The Nine in the Afternoon of Cherry is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Salem Skollvaldr with a fair hand, and renowned for its pith helmet sales, zero percent divorce rate, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 2.809 billion Cherryians enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The medium-sized, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Cherry Grove. The average income tax rate is 34.3%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Cherryian economy, worth 130 trillion gold coins 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, quite specialized black market in Cheese Exports, Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Basket Weaving. 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 46,280 gold coins, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

Strict term limits have been applied to all elected offices, mathematics majors learn about new ways to model their crushing debt, members of the government all have oddly similar anecdotes about their childhoods, and a National Academy regulates grammar and usage. Crime, especially youth-related, is almost non-existent. Cherry's national animal is the black cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cherry is ranked 98,534^th in the world and 67^th in The Order of the Grey Wardens for Rudest Citizens, with 55.25 insults per minute.