced it as they think it is unfair when their economy could not keep up with the ship production level of five larger powers of the Citadel space.

Sky Marshall Rico was supposed to have said, "Tough luck."

Geth Collective
The geth, unbound by the treaty, are an unknown, but it is estimated they maintain at least an equal number of the vessels to the Turians. Indeed this would be more than sufficient to stymie even the most dedicated of joint Citadel assaults.

Due to the nature of geth society, that they do not rely on an economic system and require only to mine materials found within Rannoch's asteroids, their only impediment to constructing a fleet capable of wiping out organic life – should that prove to be their intent – is the speed at which they can build it. Geth dreadnoughts, massive flagships only hinted at in long range reconnaissance, falling outside the purview of Citadel regulations and constraints, make the geth armada a force to be reckoned with.

A geth dreadnought is particularly formidable. It is 32% larger than a refitted Terran Federation John A Warden class battlecruiser, and utilizes more expensive and energy-demanding ultraviolet anti-fighter lasers instead of the less effective but cheaper infrared anti-fighter lasers deployed by the warships of Citadel races. it is also supposed to have highly efficient and advanced damage control,with no crew to harm or impede in their duties. Not to mention their ECM, and Electronic Warfare capabilities would no doubt be spectacular.

Quarian Migrant Fleet
The last official Quarian dreadnought made by their hands was over 300 years ago on Rannoch before the Morning War. The closest approximation would be the Quarian liveships, which could feasibly be armed with dreadnought scale weaponry, however that would be in violation of civilian armament treaties, making them designated as warships instead of innocent civilian shipping. By 2660 GS, most of the ships in their Civilian Fleet have been heavily augmented with dreadnought-scale weaponry. However this is only a stopgap measure as these ships lacked both the speed and armor traits of a full fledged dreadnought-type warships,and are noted to be especially brittle due to their long service times.

Aside from their augmented Liveships, the Migrant Fleet also have acquired the battlecruiser TFS Geneva, which was renamed the Torvak. During the meeting, The Admiralty Board have successfully negotiated with the Federation officials to agreed upon a discounted purchase for the ship with several upgraded and refurbished packages to modernize the vessel.