The Reich

Geography

The Eastern Continent is the dominant power on Magica Superior, and is the home of the Reich Fatherland (population c400m), while the second land mass - the Western Continent - is weaker, immersed in both internal wars among the three countries there, and hostilities with the Reich. Whereas the Kingdom of Sable itself has the aspect of late-Victorian England, the Reich is akin to Nazi Germany. 

The Fatherland is a huge country, more than 4,000 miles across, surrounded by a protective zone, known as the Sudetenland (population 200m), which effectively extends its borders by another 1,000 miles or thereabouts to both the east and the west. Beyond that, again, the Reich has conquered large swathes of territory in the neighbouring countries, and is fighting over much of the rest of the continent, with the exception of the Sable mountains, which are inaccessible to them.

The Reich capital (the Reichshauptstadt) is Berlin (pop. 8m), roughly in the centre of the Fatherland. The country is sufficiently large that it is split into ten Provinces, all of which also have their own regional capitals and councils (see Politics). The Sudetenland defensive zone is itself administered in three Military Governerships (East, South and West), and has its own capital at Hamburg (pop. 6m).

The war between Sable and the Reich is spread across the Shadows of the Sable system, albeit that much of the struggle is well beyond the bounds of the Commonwealth. At some times it is more active than at others, but both the Reich and Sable have forces deep in Shadow who continue to fight the war, and on any given day there will be at least one battleground between them. There has never been any sign of an ending of hostilities between the two realms: a fact which has caused some concern and surprise on both sides. However, at the heart of the matter appears to be the inability to compromise between two such diametrically opposed systems.

That said, the only time the war seems to have come home to Magica Superior was in SY124, when the city of Danzig was destroyed utterly, with the loss of one million lives: the historians are still out on whether or not this was an intentional act of mass destruction on the part of Sable's forces, or a tragic accident.   

There are four degrees of Residency within the Reich. Around 80% of the population could be described as being of North European stock, and individuals born into this racial group are deemed to be Reich Citizens. The next 10% is made up of Resident Aliens and Visitors, which covers all those born outside of the Reich, including representatives of the Außenhandel der Reichsverband worlds (see trade) and visiting diplomats. To move from Visitor status to Resident Alien status, a person must live within the Greater Reich (defined as the Reich and the Sudetenland) for a minimum of six months, with the exception of diplomats, who have this status conferred on them after a month, assuming they pass the stringent security checks imposed on new diplomats.

The remaining 10% of the resident population comes from other ethnic groups, and begin life as Non-Citizens, although they can apply for citizenship later and can be awarded it, for example, for great service to the Reich. The number of representatives of other ethnic groups within the Reich has been decreasing, and is down from its original 15%, as many of these people have left the Fatherland for the disputed territories and beyond, or have been detained.

There is a system of Pass Laws controlling the rights of Citizens and Non-Citizens to residence and travel, as well as the carrying of ID papers. All Reich residents are subject to these: for example, all Citizens and Non-Citizens are issued with identity papers on their 14th birthday, and are expected to carry these with them at all times (not to do so is an offence liable to punishment with a fine for the first two infractions, and imprisonment for the third). 

Citizens are required to have transit papers, signed by the local Party office, if they wish to travel more than a twenty-mile radius from their place of habitation. Travel outside of Reich-held lands is forbidden, unless the transit papers are signed by the Party chief for the applicant's home town or city.

The residence and travel measures are more stringent for Non-Citizens, Resident Aliens and Visitors, who cannot travel more than ten miles from their place of residence without authorisation. Foreigners are expected to carry transit papers at all times, proving that they are legitimately in the Reich. This includes diplomats.

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Trade: Der Außenhandel der Reichsverband

Due to its positioning and some clever jiggery pokery when Magica Superior was created, the Reich does not have a group of contiguous Shadows surrounding it the way that the Commonwealth does Sable and the Ring of Sapphires does Azure. However, it does have a free trade association of sorts, Der Außenhandel der Reichsverband, and there is no problem of war rationing within it or the Reich. Within the Außenhandel Shadows, there is a similar split of population to the Reich itself, with the 80% who are of predominantly European stock having the status of Außenhandel Citizens. While this isn't quite as prestigious as being a full Reich Citizen, it does mean that when an Außenhandel Citizen is travelling within the Reich they are accorded better status than Reich Non-Citizens. Moreover, it is much easier for an Außenhandel Citizen to ultimately take Reich Citizenship if they choose to.

