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Ausonian Commonwealth
*République ausonienne* (French)
Ausonian Commonwealth République ausonienne (French)
	Flag Emblem
	Motto: "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" (Latin) "One for All, All for One"
	Anthem: Cantique des Ausoniens ; (English: "Psalm of the Ausonians")
Capital	Châlons
Largest city	Savonnes
Official languages	Frencha
Demonym(s)	Ausonian; ausonien
Government	Federal parliamentary republic
• State Lieutenant	Elmire Aslane
• Lord President	Albert Desjardins
• Lord Speaker	Victoire Martin
Legislature	Estates-General
• Upper house	House of Peers
• Lower house	House of Commons
Establishment
• Western Franconia - Treaty of Aulac	11 August 823
• Kingdom of Ausonia - Clotidian rulers of Ausonia	9 January 937
• War of the Provinces - Treaty of Eternal Concordance	4 November 1650
• Current constitution	19 October 1815
Area
• Total	606,090 km2 (234,010 sq mi)
Population
• 2024 estimate	129,784,484
• 2022 census	128,875,665
• Density	214/km2 (554.3/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2024 estimate
• Total	$7.198 trillion
• Per capita	$55,457
GDP (nominal)	2024 estimate
• Total	$5.444 trillion
• Per capita	$42,272
Gini (2023)	28.6; low
HDI (2023)	.935; very high
Currency	Ausonian livre (AUL; ₤)
Time zone	UTC+2 (WAT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (WAST)
Date format	dd.mm.yyyy (AD)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+33
ISO 3166 code	AU
Internet TLD	.au
	All provinces (with the exception of Brie, Berry, Gâtine, Touraine, Vexin, and the free cities of Châlons and Savonnes) recognize one of some twenty-two languages as co-official within their respective provinces, with some languages having various degrees of government protection at the provincial or local level.;

Latest revision as of 19:59, 17 September 2024

Ausonia ^[a], officially the Ausonian Commonwealth^[b], is a sovereign nation largely in southwestern Adria. Its core territory, dubbed Metropolitan Ausonia, is bounded by the Eurythic Ocean and Bay of Cornouaille to its west and southwest, ?? to its northeast, ?? and ?? to its southeast, and the Strait of Odyssea and Mesochersean Sea to its south. It is a federal republic comprised of thirty-two provinces and four free cities (five of which are overseas), in addition to seven overseas territories scattered throughout the world, with Châlons as the seat of the federal administration. The country's topography is largely varied between its southern mountain chains, including some of the tallest mountains in Adria, and the flat northern plains, where a slight majority of its population of close to 130 million reside.

Modern humans first arrived to the territory that would become metropolitan Ausonia by around 40,000 years ago, with the territory largely inhabited by Ausones throughout the Iron Age. The Remian Empire would conquer the territory in 70 BCE, bringing their religion, language, and cultural traditions in the ensuing period, influencing and combining with the cultures of the natives to form a distinct Ausone-Remic culture. The collapse of the empire in the 5th century CE would lead to a migration by Germanic peoples, establishing tribal confederations that would be the basis of powerful kingdoms, duchies, and baronies, consolidating into a unified kingdom in the twelfth century CE.

Despite unification, the Kingdom was a highly decentralized feudal state in which royal authority was barely felt. Power was instead held by the various feudal magnates, who resented royal usurpation of their traditional rights and privileges, and formed alliances from which to secure their interests. The Protestant Reformation and the emergence of the Ausonic Reformed Church exacerbated divides, until the reign of the child-king Francis IV and his increasingly-autocratic Regency Council, which culminated in the War of the Provinces. The victory of the feudal magnates led to the formation of the Commonwealth, with the monarchy largely stripped of its powers in a highly liberal system of its time. This period also coincided with Ausonia's rise as Adria's dominant cultural, political, and military power, with a colonial empire encompassing much of ?? and ??.

In 1815, a series of bread riots caused by famine broke out in multiple cities across Ausonia, whose brutal suppression at the hands of the confederal military triggered a revolution led primarily by the bourgeoisie allied with the lower classes. The resulting constitution would confirm the present federal system while guaranteeing universal suffrage under a republican government. With numerous minor additions, the constitution has survived numerous crises and remains in force to this day. Ausonia would reach its economic and military zenith (the Pax Ausonica) around this time, becoming the first nation to industrialize and the world's foremost power throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. To this day, Ausonian influence can be observed in the legal and political systems of its former colonies, with Ausonian culture remaining globally influential.

