The Grand Duchy of Whitmarche is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Minister-president Konrad Scholz with an even hand, and notable for its national health service, triple-decker prams, and frequent executions. The compassionate, devout population of 9.244 billion Whitmarchers are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ricsfurt. The average income tax rate is 86.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Whitmarchean economy, worth 586 trillion guilders a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 63,415 guilders, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The study of medicine is popular throughout Whitmarche, police officers that upset their bosses get assigned to 24 hour stakeouts of bike sheds, the end of autumn is celebrated with a bonfire of designer bags, and bad punctuation has come to a full stop. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Whitmarche's national animal is the lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Catholicism.

Whitmarche is ranked 75,455^th in the world and 73^rd in Anteria for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 2,424 on the Gilded Widget Scale.