The Republican Democracy of Brethenshep is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by The Most Esteemed High Council with an even hand, and notable for its daily referendums, complete lack of prisons, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, cheerful population of 4.364 billion Shepherds enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The enormous, liberal government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ebenstadt. The average income tax rate is 91.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Bretheni economy, worth 529 trillion groples a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Trout Farming. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 121,438 groples, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The Most Esteemed High Council has promised 'power to the puppies', the nation's only university is the School of Hard Knocks, movies depict muscle-bound women kicking down a titanium door to carry hysterical men to safety, and the realistic depiction of tentacles is on the core syllabus of most art schools. Crime is totally unknown. Brethenshep's national animal is the ruffalo, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Pathos.

Brethenshep is ranked 4,323^rd in the world and 82^nd in the West Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 51.22 average smiles per day.