The Grand Duchy of Palicius is a massive, cultured nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, public floggings, and free-roaming dinosaurs. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 1.153 billion Paliciusians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Education. The average income tax rate is 69.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Paliciusian economy, worth 110 trillion Luxes a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Basket Weaving, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 96,125 Luxes, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.4 times as much as the poorest.

Swans with strange deformities like three eyes and tentacles have been seen prancing through the countryside where industrial waste is dumped, faceless corporations are expected to assume parental responsibility over millions of teenagers, male med students learning female anatomy do so with their eyes tightly closed, and if the best leaders are those who don't want to lead then Leader's lack of leadership must be a great leadership quality. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Palicius's national animal is the Swan, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Palicius is ranked 240,560^th in the world and 3^rd in The Geography Addicts for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 29,318.19 Standard Monetary Units.