The Holy Empire of Emmess is a mammoth, safe nation, remarkable for its state-planned economy and stringent health and safety legislation. The cynical population of 7.441 billion Emmessians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. The average income tax rate is 39.0%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Emmessian economy, worth 82.9 trillion florins 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 black market in Woodchip Exports, Information Technology, Gambling, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. 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 11,142 florins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Citizens are enjoying a recent large cut in taxes, all major public areas are watched by police surveillance cameras, Harry Potter books are banned, and the tools of the trade for landmine clearance appear to be copious amounts of gasoline and a box of matches. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Emmess's national animal is the lion, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities.

Emmess is ranked 61,388^th in the world and 1^st in New Night for Most Extreme, scoring 28.42 on the Paul-Nader Subjective Decentrality Index.