The Matriarchy of Eckben is a huge, orderly nation, remarkable for its ritual sacrifices, compulsory military service, and punitive income tax rates. The cynical, devout population of 565 million Slaves 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 enormous, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Defense, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 63.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Slave economy, worth 14.5 trillion Tributes a year, is quite specialized and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Cheese Exports, and Arms Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 25,735 Tributes, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Ritual mummification is making a comeback, heavily-laden pregnant women are told they can manage, 1% of global paper production is bound for the National Archive, and the government is hounded to provide tissues whenever the feelings of the Dàguó people are hurt. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Eckben's national animal is the Bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Eckben is ranked 226,539^th in the world and 9,031^st in Lazarus for Highest Food Quality, scoring 11.9 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.