A largely Remic country, Ausonia today is a cosmopolitan, religiously diverse, and multilingual society, with numerous regional identities stemming from linguistic differences and the Catholic-Protestant axis. Though a majority of Ausonians are speakers of various Ausonic languages, Ausonian identity is rooted in a common historical and geographical background and shared principle of state sovereignty.

Ausonia is also a developed, high-income economy, dominated primarily by the service and financial sectors. It is one of the top countries in the world in terms of economic competitiveness, thanks to its advanced infrastructure and strong work ethic. Owing to their individualistic mindset forged over the centuries, there is a strong emphasis on self-reliance and personal responsibility, with welfare services generally small compared to its neighbors. Despite this, Ausonians generally enjoy a high standard of living and quality of life.

History

Etymology

The origins of the name "Ausonia" predate the emergence of the Remian Empire and come from the Greco-Latin name to denote the Aurunci, a Ausonic people that inhabited much of central Ausonia. The original name is of uncertain origin, but it was generally after the initial Remian conquest of their territory that the term spread to encompass much of present-day Ausonia, eventually adopted as a regional term by the Ausone-Remic population. The subsequent evolution of the Remic languages, and the Oïl dialects in particular changed the term to modern Ausonie.

The official name for the state is République ausonienne. The term originated from the Latin res publica ("common/public thing") and is traditionally rendered as the "Commonwealth", which is an English calque. It predates the modern usage to denote a republic, even though the country has also been a modern republic since 1815.

Prehistory (Pre–6th century BC)

Antiquity (6th century BC–5th century AD)

Middle Ages (5th century BC–15th century AD)

...

Commonwealth period (15th century–1815)

The subsequent Renaissance would see the flowering of the arts and sciences throughout the Kingdom, which would include the standardization of the French language. Concurrent with this would be the development of its naval traditions, with the establishment of the Royal Ausonian Navy and the first colonial ventures in the 1560s. However, political disputes between the King and the aristocracy and their parlements would continue to boil over, even after the revival of the Estates-General by 1512 and the promulgation of the Pacta Conventa in 1576. Furthermore, the Protestant Reformation had destabilized Ausonian society, as the southern and eastern regions would convert to the new Reformed sects under Jean de Briand.

The pivotal Battle of Vassy sealed the Parliamentarians' victory and helped establish the Old Commonwealth

In June 1621, the infant John XI died, leading to the succession of his second cousin, the two-year-old Francis IV. Ruling in his name was a regency council comprised of his mother Anne de Solferino and her camarilla of cardinals and other Papal officials (most notably, Cardinal LeMahieu). Almost immediately, the council had worked to severely curtail the power of the parlements and ruthlessly annihilate the Protestant faith, resulting in an exodus of Protestants to neighboring Montfiore (in the present-day United Republics). Increasingly unpopular due to their high taxes used to finance both the Catholic League's wars in neighboring ?? and their extravagant lifestyle, their policies soon instigated a revolt by the residents of Châlons in 1634, which galvanized leading lower nobility, burghers, and Protestants like Robert d'Évreux to rally in support of the parlements against the deprivations of the Regency Council.

The subsequent War of the Provinces would break out two years later when armies loyal to the council tried to set fire to the parlement of Draguignan in Albret, which would flare on-and-off for the next fourteen years. The final campaign of the war would see the Parliamentarians unite under the command of Gaspard de Montmorency, who would soon rout the royalists led by the Count of Aumale in the pivotal Battle of Vassy, chasing them out from most of the southern Protestant-led countryside before laying siege to the royal capital in Savonnes. A last-ditch effort to break the siege would fail and the last royalist troops would surrender to de Montmorency's forces by December 1649.

The subsequent Treaty of Eternal Concordance would end all attempts at royal centralization for good, with Cardinal LeMahieu executed and the rest of the Council exiled. The Kingdom was transformed into the Old Commonwealth, which would be a decentralized confederation with the various lordships and free cities (now provinces) would enjoy a considerable level of autonomy, with the Estates-General — comprised of representatives from the various provinces — to be given significant legislative powers from the now-virtually powerless monarchy. Religious toleration would also be guaranteed in all lands, with the country subsequently becoming a haven for persecuted religious minorities throughout Adria and northern Adema.

...

