The National Directorate of Brunwald is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by National Director Maxwell Harkin with an iron fist, and remarkable for its state-planned economy, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 11.404 billion Brunwaldians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Teixeira. The average income tax rate is 96.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Brunwaldian economy, worth a remarkable 3,428 trillion Brunmarks 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, fairly diversified black market in Information Technology, Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Furniture Restoration. 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 an amazing 300,655 Brunmarks, with the richest citizens earning 5.2 times as much as the poorest.

Produce labels read 'may contain traces of food', the inchworm that measured the marigolds is six feet under, the government is denying reports that criminals injected with experimental drugs have turned into monstrous supervillains, and a citizen who thinks a slave is a deadbeat is entitled to make the descriptor literally true. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Brunwald's national animal is the Falcon, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Strict Secularism.

Brunwald is ranked 259,406^th in the world and 7^th in The Northwest Passage for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -5.6 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.