Balt-Rhein Empire

Balt Rhein imparatorluğunun bayrağı — Balt-Rhein flag in anime

The Baltic and Rhein Empire, or Balt-Rhein Empire is one of the countries in Shoukoku no Altair universe. It is Turkiye's main enemy. It's loosely based on the real-life Holy Roman Empire. The empire's current ruler is Emperor Goldbalt XI.

Location[]

Opposed to Turkiye, Balt-Rhein Empire is located at the western side of the region. It shares a border with various city states at the southern border, United Kingdom of Greater Turkiye at the eastern parts, and Kingdom of Urado at the northern parts.

The empire consists of two main regions: the Balt region, north of the Fulminis River, and the Rhein region, south of the river.

In the center of the Balt region stands the ancient territory of the Gol kingdom. It is from the latter that the imperial family originated, its kings taking the habit after the annexation of all Balt to call themselves "Goldbalt" as the name of reign, meaning that they come from the region of Gol and that they conquered the whole region of Balt.

Seventy-five years before the beginning of the manga the region of Rhein, south of the river Fulminis, was annexed by the Empire and the emperor of that time, the father of Goldbalt XI, decided to take Eldrhein as the name of reign, to try to win the sympathy of his new subjects... But it was a failure and the policy of the empire hardened after his reign and the beginning of the reign of Goldbalt XI.

The city of Saint-Michael was founded as the Empire expanded, built on a sandbank in the middle of the Fulminis River. The latter, inaccessible because of its rapids and water too salty to be drinkable, was considered impregnable, in particular because its only land access, a large bridge linking it to the continent, was defended by Mur, an imposing fortified fortress-city.

History[]

St. Michael capital city of Balt-Rhein Empire.

Balt Rhein imparatorluğunun arması — Banner of the Balt-Rhein Empire.

Before the beginning of the Imperial Calendar, the Empire was once a territory belonging to the Phoenician Empire, which had spread throughout the Roumelian continent. After the fall of the Phoenician Empire, its territories became autonomous states of various sizes. Later, one of these kingdoms became increasingly important in the region of Balt, the kingdom of Gol. By appealing to his noble warriors, who were to become the Hermanns, they conquered and subdued the various territories of the Balt region. Seventy-five years before the beginning of the manga, the Empire had totally annexed the region of Balt then the kingdoms of the region of Rhein, some by pure military conquest, others thanks to the treachery of local nobles...

The policy of the Empire was however undeveloped, corruption was very present in the administration and in its policy of management of the annexed territories, it was necessary to maintain a Standing army increasingly large, and allocate ever more money to the maintenance of this army, which led to a vicious circle where conquests were financed by other conquests and where it was always necessary to annex new territories.

Administration[]

Balt-Rhein Empire's territory is largely divided into two parts: the 'original' part of the Kingdom of Gol and the territories that it got after its expansions.

The administration of the territories is different depending on the region. In the South and Region of Rhein, most territories are held by an iron fist and run by local nobles or are left "autonomous" in theory, such as the territories of Spring and Religion, one was a lordship where the ruling family was an ancient noble house having betrayed its former overlords of the Benett kingdom, The other was a forest town that was not run by a nobleman but was totally dependent on the Empire and the imperial merchants for supplies of basic necessities.

In the north and the Balt Region, the territories are divided into different noble fiefs, some belonging to the noble knights Hermanns, the ancient warrior nobility of the Gol Kingdom, and others appearing to the Junkers, the nobility associated with the imperial administration and who have little ascended over the Hermanns by allowing the expansion of the Standing Army which eventually formed the bulk of the military forces of the empire.

The empire left the collection of taxes to the local lords, which meant that these revenues were not huge, hence the policy of conquest they used to find new financial sources.

Moreover most territories, especially those of the region of Rhein, are forced to develop only a particular industry, as in Religion where the wood industry was exercised at the expense of other industries, prohibiting its inhabitants from clearing the forest to harvest crops or selling the proceeds of their logging business to anyone, forcing them to sell at fixed but disadvantageous rates to them. Because of this policy of exploitation of the territory, industry did not develop, and poverty was common for the majority of the population of the Empire.

Military[]

Because of its large land mass and the big sum of citizens, Balt-Rhein Empire's military relies heavily on their standing army of troops that has a large number of military personnel, with a few of commanding officers in charge.

The Hermann Knights served as their cavalry force and the Standing Army serving as their bulk force.

Despite its undeniable military power on land, the empire suffers from a major weakness in its naval forces. Indeed, most of the Empire's coastline, at least in the original part of Balt, does not lend itself to the construction of ports and other naval installations. The Empire does, however, have a navy, made up of galleys and other warships in its southern part, notably based in the town of Row in the Rhein region. However, this lack of port facilities did not allow the Empire to develop its naval power, making it weak against the naval powers of the Central Sea, particularly Venedik.

Notable Members[]

Trivia[]

The continuously antagonistic relationship between the Balt-Rhein Empire and the United Kingdom of Greater Turkiye might be loosely inspired by the real-life relationship of the Holy Roman Empire with the Ottoman Empire, that got renowned as the two competing main powers of the region before the rise of western European kingdoms. The big difference that separates the two is the motives behind the conflict: while the real-life conflicts mainly revolves around the competition between religions (Ottoman as an Islamic empire and HRE as the leader of Christendom), the conflict in Altair universe revolves largely on the matters of national interest, as the role of religion in the universe is incredibly minor, just acting as a background that is just mentioned occasionally.
- Another similarity between the Balt-Rhein Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, the empire commonly uses German to name its fighting tactics.
There is strong resemblances towards Balt-Rhein's capital city St. Michael to real-life Le Mont Saint-Michel.