Empire of Alusia

The Alusian Flag, a golden eagle bordered by two swords on a field of green

The **Empire of Alusia** (prior to 433 A.U., the **Despotate of Alusia**) was a former client state of the Shantine Empire which became a major cosmic power. The Empire was once a loose confederation of about a dozen worlds with a ruling diet of planetary and regional magnates, but has since grown to be a major cosmic power through the careful cultivation of a highly efficient state apparatus and opportunistic participation in major cosmic conflicts, particularly the Fialta-Shantine War and the First Coalition War.

Alusia is a rising power, though it is currently the least powerful among the four great powers of Imperial Space. Unlike its parent, Alusia is committed to religious syncretism, favoring egalitarian commitment to the Alusian State over loyalty to any church. The Alusian bureaucracy is the finest in the cosmos and Alusian territory is the best regulated (if not always the best governed) in the cosmos. Alusia's economy in its core is excellent, though it has very little colonial territory or trade control.

Alusia has traditionally seen itself as a march (in some ways similar to its Fialta mirror, the Thalranese Marches), a military territory under a military government. This may be changing with the ascension of the new Empress Illyana cer Alusia, whose reputation for economic wizardry and organizational skills may indicate that Alusia is heading for a shift towards a new kind of meritocracy.

## Religion

Alusia is naturally syncretic, as much of its territory differs in beliefs from one another. Most of the populace believe in elements of the beliefs of different gods - from their roots in Kirvan and Idolmarite traditions, the Lords of the Pentacle, and local gods. These Syncretists view worship as a philosophical relationship between an individual and the *ideas* of different gods; to the Syncretists, zealous Kirvanism is as dangerous as enslaving oneself to Valdos. Drawing on religion for public philosophy, the Alusian system carries strong elements of Kirvan egalitarianism: race and creed are not relevant to legal standing in Alusia, and religious pluralism is actively encouraged, in part to prove that religious edicts are not the foundation of the state. However, the Alusian state (and the populations it directly touches) has become dominated by an increasingly strong syncretic tradition that favors Adalna, the Loregiver and Volune, the Lawmaker. This is effectively a secular religion (because of Adalna's silence and Volune's legalistic role) which allows the state to have significant control over the content of their state religion without the problems of interference from actual deities or their foreign representatives - a serious problem in the sections of Alusia still dominated by the heritage of Shantine Kirvanism. Stricter Kirvans may have grudgingly accepted Syncretism, but while the Imperial family are still professing Kirvans, many clergy and agitators have not failed to notice the reduced intellectual influence of their faith on the administrative elite.

Widespread religious pluralism encourages an extensive base of religious lore, and the state maintains extensive occult resources; however, old Kirvan suspicions around the occult die hard, especially as occultism is often a threat to state authority.

## Peoples

Alusia is a truly multiethnic empire, with significant populations of all of the major races and many of the minor ones throughout its territories. It's government remains primarily human and in some respects culturally Shantine, but still lives up to its promise of egalitarianism across the many races of the Alusian territories. Its worlds include large indigenous halfling and orcish populations, a sizable community of elvish and dwarven expatriates from the neighboring Dwarven Clans and Aeldman colonies, and many ethnic Fialta in the territories conquered during the Coalition War.

## Government

### Structure

The Alusian Imperial Government is at any time flexible around the handful of immutable facts set down in the Alusian Imperial Charter. These are that there must be an Emperor or Empress, who serves at the helm of the state and steers it with absolute authority; alongside them a host of civil servants, the highest among which are what passes for Alusian Aristocracy - the Dikasts and Dikcers whose titles are granted by the state for their service. The exact nature of the government is the realm of the State Bureau , the canopy under which all of the functions of the Alusian state operate. Even the Bureau of War is subordinate to the State Bureau, a fact which the Alusian military has

Alusia maintains an entire administrative class devoted to the pruning of corruption and the efficient internal operation of the enormous state. Alusian governance exists in a constant tension between the fears and rivalries of its careerist officials and the efforts of the State Bureau to shield and reward subordinates who expose inefficiencies and offer solutions (the latter is understood to be a prerequisite for the support of the State Bureau). To be an Alusian civil servant is to belong to the most ruthlessly self-improving organization in the cosmos and to live in constant belief that one ought to be doing more.

