@Sigma; here's a few ideas for some shared history; if we share borders on the cosmographical map.

[b]First Contact War[/b]: At one point the Federation and the Hegemony were unaware of eachother's existence; and the Graal would most likely have stumbled upon a Federation world while colonizing new solar systems. The Graal, who have no desire to seek peaceful relations with weak willed humanoids launched a series of attacks; orbital bombardments and planetary invasions of the Federation's colonies ensued, with a blitzkrieg of the Graal legions that overtook the small planetary garrisons, the Graal threat seemed magnified when the Federation discovered, at the [i]Battle of Harushka[/i] that the Graal; even when outnumbered and outgunned, do not surrender and do not retreat. 

For the first six months, the Federation failed to materialize a victory until Federation high command intercepted Graal communique's indicating they were intending to invade larger, more industrialized Federation planets and staged an intercept at their rendezvous point. This sneak attack; the [i]Battle of Relay Tango-November[/i] saw the destruction of the Graal High Command; and in the next two years the Federation; utilizing stolen Graal radio commands destroyed two of it's Legions and reclaimed it's planetary holdings, returning the Graalo-Federation borders to the status quo.

That was just an idea I saw in my head. Take it apart. Add stuff. Subtract stuff. Tell me what you think.

Here's a cosmographical map of the Graal Hegemony; I can do the entire spiral galaxy as well.

[URL=http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/LilTheo2/media/GraalEmpire_zps67201222.png.html][IMG]http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag159/LilTheo2/GraalEmpire_zps67201222.png[/IMG][/URL]