Empire

"The Empire in this story is based on a what-if scenario where the German empire unified under the Großdeutsche Lösung ("Greater German solution"), so that all German-speaking peoples came together under one state. If peace had managed to continue throughout the 1910s and war broke out later, during the years between World War I and World War II, how would things be different? In that scenario, there wouldn't be any room for a demagogue like Hitler to come into power."

- Carlo Zen

The Empire (帝国), or alternatively The Fatherland, Germanian Kreise Empire, Reich (ライヒ) or Kreise, is a powerful nation residing in the alternate Earth. The main character, Tanya von Degurechaff, was sent to here following her first encounter with Being X. It is characterized by a strong military and rationalist attitude towards warfare. The Empire's capital is Berun. They use Mark as their official currency. The Empire is also famous for its milk.

Government and politics
The Imperial administration is close to a constitutional monarchy. Their cabinet is named Supreme High Command, consisting of Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, Foreign Office, General Staff, and so on.

General Staff is one of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor's advisory committees technically. Supreme High Command is de facto rubber-stamping things for General Staff before the Great War. Each regional army group nominally reports to Supreme High Command.

Society
Imperial society is a reference to German culture, both in architecture and in society itself. An outstanding aspect of society is that they have abandoned racial discrimination against the other minor ethnic groups of the Empire, being accepted within the nation. Most customs and behaviors have also been accepted within what is considered normal, with the exception of certain " aberrations " such as homosexuality, since the Empire is very religious. The Empire does not forget its soldiers either, because according to the manga, there are pensions for the families of the soldiers and other forces of order.

Education
Another outstanding aspect of imperial society is the education that infants, adolescents and young adults receive. Well, you have many opportunities to study. The state promotes pensions, and even student scholarships for outstanding alumni of universities, including the Imperial War Academy. In the case of the Imperial War Academy, if you obtain higher marks than the others, you become part of the Twelve Honorable Knights, thus obtaining a  'VON'  in your name, thus becoming a (a) imperial nobleman. A clear example of the latter would be officer Tanya   'von'   Degurechaff.

Journalism
Journalism in the Empire is apparently promilitarian. We only know of a single journalism and radio agency in the Empire: the Reich Central News Agency. He had his first appearance in the manga, when they interviewed the cadets who graduated from the Officers School.

Administrative divisions
Kreise is known for several various cities and towns:


 * Berlun: It is the imperial capital
 * Ransilvania: Appears in the manga, one of its municipalities is Turao
 * Augsburg: Appears in the manga, a known area of the city would be the Augsburg Air Base where the Sixth Imperial Aviation Command resides
 * Norden: District in the North of the Empire, a known area would be the Kraggana Warehouse in front of the old defense lines in front of the Entente Legadonia Alliance.
 * Meinen. A famous resort town of the Empire

Foreign relations

 * Francois Republic (フランソワ共和国) - They recognize each other as the main threat. Their long-smoldering border disputes and territorial issues between the two have erupted into localized wars on multiple occasions in the past.
 * Commonwealth (連合王国) - Although praising the right to self-determination, the Commonwealth worries about a new great power on the continent to challenge the balance of powers. During the beginning of Great War, it kept neutral, yet sent limited support to the Empire's enemies.
 * Legadonia Entente Alliance (レガドニア協商連合) - They used to have an unofficial dispute over the domain of Norden. The Treaty of Londinium, which was mediated by Commonwealth, allowed them to resolve their dispute by compromising and recognizing a common national boundary. However, multiple isolated accidents have occurred along the border recently. There has been unintentional fire on both sides, which led to firefights due to misunderstanding, causing the situation to become tense. These finally led to the outbreak of Norden Incident. See also Norden Incident.


 * Kingdom of Ildoa (イルドア王国) - It has an alliance with Empire, maintaining its neutrality during the beginning of Great War. The Kingdom had a skirmish with the Empire about Unredeemed Ildoa, a part of Ildoa-speaking regions, yet presently governed by the Empire. Their treaty of alliance only stipulates some war provisions without the obligation to join the war on ally's side. In order to expand their influence on the Southern Continent, the Kingdom acquiesces in the Imperial Army stationing in its colonies.
 * Russy Federation (ルーシー連邦) - The government signed a nonaggression pact and other treaties with Empire, while claiming the domain of Imperial Ostland to the Empire. It kept neutral during the beginning of Great War. However, in year 1926, they declared war on the Empire upon their General Secretary's order.

