The Holy Empire of Stavronzika is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its museums and concert halls, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and ubiquitous missile silos. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 474 million Stavronzikans 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, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. The average income tax rate is 44.7%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Stavronzikan economy, worth 22.9 trillion Catigons 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 slick, highly efficient black market in Trout Farming, Tourism, Information Technology, and Arms Manufacturing. 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 48,357 Catigons, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Six-year-old children playing dress-up are viewed with suspicion, there's a shortage of swinging hot spots as land development grinds to a halt, the poor are often seen pale and dizzy after selling their blood to make ends meet, and claiming to have performed the Heimlich Maneuver is a popular defense for assault charges. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Stavronzika's national animal is the Eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Stavronzika is ranked 189,405^th in the world and 887^th in Europeia for Nicest Citizens, with 11.33 average smiles per day.