Despite the best efforts of the State Bureau, some Alusian corruption persists, especially in the form of internal empire building within government institutions: though dynasties are strong discouraged, clubs and other third-party affiliations are common in the Alusian civil service and produce distinctive institutional characteristics. These have the advantage of generating strong esprit de corps and transmitting best practices from one generation to the next without the need for (slower, less adaptive) formal curricula, but they also can produce personal and indeed institutional rivalries. Though far from the profound corruption of the old ATC, or the violent factionalism of rival religious sects, these rivalries can impair the optimal operation of the state and shape perceptions of strategic reality.

Alusia faces the choice between an institutional monopoly and competing (less efficient) institutions with overlapping portfolios: the State Bureau serves to constant manage this tradeoff, executing the Emperor’s changing priorities through changes in portfolio.

### Rank system

The Alusian government strictly controls the titles held within the Empire, which are earned by good service to the State and rewarded well. There is only one noble rank - all servants of the state are equals (though some functionally have more power and wealth attached to their position). Alusia does not recognize intermediate aristocratic titles between the least aristocrat and the Emperor: Each noble may choose from one of two titles owed to that single rank: *Dikast* (traditionally male) or *Dikcer* (traditionally female), both translated (depending on the cultural context of the translator) as "official," "jurist," or "lord." Alusian nobles always include their post in their name; for example, the full name of the current Empress is "Illyana Eturia cer Alusia" - even the Empress is merely the "jurist of Alusia" in title. (the male-identified marker is "kast" - her husband, for example, is Peter Korinthos kast Markash).

In Alusia, aristocracy is not hereditary: it must be earned through state service, usually full time for a period of ten to twenty years in a sufficiently elevated post (especially for the newly rising) followed by a lifetime as a sort of civil reservist. Even the Emperor (who rules for life) and the imperial family are not immune to attitudes around civil service: rather, they are conscripted from birth. Extensive state educational programs and widespread, competitive civil service exams encourage mass participation and (some) upward mobility through the civil service. The only special privilege of Churches come from their affiliation with the civil service: to retain land rights etc., clergymen must devote a portion of their
time to the state interest (serving e.g. as tax collectors).

### Succession

In the days of Shantine suzerainty, the Despot of Alusia was traditionally a child of the preceding despot, but always confirmed by the Shantine Emperor (a century before Alusian independence, Bishant infamously imposed its preferred candidate on Alusia at the points of the Knights of Adarnum's swords). Since independence, the Alusians have carried over a morphed form of the old succession law: by taking the powers of the Emperor as overlord into the person of the Despot, it was deemed logical that the succession should be entirely at the Despot’s discretion. This norm persists, and the Alusian Imperial succession is enshrined in Alusia’s “Imperial Charter” as being in the Emperor’s exclusive gift. Though historically a child or other close relative, the succession is not strictly dictated by blood – at various times the heir has been an adoptee or an in-law (in one extreme case, the Imperial heir was the husband of the reigning Emperor’s grand-niece). Shantine tradition suggests an eldest child, but militaristic Alusia has often preferred soldiers and men in particular (though less so as Alusia has matured from a conquering power into an administrative empire), and the throne has routinely gone to younger children with greater military exploits. Keenly aware that the state’s greatest moment of weakness is in the transfer of power, past Despots have also favored high-achieving
young candidates in order to maximize the duration of each reign.

## Society

### State Service and Social Mobility

In Alusia, equality means equality of access to the bilateral state relationship: all are encouraged to pursue this relationship, and there are no failures of the civil service exams, only different roles made available to the examinee. Nevertheless, Alusia has its own heroic narratives: men
and women who were exalted by their service to the state. Personal virtues are
primarily defined in these narratives through the relationship of the
individual to the state. The “collective” or the “people” is a beneficiary and subject of the all-elevated state. Even the Emperor *belongs* to the State.

Though social mobility is a much higher priority in Alusia, many aristocratic privileges such as land ownership carried over from the Shantine, albeit directly predicated on public service. Trade and interplanetary freedom of movement are awarded as licenses for those in state service: whereas the Shantine might rely on a large diasporic merchant community as a diplomatic asset, diplomacy and trade are both items of foreign policy to Alusia, and the right of an Alusian to participate in Alusian commerce means committing to Alusian foreign policy. Land ownership on any commercial scale is likewise the province either of state administration or of the aristocracy. Though Alusian social mobility rivals or exceeds that of Aeldrum, the basic rights of Alusian subjects are among the most limited in the cosmos.

