The Empire of Intelligence Gathering is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, parental licensing program, and ban on automobiles. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 410 million intel agents are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Centralia. The average income tax rate is 74.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish an intel agent economy, worth 16.5 trillion Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Woodchip Exports, and Furniture Restoration. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 40,128 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Loss of the ability to speak is a common affliction of the elderly, Intel agents believe manners maketh the leader, Rupert Bear is considered to be the most risqué TV programme in Intelligence Gathering, and children have nightmares about the eerie red glow and constant whirring of newly-installed machines. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Intelligence Gathering's national animal is the Tarantula, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Intelligence Gathering is ranked 175,747^th in the world and 7^th in Genzawii for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 124.11 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.