The Frontier of Shadow Stone is a massive, orderly nation, ruled by Kythorn with an iron fist, and remarkable for its ubiquitous missile silos, smutty television, and multi-spousal wedding ceremonies. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 1.571 billion Shadow Stoneans are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The medium-sized, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Invictus. The average income tax rate is 70.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Shadow Stonean economy, worth 194 trillion Ducts a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 123,806 Ducts, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A new guerrilla marketing campaign for tap water involves government agents spraying random citizens with hose water, women who walk into the ladies' changing room are accused of being Peeping Toms, suppression of pro-democracy protests is a daily occurrence, and primetime re-runs of The Black and White Minstrel Show are a critical hit. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Shadow Stone's national animal is the Raven, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Verus.

Shadow Stone is ranked 32,405^th in the world and 62^nd in Karma for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 6,716.24 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.