### The Remnants of Feudalism

Strong traditions of civil service exist, but before the recent emergence of Alusia into an Empire, the history of Alusia was one of continual struggle between the Despot and his vassals. Hence, Alusian territory has been cleaved into two categories; the protectorates, which enjoy a relative degree of social autonomy provided they pay adequate homage to the Emperor, and the core of Alusia (about half the Empire), in which total autocracy prevails. Even the protectorates, however, must accept administrators, tax collectors and garrisons of Alusian state employees. Local leaders are given access to the wider Alusian economy only if they behave partially as state servants in their own right.

In addition to restrictions on ownership, the Alusian state has relatively weak property rights for those lucky enough to hold any; the state may claim any property under a variety of eminent domain schemes, and while this policy is exercised judiciously to avoid mass resentment, it has the salutary effect that vast landholders and plutocrats in the Alusian core are rare and enjoy their wealth at the pleasure of the Emperor. Efficiency is amply rewarded, however, and most senior government employees enjoy significant estates and personal luxuries; these are simply not on the colossal scale of personal wealth in the Aeldman, Shantine and Fialta contexts. The exception again is in the protectorates, where wealthy petty kings and other self-styled monarchs take a much more extractive approach, which the Empire tolerates as the (temporary) cost of its considerable expansion.

## Economy

Alusia inherits a strong tradition of handiwork from the Shantine monastic factories: no longer obligated to their clerical landlords but to the state directly, workers are encouraged to take pride in
their products, and small cottage economies thrive in Alusia (albeit without the vast wealth generated by large scale private enterprise in Aeldrum and Bishant). Furniture, practical tools and the like are treated as valuable heirlooms, more so than purely decorative work. Alusian community culture, like the state apparatus, is highly competitive: tests of skill and might are common entertainments, and villages or families will proudly tell stories of superb performances for decades. More than any other great power, Alusia encourages organized competitive activities: athletics, mathematics and games of strategy, all enjoy wide followings. Unsurprisingly for the most totalitarian of the four great powers, activities with objective standards of performance are preferred; while local musical, poetic and other artistic traditions are permitted, they do not enjoy the same active state sponsorship. The arena of competition is thus not wealth but ability and social status through state service (naturally, these deliver their own material rewards: the state is not run naively).

The Alusian state supremacy does not encourage autonomous technological innovation, and inevitably domestic research is constrained by the strategic priorities of the state. Alusia is,however, expert at adapting the results of others. The Alusian technological and industrial system is designed to adapt the progress of others and distribute them according to the notions of state justice. As Alusia achieves greater power with other powers, it may need to develop stronger domestic innovative capabilities.

## Foreign Policy

Alusian foreign policy is a direct extension of its philosophy of governance and the mutual obligations of state and subject. Other states may be allies, perhaps even sufficiently reliable that short-term gains can be relinquished for the sake of a relationship, but all states must be judged on the security and justice they provide their people. In this regard, pluralist, egalitarian Alusia offers, in some views, a rebuke of the other great powers. The Aeldmen are impressive as an effective state, and Alusia will acknowledge important lessons from them, but they are ultimately not able to offer a state on Alusian principles and hence cannot be allowed to impede the purpose of the Alusian state – Aeldman democracy, though seemingly egalitarian, is a fine example of the perversion of justice, because it rewards politicians for the oppression of the minority by the majority or, worse, supplies the necessary principles to justify the amassment of vast personal power at the expense of the state. The Fialta, though promisingly totalitarian, derail their state experiment with their obsessive cultural supremacism. Though the Shantine may seem relatively pluralist (and indeed are the foundation of the greater pluralism of Alusia), Fialta and Shantine dogma in fact have similar problems – both are ideologies of conversion or conflict and cannot survive without these fundamental raisons-d’etre. Alusia is a young state; open to learning but also to revising the order of power – lessons include the extensive failures of past systems. Superpower foreign policies produce endless jockeying and subjugation beyond the needs of the state: in Alusian doctrine, the state needs to be secure, not necessarily overwhelming.

The Alusian view of other states is thus strategic first and ideological second: the Alusian people, especially Kirvans, feel a general cultural and linguistic kinship with the Shantine (some especially treasonous Alusians may even regard the Shantine Emperor and the Shantine-based Kirvan Patriarchs as their spiritual leaders), and to the Alusian state, the Shantine offer enough ideological parallels for a mutual understanding. Nevertheless, the Alusian state has proven itself entirely ready to set aside ideological proximity for rational interest, as it so often has through its alliance with Aeldrum since the Coalition War. Indeed, depending too heavily on Bishant could leave Alusia reliant on the approval of radical Kirvans who see the Alusian state as a heretical breakaway. A truly ascendant Bishant could even represent an existential threat to Alusia by declaring a crusade, with the ever-present risk of a Kirvan fifth column at the core of Alusian society.

