The Paradise of Parenthos is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by a Phoenix named Aslan with an iron fist, and renowned for its rampant corporate plagiarism, frequent executions, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical, humorless population of 19.972 billion Parenthians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized morass — prioritizes Education, with Environment, Industry, and Healthcare also on the agenda, while Defense is ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Voa. The average income tax rate is 98.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Parenthosian economy, worth a remarkable 4,519 trillion golds a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Tourism, Book Publishing, 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. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is an amazing 226,267 golds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.4 times as much as the poorest.

Even secular Parenthians are shouting "Blessed are the cheesemakers!", the tourism industry has been boxed into a corner, back-alley circumcision clinics are popping up all over the nation, and rebuilding efforts for a recently destroyed cathedral aren't expected to be completed for another century. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, despite the fact that it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many laws. Parenthos's national animal is the Phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is kombucha.

Parenthos is ranked 2,941^st in the world and 72^nd in the South Pacific for Most Developed, scoring 97.35 on the Human Development Index.