Republican period (1815–1931)

1931–present

Geography

Climate

Biodiversity

Subdivisions

Ausonia is a federation comprised of thirty-two provinces and the four free cities (villes-libres) of Châlons, La Rochelle, Malines, and Savonnes, of which five are located outside the metropole (three in Eurythia and two in Adema). These provinces emerged from the territorial domains of both the parlements and the recettes générales, which were in turn descended from and resembled the medieval feudal territories of the old Kingdom. The subsequent War of the Provinces both consolidated these territories through mediatisation, and expanded their authority at the expense of the monarch and the central government, which upon the Revolution would be rationalized through a system of asymmetric federalism. To this day, the various provinces and free cities enjoy a wide range of various powers and competencies not delegated to the federal government, including their own constitution, educational system, taxation scheme, resource management, and other wide-ranging competencies.

Each province and free city is organized as a subnational unitary parliamentary republic in the mold of the federal government in Châlons, with an elected unicameral legislature, a head of government — either called the Grand Pensionary (grand-pensionnaire) for provinces or Lord Mayor (Chef-maire) for free cities — that serves at the legislatures' discretion, and a representative of the federal government called a Lord Commissioner (Chef-commissaire) appointed by the State Lieutenant on the advice of the House of Commons for a single six-year term.

Indicates an overseas province

Provinces
File:Ausonia provinces map.png
Name	Capital	Area (total km²)	Population (Jan. 2024 estimate)	Name	Capital	Area (total km²)	Population (Jan. 2024 estimate)
Albret	Draguignan	65,012	15,493,584	Gâtine	Saumur	13,660	3,040,892
Almeine	Charlesbourg	10,032	3,122,456	Gueldres	Bois-le-Duc	18,969	12,070,244
Argovia	Lens	8,041	310,804	Maoria	Sima-Chouani	796	420,886
Aunis	Rochefort	10,406	4,448,455	Marche	Douai	22,290	5,441,113
Berry	Clermont	20,531	5,411,456	Nivelles	Fort-Gaspard	1,206	347,224
Bistria	Marchevarde	6,350	612,213	Normandy	Saint-Lô	37,285	3,658,246
Brie	Pontoise	10,858	10,121,657	Oneille	Monegue	1,044	233,671
Brignoles	Valence	20,021	3,115,179	Royannais	Royan	16,450	3,112,249
Champagne	Donazac	11,072	1,614,869	Saint-Martin	Pointe-à-Pitre	2,155	471,725
Cornouaille	Ploërmel	48,666	4,284,559	Saintonge	Jonzac	7,150	2,178,223
Dauphiné	Besançon	3,993	2,110,189	Scheria	Pontecorvo	7,701	544,196
Dombes	Porrentruy	15,412	2,114,679	Touraine	Châteauroux	18,380	8,144,325
Doumeraire	Jacquard	121,594	344,562	Trèves	Mayence	9,726	3,429,981
Dulenia	Darour	10,684	658,545	Varesia	Aste	20,389	4,111,852
Escaut	Louvain	20,389	6,452,011	Verviers	Gembloux	15,140	4,212,684
Forez	Vevey	15,158	4,549,821	Vexin	Villefranche-sur-Eure	14,066	3,112,114
Free Cities
Name						Area (total km²)	Population (Jan. 2024 estimate)
Châlons						283	744,196
La Rochelle						149	621,193
Malines						270	581,249
Savonnes						762	8,545,182

Bailiwicks

The Hôtel de Ville of La Rochelle, which is the meeting place of the City Council and office of the Lord Mayor

Ausonia's further internal subdivisions is the preserve of the provinces and free cities, and are thus determined by their own laws, but in general is further subdivided into 695 bailiwicks. These bailiwicks have limited competencies which are often tied to the coordination of municipal policies and regulations and the management of local resources. These in turn are further subdivided into over 30 thousand communes, though seven provinces — Argovia, Scheria, and two of the five overseas provinces — and all four free cities have merged their communes with their bailiwicks.

Though the term "bailiwick" (bailliage) is a common terminology to describe these internal subdivisions, the names for these are determined by the laws of each province and are reflective of its historic traditions and norms. Thus, the subdivisions in the provinces are known by a wide variety of names, including seneschalties (senechaussées), countries (payses), viscounties (viscomtés), parishes (paroisses), presidia (presidiaux), vicariates (vigueries), provosties (prevôtés), and districts. Meanwhile, the free cities' are generally divided into arrondissements.

Overseas territories

Government

The Federal Palace in Châlons, the seat of the Estates-General

The fundamental basic principles of the Ausonian government is outlined in its constitution, which is the oldest in Adria and among the oldest in the world. Influenced by the traditions and norms of the old Commonwealth and the liberal-democratic principles of the Enlightenment, it outlines the basic and political rights of all citizens, outlines the three principal branches of the government, and formalizes the division of powers and responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments. Ausonia is the oldest federation in the world, whose basic structure and political culture (dubbed the Châlons system) were emulated around the world with its colonial empire.

