The Holy Empire of Alacryan is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its public floggings, triple-decker prams, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, devout population of 239 million Alacryanians 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, Law & Order, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 37.5%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Alacryanian economy, worth 21.2 trillion rubles a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Tourism, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 88,606 rubles, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Toxic smog is dismissed as the populace just "letting off steam", on graduation day the hats thrown in the air fly high enough to stun passing pigeons, museums have more touchscreens on display than artifacts, and drug-related crimes carry the death penalty. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Alacryan's national animal is the basilisk, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Alacryan is ranked 86,725^th in the world and 1,050^th in the West Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 2,432.06 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.