Austro-Scandinavia
AFRICA || ASIA || AUSTRALIA || EUROPE || WESTERN || HISTORY
::Bioculture::	There are two main ethnic groups: the Scandinavians of the north, and the Roma of the south. There is a strong Slavic strain running through the Roma.
::Totem::	Austro-Scandinavians had made their Covenant with the pin worm. Some Roma of the south have Slavic polychaete ancestry.
::Religion::	New Byzantine Theosophy is the link between Gnosticism and Judaism. Theosophists believe in the existence of a demiurge who tries desperately to keep his flawed world from collapsing into apocalypse.
::Government::	Austro-Scandinavians live in any of the thousands of mall kingdoms, principalities, margravites, duchies, free cities, republics, marches, palatinates, or oligarchies that make up the patchwork quilt of eastern Paneuropa. The Holy Roma Empire was replaced by the league of Austro-Scandinavian cities when it devolved power at the end of WWI.
::Gender::	The Austro-Scandinavians are patriarchal.
::Guilds::	The main export of Austro-Scandinavia are the full-spectrum experiential dramas and entertainments that are created for the Mandala. Visitors must come into the country to purchase all other services and goods. Guilds specialize in rare and expensive luxuries. Imported Thralls are meticulously trained and sent to fill the high-end pleasure domes of Scandinavia. In the south, guild composers write music for Tasmanian custom-tailored instruments. The greatest development, however, has been the Bliss Pill (more commonly known as simply "The Pill"). Using a substance discovered in Sarai (derived from special portions of the Shashi), the guilds were able to produce The Pill, which makes the ingester profoundly happy. There are no side-effects, other than the fact that once someone has been deeply happy, they will be inclined to devote their lives towards reattaining and sustaining this state, thus forming a deep addiction to The Pill. Austro-Scandinavia relies on Greater Iberia for producing the food that it consumes. Although, the meatspores do not target food sources, they do target the agricultural workers and animal-based plastics. This has led to a disruption of food imports.
::Military::	Each government within Austro-Scandinavia equips and sends out a small percentage of its population to be soldiers. A transmunicipal agency integrates and organizes the soldiers into an army. The army is quite large and well-equipped, but actually does very little. Numerous outposts along the eastern borders wait to repel any attacks from the Khanate of Sarai. Iberian units are conscripted to fight along side Austro-Scandinavian units in the North Sea Defense Force.
::Shashi::	As in many theocracies, the concentration camps of WWII were converted into factory farms. The growing and harvesting of Shashi for their mana procedes at a ever-increasing pace to keep up with the insatiable demand for access to the Mandala.
::Geography::	Austro-Scandinavia spans most of the northern hemisphere, running from the islands between the Arctic and Scandinavia proper south to include all islands of the Mediterranean. East to west, however, it is far less extensive, including Scandinavia in the north, and the lands between the Swiss Alps and the Caucausus in the south.