Short answers, pulled from the story.
Cisleithania was the northern and western portion of Austria-Hungary, created by the Compromise of 1867. Its name derives from the Leitha River, a Danube tributary that formed the historical boundary between the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary southeast of Vienna. From a Viennese perspective, Cisleithania was the territory on "this" side of the Leitha.
Cisleithania had a population of 28,571,900 according to the 1910 census. Germans were the largest single group at 33%, followed by Czechs at 22%, Poles at 15%, and Ruthenians at 12%. Nearly 60% of the total population was ethnically Slavic.
Cisleithania consisted of fifteen crown lands represented in the Imperial Council in Vienna. These included the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Dalmatia, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Archduchy of Austria above and below the Enns, the Duchy of Bukovina, the Duchy of Carinthia, the Duchy of Carniola, the Duchy of Salzburg, the Duchy of Styria, the Margraviate of Istria, the Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchy of Silesia, the Princely County of Tyrol, the Princely County of Vorarlberg, and the Free City of Trieste.
Equal, direct, secret, and universal suffrage for men was introduced in Cisleithania through an electoral reform in 1907. Before that reform, elections to the House of Deputies used a four-class franchise limiting participation to male landowners and the bourgeois, introduced in 1873.
Roman Catholics were the largest religious group, making up 79% of the Cisleithanian population. Greek Catholics accounted for 12%, followed by Jews at 4.6% of the broader Austro-Hungarian population, Eastern Orthodox believers at 2.3%, Evangelicals at 2%, and Muslims at 1.2%.
Minister-President Count Karl von Stürgkh had the Reichsrat prorogued in March 1914 due to paralysis caused by ethnic nationalist conflict, particularly Czech obstruction of parliamentary business. The parliament did not meet during the July Crisis and was not reconvened until May 1917, after Emperor Karl acceded to the throne in 1916.