The Republic of Verteland is a massive, orderly nation, remarkable for its frequent executions, ubiquitous missile silos, and public floggings. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 1.74 billion Vertelandians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aesiltire. The average income tax rate is 35.7%.

The powerhouse Vertelandian economy, worth 154 trillion hettas a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Uranium Mining, Book Publishing, and Pizza Delivery. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 89,047 hettas, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.9 times as much as the poorest.

Loudmouthed journalists are given the chop, students abandon classrooms for online education, 4-year-olds studying for their mathematics exams are anxious that they will be unemployable in adulthood if they fail, and money that should have gone to charities is instead spent on monitoring them. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Verteland's national animal is the crow, which can occasionally be seen dodging aircraft in the nation's cities.

Verteland is ranked 102,734^th in the world and 2,935^th in The North Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 66 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.