Until recently, the Außenhandel group comprised about twenty Shadows. However this has now been extended to twenty-five, all of them still outside the Commonwealth Veils - most, in fact, situated in the Outer Ring, but with specially constructed Shadow paths connecting them to Magica Superior outside of the Sable Mountains. All of these are relatively industrialised - at least 1900 technology, and the majority of them as high as 1940, whereas in Sable and the Commonwealth, a lot of the technology is magic-based, except in the very advanced Commonwealth Shadows. Industrial technology traded onto Magica Superior does have to be sufficiently modified to account for the lack of petrochemicals on the Primal Shadow. In addition, about half of the Außenhandel worlds have a strong agricultural base as well as an industrial one, and act as the breadbaskets for the other Außenhandel Shadows.

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Foreign Policy

The Reich pursues an unremittingly expansionist foreign policy, through both political means and in its war with Sable. It is actively trying to conquer Magica Superior in its entirety, although this is proving to be harder than the powers that be initially thought possible. The recent move onto the Western Continent has, in part, been to direct the attention of the Citizens away from the fact that closer to home, the Reich is struggling to gain ground. 

Within the Außenhandel Shadows, Civilian Governors are appointed to report back to Berlin, although apart from these, the Reich's allies are largely left to run their own policies, as long as they don't actively oppose the Fatherland and its aims. 

From the seventh Veil outwards, the battle against Sable's forces is widespread and is proving somewhat frustrating for the Imperial Council, as progress is slow. 

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Transport Around the Reich

As in Sable, the primary methods of private transport are horseback and horse-drawn vehicles. There are steam-driven cars on the road, although the vast majority of these are owned by Reich officials, the armed forces, and the powerful industrialists and landowners who support the regime. There are also a handful of other private cars, which do not appear to be steam driven. These are produced to order by Mahler Arbeitsgemeinschaft, under the Mercedes marque, and are mainly affordable by the very highest echelons of the Reich: the Imperial Family, the Party Chairman, the Reichsführer-SS and other such notables.

For public transport, there is an extensive steam railway network on both the Eastern and Western Continents. In the Reich and the Sudentenland, plus the Reich-dominated and disputed territories surrounding them, this network is state controlled (and yes, it does run on time). However, in the non-Reich territories on the Eastern Continent there are also privately-owned railways, and on the Western Continent, private railways predominate, in keeping with the capitalist ethics driving the three Western countries.

Within the major cities, there will normally also be either trams or omnibuses, both almost always steam-driven, rather than horse-drawn, as well as extensive local overland railway networks.

A recent addition to the Reich transport infrastructure system is the advent of access to the Aurellis Transportation System, a station for which has been opened in Berlin, although it is currently an expensive and limited form of transport. The nascent Reich Pilots' Guild is run by Arndt Friedemann, a former soldier who was recently appointed to establish a formal Reich Guild. The final lap of luxury in transport is provided by zeppelins which ply the airways around the Fatherland and the occupied territories, as well as following the Shadow paths into the Außenhandel Shadows. While not the fastest method of transport, the magically propelled dirigibles and their cruise-liner style passenger cabins, are a popular form of transport for those who wish to be 'seen'.

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The Reichsprotektorates

The Reich administers a number of  provinces and territories as full Reichsprotektorates, as well as having Military Governors (Reichsprotektors) in place in the ten provinces of the Fatherland. Full Reichsprotektorates are usually of strategic importance to the Reich, and are therefore administered by the Reichsprotektors under martial law. The level of elected representation in a Reichsprotektorate varies, with the three Sudetenland Provinces, on the one hand, sending representatives to the Reichstag in Berlin, while at the other end of the scale, Sanguine is administered solely by the Reichsprotektor and an Advisory Council. Reichsprotektors theoretically come from any branch of the Reich armed forces, although at this time the majority of those with responsibility outside the Fatherland are, or have been, SS officers, including the former Head of the Waffen-SS, who is Reichsprotektor of the new gateway world of Sanguine.

The current list of Reichsprotektorates (excluding the ten provinces of the Fatherland) is as follows:

This site © Trish Hart 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008.
Writings and original artwork exhibited on player pages are published with the author's permission.
Trumps based on photographic originals use photographs obtained in the public domain.
Website administrator: Trish Hart (sable at fugue.org)