The Corporate Federation of Maritzal is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by President Cornelius Crewes with an iron fist, and remarkable for its avowedly heterosexual populace, public floggings, and complete lack of prisons. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 16.418 billion Maritzalians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The relatively small, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Meridian. The average income tax rate is 96.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Maritzalian economy, worth a remarkable 9,338 trillion Pistas a year, is quite specialized and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Information Technology, Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is a breathtaking 568,794 Pistas, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.9 times as much as the poorest.

Citizens are encouraged to report friends, family members or co-workers who seem depressed to the government for "counselling", cyber-crime and tin-foil hat sales are both increasing at record rates, anti-vaxxers claim that injected children are prone to psychotic breaks when they see the 'Queen of Diamonds' playing card, and youth rights demonstrations often end in vicious snowball fights. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Maritzal's national animal is the Cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Maritzal is ranked 23,093^rd in the world and 409^th in Europe for Most Beautiful Environments, with 946.01 pounds of wildlife per square mile.