The Principality of Maartean Islands is a huge, genial nation, renowned for its public floggings, compulsory military service, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical population of 285 million Maartesians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Saint Amara. The average income tax rate is 59.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Maartesian economy, worth 13.1 trillion Malacas a year, is quite specialized and led by the Basket Weaving industry, with major contributions from Uranium Mining, Furniture Restoration, and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 45,874 Malacas, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Kilts and cassocks are viewed with suspicion, sales of disinfectant wipes have skyrocketed, exorbitant spending on icebreakers breaks the ice at every budget meeting, and you can't put down the nation's attitude to pet health. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Maartean Islands's national animal is the Golden-faced trout, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Maartean Islands is ranked 120,671^st in the world and 102^nd in Lands End for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 957.6 on the Gilded Widget Scale.