The Federal Republic of Aldessca is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its daily referendums, ubiquitous missile silos, and irreverence towards religion. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 763 million Aldesscans are either ruled by a sleek, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Heral. The average income tax rate is 28.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Aldesscan economy, worth 88.4 trillion Herals a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 115,889 Herals, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.8 times as much as the poorest.

The "Underwear of Women in Power" issue of The New Heral Times is sold out, the police use sound cannons and mortars to deal with loud parties, grinding bureaucracy has the international wheels of justice turning slowly, and anti-vaxxers claim that injected children are prone to psychotic breaks when they see the 'Queen of Diamonds' playing card. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Aldessca's national animal is the Wildcat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Aldessca is ranked 272,364^th in the world and 38^th in Ensio for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 25.96 on the Bus Surprisal Index.