Alusian foreign policy toward lesser powers focuses on exploiting division and building dependency on Alusian support: what Alusia lacks in raw power it makes up for in (relative) reliability through the autocratic regime of its Emperor rather than the swirl of competing interests that keep other powers vacillating.

## Military

The Alusian military is one of the finest in the Cosmos, a feat of impressive drilling, extensive training, and constant use in border skirmishes and enterprising adventures.

Alusian military forces have a long reputation as mercenaries, a feature which the State has codified and turned to its benefit - the soldiery of Alusia are in some ways the most reliable mercenaries in the cosmos; their pay is never in arrears, their plundering may be limited to satisfying immediate needs for supplies at their employer's request, and unless their employer subsequently earns the ire of the Alusian State, debts incurred will never lead to mutinies.

Of particular note among the Alusian military is the Demlakas, the "Bonded Guard" which are the elite core to the Alusian army in the way the Aeldrum Dragoons are to their Parliamentary Guard. Their particular skill and enthusiasm is based around a somewhat revolutionary idea of building camaraderie not only on bonds approaching familial ones, but on romantic ones as well; each soldier in the Demlakas has at least one partner in their unit (though more are encouraged, on the theory that polyamory improves unit cohesion). These relationships are nourished during their long and rigorous training and blossom over a lifetime of committed service.

The Alusian military generally has the most egalitarian policies of the armies of the major powers; strict enforcement of nondiscriminatory standards in the civil service exam (which feeds the Army as simply another of the many departments) and harsh and swift punishments for harassment of any kind have led to an army which truly does not discriminate based on gender or race. Even more so than the already excellent benefits of other Alusian State employment, the army accords benefits nearly unheard of in other societies, much less other armies. Parental leave for both parents, guaranteed health care during service and after discharge (including reconstructive procedures, prostheses, and even gender reassignment), generous pensions, and more await even the lowliest private, though in return a lifetime of service is expected - enlistment periods for the Alusian army are counted in decades, and generally are only released in order to transfer into a "more appropriate" government service.

One of the more curious and worrying side effects of these policies is the early age at which many children of military families enlist themselves. The Alusian military does not permit children to carry long arms until the age of majority, but many serve with distinction as messengers, supply handlers, midshippersons, and even public relations officers. Many of the most excellent officers of the Alusian army rose through the ranks from childhood, though they are treated no differently for promotion than any other enlistee. Families are by policy not separated should they be enlisted together, though parents usually insist that their children serve in the rearward element of their formation. An unfortunate side effect of this of course is the prevalence of orphans among the military, who become wards of the state and usually find themselves placed in state roles, though not always with the military.

## History

The outer arm of Imperial space has long been dominated by governments centered on the 3-gate world of Reilla. Once the seat of the Reilla Sector during the days of the Mage Imperium, the region became an autonomous zone upon the Imperium's collapse. By dint of its distance from the other major powers of the cosmos and the pure luck of not suffering destruction by the planet-killing weapons of the many Ascensionist factions, Reilla and its neighbors entered a period of relative peace, particularly following the collapse of the First Fialta Imperium, which had ravaged and occupied the nearby Hybern Sector.

To guard against incursion by the Fialta and the intruding Kirvan successor states, the surviving Imperial planetary governments formed the Reillan Union, a mutual-defense pact that lasted (on and off) for several thousand years - sometimes discarded in times of external peace by internally revisionist powers, often incorporating minor invaders into its auspices, but almost always reinstated with the coming of another wave of invaders from elsewhere. Little is known about this period, as most records have not survived; what little is known comes from the archives of the Academy of Saldan, which mostly record that the Union was one of its consistent trading partners in the period after the Saldanese reopened their aetheric gates. By the time of the Unification of Aeldrum, the Union had been suffering from a long decline for a century or more in the face of rising cosmic powers.