History
The Empire is a new country that was born from the annexation and merger of numerous statelets, while maintaining traditional formalities and abandoning racial and gender discrimination. Since the founding of the Empire, it secures its historical territory by Great-Reichism, but is also hounded by territorial conflicts, so there are never any lack of sparks for the next war.

Geography
Its territory border mostly follows the borders of the modern European nations in real life. Based on that, its territories contain Germany, Denmark, Scania of Sweden, all of low countries, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Poland, and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Here are the disputed territories of the Empire. Western Industrial Region as known as Ruhr Industrial Region in manga is the lifeline of the Empire, located at the east of Low Lands Industrial Region and accounting for 30 percent of civilian industry and more than 50 percent of military industry to the Empire.
 * Imperial Norden (with Legadonia Entente Alliance) - It refers to Denmark and Scania of Sweden. It is mountainous while having the mineral deposits that cause local magnetic abnormalities.
 * Low Lands Industrial Region - It refers to Low Countries. It is one of the vital industrial regions of the Empire.
 * Unredeemed Ildoa (with Kingdom of Ildoa) - It refers to Slovenia. The Kingdom of Ildoa claimed the domain since some of the locals speak Ildoa language.
 * Imperial Dacia (with Principality of Dacia) - It refers to Hungary.
 * Imperial Ostland (with Russy Federation) - It refers to the part of Poland at the east of the Vistula and Kaliningrad of Russia.

In the anime, the Empire has larger territory compared to the novel.

Background
For historical reasons, the Empire is located right in the middle of the continent and has territorial disputes with most neighboring countries, which forms a containment net against the Empire, so the Empire has to think of its neighboring countries as potential enemies. To defend its vast territory, its troop numbers were always a tricky topic. To prevent the inferior numbers on all fronts, the Imperial General Staff decided to adopt a national defense plan that would ensure the overwhelming advantages in one front to destroy the invading forces one by one, while avoiding the lethal depletion of others.

Interior Lines Strategy
As known as Plan 315. It is a delicate defense policy which requires taking advantage of railway and fortifications. It will commit troops superior in quality and quantity topically, transfer the advantages to another front rapidly, and finally defeat all enemies by winning several decisive battles. Based on it, regional army group is dictated to obstruct the enemy's advance and for the Great Army reinforcements to surround and annihilate the forces that have penetrated too deeply into Imperial territory. Since the Great Army is the main force of the Empire, the plan 315 focuses on maximizing the speed of domestic theater maneuvering, making the Great Army the rapid reaction troops of the Imperial Army theoretically.

Strength
The Empire has invested a lot of time and money in building infrastructure and defense installations. With regard to maintaining supply lines, the Imperial Army has been optimized from the beginning for a domestic interior lines doctrine. The Imperial Army relies heavily on railroads and lacks adaptability of extreme environment outside the homeland.

Originally, the plan called for Central to send 3 divisions within 24 hours of mobilization orders, including an Imperial Guard Division as vanguard, and within 72 hours, seven more divisions to follow. Within a week or so, the Great Army itself would invest an overwhelming force──20 divisions of their dignified regular troops and enough reserves for 60 divisions. In 1926, when the Russy Federation declared war on the Empire, the Imperial Eastern Army Group had 60 divisions, while the Great Army was expanded to 100 divisions yet lacked key officers, machine guns, and the cannons in service.

Army
The Empire is known for its superior armaments. It has the most outstanding and advanced army in the alternate world. The majority of their manpower is focused in land and air, but not sea. Now, both air and land are prioritized due to the spread of mages. The Imperial Army is supplied with relatively new equipment, so much so that they've gone beyond believing in firepower supremacy and more in obeying it as accepted doctrine. Since the Rhine, the Imperial Army’s mage policy has progressed from using them as support for infantry to using them on their own more often. They are also known for their heavy firepower troops on the front line and emphasizing maneuver capability and maneuver warfare.

Navy
They have a large amount of submarines than long-ranged and heavy barreled battleships. Their navy has expanded in the past few years, but its strength is still far weaker than the Commonwealth Navy and is on par with the Republican Navy. Their Imperial High Seas Fleet has more naval ships while the Imperial North Sea Fleet has newer ones, whose flagship is the SMS Helgoland. The Empire has a few military ports in the Inner Sea, but since their ally consensus with the Kingdom of Ildoa, they only have some old fashioned armored cruisers, ex-Republican war ships, destroyers, and well-equipped submarines in Inner Sea.

