The Grand Duchy of Ripon is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its zero percent divorce rate, restrictive gun laws, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed population of 481 million Riponians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Welfare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ripon. The average income tax rate is 29.2%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The Riponian economy, worth 31.0 trillion Yorkshire Teabags a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Woodchip Exports, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 64,411 Yorkshire Teabags, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.0 times as much as the poorest.

Sections of the police receive paramilitary training, detrimental health conditions can be a political death sentence, ruff times are ahead for those who aren't keen on party costumes, and hotels often double as quarantine zones. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ripon's national animal is the Mallard, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ripon is ranked 229,747^th in the world and 104^th in Yorkshire for Largest Populations, with 481 million capita.