A senate is an overarching legal body within a single Quadrant that aims to preserve the rule of law. When the many isolated groups of colonists in the Exodus settled new systems and planted the seeds of the quadrants of today, each established their own senate, as dictated by the Faction Accords.
Within a quadrant, each faction controls a number of senate seats, allocated by the size, strength and population of the systems they have settled. Each faction has their own unique process for how senators are elected, but they all center around the powerful and elite members of the faction’s leadership nominating candidates and casting votes. Within the syndicates it is often powerful board members, princes and the leader of rich cohorts who cast these votes. In the great houses, it is usually the leading bloodlines, richest families and Princes. Each faction has their own unique approach, for example, within the Cadar Syndicate, some of the top military commanders often participate in the process.
Senators are elected for only three years. Some senators spend this time tirelessly working to gain additional support within their faction, while others take their duty to heart and work to keep the rule of law, tamp down violence and feuding, and adhere to the goals of the senate body as Shalun saw them. As senate seats often change hands between terms, those faction leaders who power in their own right, such as princes, syndicate board members and family leaders would not gamble their future on a fickle senate seat. Therefore, while most senators come from powerful families and cohorts, these positions are see as perfect for second or third sons and daughters.