Airforce
The Imperial air forces focus on air superiority and battlefield support. Most of their pilots are elite and highly-trained personnel. Therefore, they put a lot of effort to maintain the air superiority in the sky. In 1926, the Imperial air forces were still researching on naval attack doctrine. Before the Great War, the passing line of well-trained Imperial pilots was 600 flying hours, but in 1927, the Western Command even had to deploy the young pilots who have less than 100 flying hours.

Research and Development
The researchers are dedicated and motivated to create and improve their technology. In 1924, with the guidance of Dr. Schugel, the Empire finally created a dual-core orb named Type 97 Elinium Orb that helps their mages to move freely to 8,000 feet above sea level. However, this operation orb is still a generation ahead of existing orbs used by other countries. It is a revolutionary model that is hard to handle for single-core users.

Land/Air
For land, the Empire's researchers and engineers developed long-ranged bombers, long-ranged artillery, and also tanks. Surpassing the technology of the other countries, they improved the guns and equipment of their troops. In 1923, there were some armored units that took part in the Norden Incident. In 1924, some of the dive bombers joined the retraining mission of V601. In 1925, armored divisions and mechanized infantry took part in Operation Revolving Door. They also developed new model of assault rifle in 1925. In June 1926, the IV D tank had been considered an old model already being used for training and security in the rear, and G model, in service.

Sea
The warships the Imperial Navy use are mostly from WWI. In the light novel, SMS Helgoland was considered the newest model in 1925. In both the anime and manga, they have the SMS Bayern as the flagship instead. However, their torpedo is criticized by many submarine captains for several defects of its fuse.

Failed Attempts To Stop The War
1st moment: Reject the demands of Ludwig, who was the Chief of General Staff at the time, to mobilize the entire Great Army against Legedonia. The Empire could just defeat the invading army and threaten their government through political means. However, its massive assault finally destroyed the fragile balance and led to a series of war against itself, which were called “The World War” afterwards.

2nd moment: Accept the Commonwealth's call for ceasefire before the defeat of the Republic. The Commonwealth asked the Empire for “restitutio in integrum,” and was rejected by the Imperial General Staff.

3rd moment: Allow Tanya to take out General de Lugo so the Free Republic can't form and prevent the Commonwealth from entering the war. That would have ended in a clear Empire's victory, but the General Staff prevented her.

4th moment: Don't allow Tanya to strike at Moscow and go with the original plan 315. Let the Federation forces inside the Empire's territory and defeat them each time they invade. Eventually, they will sue for peace. Tanya prevented this path from being taken.

5th moment: Accept Ildoa's ceasefire deal in the middle of the Federation Spring Offensive. The General Staff rejected this offer. Accept Ildoa's ceasefire deal after the defeat of the Federation Army. The Imperial cabinet rejected this offer.

Trivia

 * In the manga, the Empire's soldiers resemble the German Wehrmacht from World War Two, and in the anime, Imperial soldiers resemble the German Kaiserliches Heer from World War One.
 * In name, territorial boundaries, culture, and geopolitical situation, the Empire heavily presents itself as a parallel to Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary during the First World War.
 * The Fatherland, the Empire's second most prominent title, among its own citizenry and military especially, was also a common epithet for Germany spoken among German nationalists during the World Wars.
 * For a time, on an indeterminate date, pirates existed in the maritime territory of the Empire. Apparently the Empire offered them some kind of deal. Now these pirates use all their knowledge and experience as pirates serving the Imperial Navy as high caliber sailors. They even have knowledge of close combat against magicians.
 * The interior line strategy the Empire uses to quickly transport its troops efficiently across its territory is a reference to the German Empire's ability to move troops and supplies. An ability that served him to repel the Russians in East Prussia.
 * In the Empire, chocolates are of the highest quality and it is not as common to eat them as it would be in real life.
 * Soldiers' medals are worn at the waist instead of on the chest.
 * The Lowlands industrial zone (which in our world would correspond to the Netherlands) is probably a reference to the Rhineland Industrial region, an industrial zone on Germany's border with the Netherlands today.
 * On the maps that show up in the background of the anime, the country's name shows up as "Vaterland" in a highly stylized font.
 * It is interesting that even with the tank technologies taking place in this era, massive trench warfare still occurred in Rhine.
 * In the novel, the flagship of Imperial North Sea Fleet is the SMS Helgoland. In the anime and the manga, it seems to be a Bayern-class battleship.
 * The Empire's flag is a combination of the Reichskriegsflagge of the Third Reich and an altered version of the Holy Roman Empire flag.

Reference
Империя Imperio