The Federal Republic of Butrinto is a small, genial nation, renowned for its state-planned economy, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 29 million Butrintii love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 74.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Butrintensis economy, worth 329 billion Nariums 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 Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Automobile Manufacturing. Average income is 11,350 Nariums, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Rumor has it that Leader has won three lotteries in a row, every new building project has to undergo a five-year environmental impact study before it can go ahead, there's an aura of pseudoscience around academia, and future forecasters fearfully discuss grey goo and human obsolescence. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Butrinto's national animal is the Bubo Butrintianus, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Butrinto is ranked 26,535^th in the world and 20^th in Thaecia for Most Primitive, scoring 74.16 on the Scary Big Number Scale.