The Empire of Virulian is a huge, cultured nation, ruled by Emperor Callahan Sidereum with an even hand, and remarkable for its pith helmet sales, ritual sacrifices, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, devout population of 856 million Virulians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The medium-sized, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Saint Camie Schlawg City. The average income tax rate is 66.6%.

The frighteningly efficient Virulian economy, worth 109 trillion VLDS a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 128,041 VLDS, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.0 times as much as the poorest.

Construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway, the nation refuses to discard its increasingly useless penny, people often get liposuction to reduce their air fares, and politicians always seem to take two steps forward then three steps back. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Virulian's national animal is the Schlawg, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Virulian is ranked 264,417^th in the world and 173^rd in Thaecia for Most Primitive, scoring -210.54 on the Scary Big Number Scale.