The Current World, ca. 3349 A.D. / 999 N.G.

Again, the historical eras as utilized by historians are as follows, give or take a few decades of overlap and hindsight:

POST-MODERN: 2000-2100
SUBJUGATORY: 2100-2250
LATE SUBJUGATORY: 2250-2350
EARLY NYAMS GSOSIAN:2350-2600
NYAMS GSOSIAN: 2600-3000
RGYASIAN: 3000-Present

The heliosystem (as opposed to its solar brother) consists of 8 planets, including three outer-system gas giants. The habitable zone contains three planets: Nike, Tyche and Hera, with Hera possessing two small moons.

Nike and Tyche are both well populated, earth-lake planets with hundreds of governments on them that range from monarchies to theocracies to liberal democracies and dictatorships. Hera is a strong confederation under a world government, but that's only possible because it's closest of the three planets to the sun and therefore 1) is rich due to all the mineral wealth and 2) only habitable near the poles, owing to hostile environment over the rest of the planet. This means a smaller population which is easier to unify. Think of Hera as old school Rome: they think they're "better than" on a planetary level (hence, Hera has it's own planetary military, communications system, etc.)... they even have a slave race, which are treated like a lower caste.

NIke and Tyche lack planetary coordination: the closes thing is all countries that are capable participate in the DCS Fleet (dmag chas skyabs), a NATO-like force that serves is an inter-planetary defense force, preventing any one country from launching space-based attacks against any other under the auspices of the rgol srung mnga' mthun Nike-Tyche (Alliance for Offensive and Defensive Protection of Nike and Tyche) of 318 NG. Hera has it's own, and the DCSF is as much a deterrent against Heran aggression as anything else. Destroyers are built by an inter-planetary consortium of three defense corporations (think Halliburton, but bigger), each of which in turn also builds smaller craft like starliners, trade ships, planes and helicopters.

Intra-and inter-planetary communications, as well as long range ship-to-ship is handled by the Intersystem Communications Commission, a semi-private corporation that maintains the technological infrastructure necessary for spatial communications. While Hera has its own Hermes Planetary Communications System, it grudgingly uses the ICC for everything off planet.

Interplanetary and intrasystem trade and transport is managed and regulated by the Heliosystem Commerce and Transport Authority, or HCTA. While the HCTA maintains traditional space lanes using patrols that keep piracy to a minimum, it's mostly known for the two mini-Gates it keeps at either end of the heliosystem's habitable zone. Using these, traders and transport ships need not go all the way across the habitable zone and instead only need to closest of either Tyche or Hera, and planets on either end of the HZ. Tariffs are charged, and these in turn are used to fund the policing and Gate upkeep costs, plus a profit for shareholders.

Additionally, both the HCTA and the DCSF operate the system's RASUS nets: a chain of radiation detection posts that both monitor intrasystem traffic, and detect Gate Jumps into the system from the outside (something that has never happened). Hera has officers seconded to the project.

Just as christianity forms the ideological and moral foundation of western society, even for the atheists, so Buddhism does likewise across the heliosystem. Some nations have slants towards specific religions--especially the theocracies--and some have taken rational scientific thought into the realm of the religious. Christianity is the minority, owing to the whole "enslavement of humanity" thing from a thousand years ago.

Inter-planetary universities include AWU, or Ausonia World University, Tenzin Gyatso University of Tyche at Queenston, The Ophir Collegium, The Loyolan Univeristy Network, The Helion Javeriana Pontifical University and the Al-Azhar University of Hera. The Collegium is extrememly theoretical, loyola is known to be rigorous and very scholarly, Javeriana is philosophical, Tenzin is all around awesome in politics and governance, AWU is science and Al-Azhar is the oldest and most prestigious (Ophir is the newest). Languages abound (even English is whatever it will sound like a thousand years from now) and Tibetan is the new Latin or French--the international language or governance and academics.

(Dramatic) conflicts abound: on Tyche and Nike, between different nations for a variety of different nations; Between the larger planets; between corporations; between NGO's, pirates, brigands and others. You name it, in a system of 7-8 billion people, it's there.