The Reillan Union and the neighboring areas were colonized by the Knights of Adarnum a century after the Unification of Aeldrum. the territory was consolidated into a single administrative zone, which was called Alusia (or "Soft Lands", from the somewhat biased Adarnan impression of the region's decadence). Following Bishant's imperial policy, the dukes, chieftains and other secular rulers of the newly minted Alusian March were placed under the rulership of a Despot, at the time a cousin of the Emperor of Bishant, whose family soon became in effect a cadet branch of the Shantine Imperial Family.

### Conversion Crisis and Adalnan Syncretism

Two centuries later, and some forty years before the events of the Shantine-Fialta War, the incumbent Despot, Kiril II, entered into a standoff with the Kirvan Church over the Church's tithing of land and labor above and beyond what Kiril considered to be the Despotate's obligations to Bishant. A petition to the Shantine Emperor failed to elicit a satisfactory response, and in a stunning move, Kiril II threatened to renounce the Kirvan faith entirely and convert to the Church of Idolmar in protest. The Kirvan Church in turn demanded his abdication, and a local Church Matriarch called for his immolation as an apostate. Kiril responded by violently seizing the assets of the Church and, when the Church of Idolmar, fearful of reprisals on Bishant itself, did not endorse his grievances, Kiril instead created a new religious doctrine, the Adalnan Scripturalist Movement.

Following the collapse of the Mage Imperium, Adalna had largely become known as a dreg of the Great Pantheon, comparable to Baradun as a great divinity cast to the margins of power. Somewhat sardonically, she was referred to as the Silent Goddess for having abandoned her followers. To Kiril, whose position as Despot was predicated on religious legitimacy, Adalna's nonintervention was ideal. His court swiftly reinvented Adalna as a Promethean figure, a savior of mortals who actually sought their benefit rather than to dominate and enslave them]. The laws, rituals and traditions of the Mage Imperium were co-opted, creatively interpreted and, at times, completely invented to produce a new scripture which Kiril used as the foundation of a new state. Kiril and his successors remained Despots of Alusia, but began adding the title to the effectively defunct Union, recognizing it as the true successor to the Mage Imperial government.

### Independence from Bishant

Alusia was valuable to the Shantine Empire as a captive market with several hundred million inhabitants. It was naturally also of great interest to the Aeldrum Trade Company and the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum, as the industrialization of Aeldrum's core protectorates (e.g. Ireland) was transforming the Duchy from a mere trade broker and resource extractor to the largest industrial economy in the cosmos, rivaling Bishant's manufacturing base. Unlike the other industrial powerhouses of the period (e.g. the Bavarian Confederacy in Deutschreich), which typically produced for their near neighbors, Aeldrum's tradition of empire building gave it the tools to compete with Bishant for mercantile opportunities. With Aeldrum's population burgeoning, its own colonies overflowing, and breadbaskets like Ireland agitating for greater political power, Alusia's control over key segments of the etheric Ley Lines and its large agricultural surplus made it a prime partner.

Not long after the conversion crisis had ended, a larger crisis in the Shantine Empire provided a further opportunity to the Despots of Alusia. The combination of an Imperial succession crisis (later known as the Year of the Four Emperors) and a violent doctrinal disagreement within the Kirvan Council of Patriarchs gave the Alusians the window to declare and secure independence. Upon the death of Kiril II, his designated successor, Ilmos the Bold, refused to seek the approval of the Duchess Alexandra, the regent of the senile Emperor Marianthos (Alusia maintains that this new Despot never swore an oath of fealty and hence did not betray the Empire). The Regent responded by secretly directing the Knights of Adarnum to attempt a coup and bring the Despotate under direct Imperial control; the attempt failed (due in part to infighting among the Knights), and Alexandra was assassinated in an unrelated struggle for control of the regency, buying the Despotate time. The Ilmos used the coup and subsequent chaos at the Shantine court as an opportunity to purge the ranks of the Alusian aristocracy and formally expel the Knights of Adarnum from the new country, an order which has never been
rescinded by the Alusian state. Under Ilmos and later his nephew and successor Pyter the Severe, the Alusian feudal-clerical system was reforged into an absolutist state.

