The Sibyl of Altasund is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Hildegard with an even hand, and notable for its frequent executions, ubiquitous missile silos, and ban on automobiles. The compassionate, devout population of 17.318 billion Benedictines are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bingen. The average income tax rate is 92.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Benedictine economy, worth a remarkable 2,224 trillion marks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an impressive 128,470 marks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Dozens of additional foreign policy specialists have been sent to the country's WA Mission, anyone with an emergency on a holy day is advised to pray harder, trade policy consists of ganging up on the new guy, and people with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia faint upon diagnosis. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Altasund's national animal is the cat, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Catholicism.

Altasund is ranked 11,508^th in the world and 182^nd in the Rejected Realms for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 4,973.06 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.