Cyclopedia of Austrasia

=Austrasia= A republic in Artemia. Formally referred to as the Austrasian Riche.

Sortition
Decision making by councils of citizens selected by lot is the primary organizing principle of the Austrasian Riche.

Altermann
In the context of councils chosen by sortition, a member who has served in such capacity previously. Altermen are essential to the smooth functioning of such bodies.

Jurading
Grand Jury

Freiland
The great majority of land in Austrasia is formally the property of the state and is leased to private individuals and corporations. The revenue from these leases forms a major component of state revenue.

=Kreis= Circle, common name for corporatist bodies in Austrasia which bring together representatives from the state, private enterprise and labour. Kreis are an essential part of economic and business planning in Austrasia because while they lack overt regulatory authority agreements made in Kreis are traditionally interpreted by courts as binding on the parties involved. Kreis are typically organized according to specific products (e.g. Eisenkreis, responsible for the management of the iron and steel industry) though through subsequent evolution kreis organized for more abstract purposes have appeared (e.g. Ausfuhrkreis, the export circle, which co-ordinates between the state and industry and across sectors to promote Austrasian exports).

Standardrahmen
The standard frame, a set of guidelines propagated by the Autokreis defining the characteristics of a set of which must be used as the basis of private and commercial automobiles sold in Austrasia. The current frame standard is Rahmen-VI and defines frames for sizes and types ranging from sub-compacts to small commercial trucks. Subsets of the Frame Six standard include lightweight magnesium alloy frames for high-performance vehicles. By-law only a fixed number of automobiles that do not conform to the frame standard may be registered in Austrasia each year.

=Reichswehr= The Armed forces of Austrasia. It is composed of the Reichsheer, Luftwehr and Reichsflotilla with responsibility for military forces on land, air/space and sea respectively.

=ROSENKREUTZ= A pair of high-performance in northern and southern Austrasia, RK-N and RK-S respectively, intended to detect and track aircraft and sea vessels between 1000 and in excess of 3000 km away.

The War Against Goetia
The basic assumptions about modern combat against Goetia which are taught to officers Austrasian Reichsheer are:
 * 1) At the tactical level defence is stronger than offence.
 * 2) Success in offence rests on surprise and superior concentration of firepower and numbers.
 * 3) Speed of operational movement is the key to achieving surprise and superior concentration.

From these axioms, it is concluded that if an army achieves superiority in operational movement, it can deny an opponent the opportunity to achieve a superior concentration or surprise. By denying the opponent the possibility of superiority or surprise, the possibility of a successful attack is closed to them. Against a superior opponent, an inferior force can move swiftly, seize the vital ground and dig in to receive the attack. Denied the prerequisites of a successful offence, the opponent's attack will impale itself on the defences, dissipating their strength without gain. Its strength dissipated locally the superior force will trade places with the inferior, and the formerly inferior force will transition to the offence to achieve a decision. Through repeated iterations of this formula, a force with superior numbers and firepower can be progressively broken down and eliminated piecemeal in time.

To these ends the training exercises of the Reichsheer emphasize:
 * March discipline, including the rapid transition to and from march columns.
 * Accurate and effective fire with all weapons.
 * Consistent and rapid construction of defensive positions.
 * Absolute observance of camouflage discipline.

OKL
The Oberste Kriegsleitung (Supreme War Command) is the general staff of the Reichswehr.

III Abteilung
The Third Department of the OKL, Austrasian military intelligence.

Legionen XIX
The 19th Legion is a special operations forces under the Third Department trained and organized to infiltrate behind Goetic lines during a war in the guise of Goetic soldiers or civilians to support the battlefield operations of the Reichswehr.

707. Division
Human intelligence, open-source intelligence, linguistics.

114. Division
Counterintelligence & political intelligence.

Hocsten Regiment
Counterintelligence against League of Free Nations espionage in Austrasia.

888. Division
Economic intelligence & counter-intelligence, foreign technology acquisition.

101. Division
Electronic intelligence, signals intelligence, cyber-intelligence.

Reichsheer
Austrasia's ground forces.

Legionen
Level of organization in the Reichsheer comparable to a corps or division composed of 3-4 maneuver brigades and supporting assets.

=Patriziat= A hereditary class of aristocrats in Austrasia, the Patricians or Patrizier. The special legal privileges of the Patriciate were abolished in the Constitution of 1926 and the Austrasian state ceased to confer noble titles. The Patriziat did not dissolve as a social class however but reconstituted itself through the creation of its own institutions after a period of internal turmoil and has obtained substantial political and economic power in the Austrasian Riche.

Codex Aureus
The Golden Book, historically the register in which the names of all Patriziat families were inscribed. Inclusion in the Golden Book was prima facie proof of a family's nobility. Since the end of the Grand Campaigns, the Codex Aureus has not been maintained by the Austrasian Riche but has instead passed into the hands of the conservative Holy Blood Monastery which continues to maintain it on behalf of the Patriziat.

Goltzordnung
The Golden Orders is a book and a term coined by the influential post-war Patrizier author August zu Wulfthal to describe the standards of personal behaviour he considered to be both the defining feature and of the Austrogothic Patriziat, the loss of which among Patricians he considered in a large part responsible for the decline of the fortune of the Patriciate. In effect, a system of which profoundly rejected. A Patrician in brief was for August someone who pursued victory in public affairs (including war, business and politics), pursued beauty in appearance and manners, exercised self-restraint in consumption (particularly in sexual matters and food) and expression, revered their ancestors and sought to secure a better future for their bloodline. Though few if any adopted August's system of Golden Orders prescriptively his sentiments proved tremendously influential among the Patriciate.

Juramannus
Archaic guild of legal interpreters specializing in case law & natural law; Juramannus provide expert testimony at Jurading on the proper interpretation of statutes with references to past cases. Juramann are trained as apprentices to a practicing master. Historically the Juramannus guild was open exclusively to the Patriziat and remains predominantly composed of Patricians.

Vehmegericht
A Patrician movement which was active in the Riche in the 1930's through the 1950's which participated in the  of numerous Patrizier who were perceived to have brought shame onto the Patriziat, particularly through mixed marriages with non-Goths and non-Patricians or political association with Liberals and other progressive movements. Being composed entirely of patricians and directed against patricians the Vehm's were rarely pursued with vigor by Riche authorities in the post-war period, suffused as they were with anti-patrician sentiments.

=Senate= The highest legislature in Austrasia. Composed of 40 men & women elected by the Volksding (People's Assembly) for life term.

Reichsdirektorum
The Riche Directory is the executive council of the Senate of Austrasia and by extension the Riche of Austrasia, composed of seven senators elected for six-year terms by the plenary of the senate.

=Volksding= The People's Assembly is a council of 500 Austrasian citizens selected by sortition annually for four-month terms. Functionally it serves as a lower house to the Senate.