The national legislature, the Estates-General, is a bicameral body that meets in Châlons and is comprised of two houses: the elected House of Commons and the appointed House of Peers. All Ausonian citizens over the age of 21 elect the 828 members of the Commons, which are elected via single transferable vote. The House of Peers's 856 members are largely appointed (a holdover of the pre-Revolution Estates-General), a majority of which are appointed by the bailiwick councils.

In addition to the Estates-General, Ausonia also possesses a unique institution known as the National Assembly, whose main role is to elect the Chief Lieutenant, consider new amendments to the Constitution before sending to the provinces for ratification, and to debate legislation deemed to be of such importance to warrant the citizenry's input. Its 1,512 members are comprised of the House of Peers, as well as representatives from various sectors of Ausonian society. This institution meets irregularly, meeting every 2-6 times per decade, and largely take the role of referenda in other parts of the world as (while legal) referenda at the national level tend to be extremely rare.

Executive power resides in both the State Lieutenant, the head of state that is elected for a single twelve-year term by the National Assembly, and the State Council chaired by the Lord President. The Lord President's position is given to the person who could command the confidence of both chambers of the Estates-General, and is typically (though not always) the leader of the party/coalition with a majority of the Commons.

Law

Members of the Mounted Division of the Gendarmerie in Savonnes.

Generally, there are two zones of judicial law used in the country, as the settlement reached after the end of the War of the Provinces allowed each province to retain their own separate judicial systems and coutumes, which remained undisturbed with the creation of the modern Commonwealth. Over time, these systems coalesced into two unified systems used for the zone coutumier ('customary zone') and zone de droit écrit ('zone of written law'), with the Judicial Committee of the House of Peers serving as both the court of last resort and consitutional court, effectively serving as the highest court in the land for both jurisdictions, as well as the overseas territories.

Laws in the zone coutumier is generally based around common-law principles, which revolve around court judges which, subject to statute, develop laws by interpreting legislative action, precedent, and common sense to the facts presented to them to give an explanatory judgement of the relevant legal principles, which are then recorded and held binding for future cases (stare decisis). The principal courts in the zone is the General Court which are divided into separate tribunals for both civil (High Court of Justice) and criminal cases (Penal Tribunal), both of which can be appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The laws of the droit écrit are a hybrid of both common-law and civil-law systems, incorporating aspects of Remic law. The principal courts within the system are the Bailiff Court which handle both civil and criminal cases, and the appellate Court of Cassation. This system is unique in having three possible verdicts in a criminal court: "guilty" "not guilty" and "guilty without sanction" (coupable sans sanction), which results in no punishment given to the convicted.

In both zones, all trials employ an adversarial system before a jury comprised of a mixture of qualified individuals and lay judges, though petty crimes could be tried before a single professional judge. Capital punishment is legal in both the federal and provincial level and routinely employed for the most heinous of crimes. Courts also have the ability to strip persons of their public confidence, rendering them ineligible to vote or stand for election.

Law Enforcement

Law enforcement in Ausonia is a reserved matter to the provinces, and thus largely operates at the provincial, and sometimes bailiwick level. There are over forty-six local police forces throughout metropolitan Ausonia with varying degrees of duties and jurisdiction, yet are linked through reciprocal support and coordination, as well as a common recruitment system and training regimen, and manpower mobility between forces. In addition, the Gendarmerie - answerable to both the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence - is a federal militarized police force responsible for policing the country's borders, ports, and coastal waters, as well as prosecuting financial crimes, protecting important institutions and personnel, and serving as both military and judicial police.

Military

Foreign Relations

Economy

Energy

Transportation

Demographics

Religion

Religion in Ausonia (2024 estimate)
religion			percent
Christianity			83.21%
Irreligious			12.74%
Others			4.05%

Constitutionally, the Commonwealth has no official state religion at the federal level, with religious affairs delegated to the provinces and free cities. In practice, many provinces have recognised the prevailing religion in their respective territories (the foi d'état) with varying degrees of support, including in matters of religious education and taxation on adherents.

The Notre-Dame de Savonnes, which is both the seat of the Catholic archbishops of Savonnes and traditional coronation site of Ausonian kings.

Various forms of Christianity have been present in Ausonian society since the time of the Remians, having fully converted by the 3rd to 4th century AD, which later spread among the migrating Germanic tribes. For the next millennium, Catholicism would become the prevailing religion and enjoy a privileged position in society, with the country traditionally dubbed "the Church's eldest daughter" (Fille aînée de l'Église) and with the kings maintaining close ties to the Pope in Reme. In exchange, the Church in Ausonia exercised a significant degree of autonomy in which the monarch would appoint the country's bishops.