### The Alusian Trade War

Once the dust had settled on the Year of the Four Emperors, the Shantines turned to reclaiming their lost hinterlands and demanded that Illmos reaffirm his oath of loyalty to the Shantine throne. Citing its historic commitment to religious self-determination (a feature of Aeldrum's intervention in Ireland), the Serene Duchy supported Ilmos in his declaration of independence from Bishant and the Kirvan Church and, in turn, guaranteed that independence. War swiftly ensued, and the Aeldrum Trade Company organized vast privateer fleets to disrupt Shantine trade. The Aeldmen had the distinct advantage of mostly supplying the Alusians with materiel and the services of their ships rather than large commitments of manpower (In a war of reconquest by the Shantine, the casualties would be Shantine and Alusian, not Aeldmen). The Emperor recognized this position, and while efforts to blockade the Alusians claimed hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of sailors, the war's principal ground component consisted of paramilitary operations by Kirvan guerrillas and private pilgrim-companies of the Knights of Adarnum.

As expenses mounted, the Bishant Trade Company and Bishant's merchants more widely pressured the Emperor to find a peaceful solution. The Kirvan Church was prepared to concede its initial demands if its properties in Alusia were returned and the Knights of Adarnum permitted to remain as protectors of Church lands. The Basilica Treaty was reached after three years of hostilities, in which Alusia received its independence from the Empire and both Bishant and Aeldrum renounced any debt-claims against the Alusian government, principles of free navigation and trade were generally adopted and merchant quarters for Aeldman and Shantine representantives were specially established. This resolution was a significant achievement from the prestige of the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum and its domestic economy, but it came as a significant financial blow to the Aeldrum Trade Company, which had contributed large numbers of ships and received a rather pitiful return on its investment. The ATC successfully lobbied to receive a right of first refusal for any transport contracts undertaken by the Aeldrum Government with Alusia, but the war remained a costly write-off.

### Evolution

At the time of the Shantine-Fialta War, Alusia had essentially transformed into a secular state, with the Adalnan Scripture morphing into a doctrine of the civil service rather than a traditional church. Alusia retained close ties with Aeldrum and had seen improvement in its relations with Bishant, although it chose to remain uninvolved in the Shantine-Fialta War itself (though, of course, Kirvan faithful among the Alusian army had been arming their brethren and selling their services as mercenary companies to the Shantines the whole time), going so far as to explicitly deny passage to Shantine and Fialta ships outside of select ports, for fear of "provoking an incident." This was heavily condemned by both the Empire and various Fialta princes as an act of favoritism toward Aeldrum, which was nominally uninvolved in the war and therefore not subject to the arrangement.

Meanwhile, Alusia began to assert itself more as a regional player in political and economic ventures. Alusia's worlds lie on an important trade route for exports of quicksilver from the dwarven holdings on Telrion, and several peace treaties between the ATC and the dwarven clans involved Alusian intermediaries. The Alusian core began to industrialize with Aeldman investment capital (from ATC contracts, of course), further bolstering the independent power of the Alusian government.

### Coalition War and Empire

*Main article: First Coalition War*
Alusia fought in the First Coalition War of 396-399 A.U. as part of the Coalition of Nations. It was ruled during the war by Despot Tiberius III, who had originally taken the throne in 352 A.U..

### Consolidation

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### The Future?

As so much of Alusia’s influence, territory and wealth has come at the expense of the Fialta Imperium, the two powers have a recent history of mutual antagonism, often over their degree of influence over the Fialta Confederacy. Alusia’s increasing autonomy and bids for a more equal station in the international order may require a delicate rebalancing of relations with the Fialta to present a credible threat to Aeldrum and Bishant if they do not accommodate Alusian interests. Whether the Imperium will be interested in such a partnership is a different matter altogether.

With the ascension of Illyana cer Alusia in 440 A.U., the militaristic path that Alusia has been following seems to be tempered by a new vision of an economically mighty Alusia. Selected by her predecessor for her administrative acumen rather than her military prowess, Illyana represents in some sense a victory of the Alusian bureaucracy over its military that was nearly a century in the making. Who can say what the future holds for Alusia?

## Notes

1. ↑ “Morality films” of individual or collective heroism are popular, and some have even found cult followings in Aeldman and Shantine cinema.
2. ↑ Assuming that combat conditions make this feasible, which is more often than one might expect. Alusian military medical units are unusual for having mandatory complements of OB-GYN and Pediatric doctors to deal with the fact that even frontline Alusian regiments are likely to produce a significant number of children over the course of a campaign.
3. ↑ Several humiliating incidents such as the Knights Mercantile's sabotage of Aeldrum's colonial ambitions in Russia had also led the Duchy's Serene Parliament to move away from the "customs house" strategy within its sphere of influence and to instead generalize the industrial development policy it had adopted toward the Irish Pale.