The subsequent Protestant Reformation — in which cities like Vevey and Draguignan were among its main centers — would shatter the religious unity of the nation and contribute to the instability that would trigger the War of the Provinces, with the Treaty of Eternal Concordance mandating the freedom to worship throughout all lands. Consequently, Ausonia would become a haven for persecuted religious minorities throughout Adria and northern Adema, with the establishment of the first Muslim congregations (initially by Tatars invited to serve in both royalist and parliamentarian armies) and the return of Jewish communities after their expulsion in 1206 — a situation which would expand with the rise of Ausonia's colonial empire.

Christianity today remains the largest religion in the Commonwealth, with some 108 million (totaling some 83 percent of the total population) professing the faith. Of that number, a slight majority are Protestant, which the overwhelming majority are members of the United Ausonian Reformed Church (ERAU), a united church of various Reformed and other Protestant churches. Catholicism is the second-largest denomination with over 46 million adherents, concentrated in the northern and southeastern parts of the country. The remainder are comprised of independent Reformed, Arminian, Lutheran, and Waldensian communities (the latter two prominent in both Almeine and Varesia respectively), as well as other Christian groups.

People with no recorded religious affiliation make up the largest share of non-Christians at 16.5 million people — mainly concentrated in urban centers — followed by Muslims at close to three million people, with smaller communities of Jews, Eastern faiths, and neopagans making up the remainder. Overall, Ausonia records some of the highest rates of religiosity in Adria, with high rates of church attendance and importance of religion in their lives compared to the rest of the continent. Even among non-theists, religious ceremonies (ie baptisms and church weddings) play a central role in Ausonians' cultural identity.

Languages

Education

Health

Culture

Art

Music

Architecture

Cuisine

Media

(Rewrite in Progress)

Sports

Units of Measurement

Unlike most countries in Adria, Ausonia maintains its own units of measurement that are holdovers of the old system of measurements used in the Kingdom and updated numerous times to the present.

The metric system on the other hand, has been steadily gaining some acceptance among Ausonians, being used for distances (especially on expressways to other countries) and temperature. Attempts to start the full process of metrication have either stalled in committee or were defeated in initiatives by the National Assembly, the last major attempt being in 2004.

Public Holidays

The Commonwealth officially recognizes 14 public holidays at the federal level, which federal law requires the closure of most businesses and non-essential services with paid compensation, as well as two "memorial days" which are recognized as such for their historical significance despite being working days.

Additional days are often recognized as public holidays at the provincial level, typically religious festivals with deep connections to the local area (ie feast days of patron saints). In addition, Sundays are typically recognized by virtually all provinces and free cities as a "day of contemplation" — with the exception of Dulenia and Maoria, which recognize Fridays instead — which give it a status similar to public holidays in addition to both Easter Sunday and Pentecost.

Name	Holiday/ Mem. Day	Date	Notes
New Year's Day Jour de l'an	Holiday	1 January
Epiphany Épiphanie	Holiday	6 January
Good Friday Vendredi saint	Holiday	Easter Sunday -2
Easter Sunday Pâques	Holiday	movable
Easter Monday Lundi de Pâques	Holiday	Easter Sunday +1
Ascension	Holiday	Easter Sunday +39
Pentecost Sunday Pentecôte	Holiday	Easter Sunday +49
Midsummer Eve Réveillon de l'été	Holiday	24 June
Midsummer Day Fête de l'été	Holiday	25 June
Eleventh Night 11ème nuit	Holiday	11 July	The day before the Twelfth
The Twelfth Le 12ème	Holiday	12 July	Celebrates the victory of the Commonwealth forces in the Battle of Vassy and the War of the Provinces. Is the national day of the Commonwealth.
Constitution Day Jour de la constitution	Mem. Day	19 October	Honours the adoption of the Constitution of 1815
Day of Eternal Concord Jour de la Concorde éternelle	Mem. Day	4 November	Honours the Treaty of Eternal Concordance that ended the War of the Provinces.
Christmas Eve Réveillon de Noël	Holiday	24 December
Christmas Day Noël	Holiday	25 December
Boxing Day Après-Noël	Holiday	26 December

Notes

↑ French: Ausonie, [o.so.ni]
↑ French: République ausonienne, [ʁe.py.blik o.so.njɛn]

[1] French: Ausonie, [o.so.ni]

[2] French: République ausonienne, [ʁe.py.blik o.so.njɛn]

[a]

[b]