The Paradise of Parenthos is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by a Phoenix named Aslan with an iron fist, and renowned for its sprawling nuclear power plants, smutty television, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cynical, humorless population of 19.85 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 — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Voa. The average income tax rate is 98.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Parenthosian economy, worth a remarkable 4,459 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 224,659 golds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.7 times as much as the poorest.

The diplomatic corps stinks, political talk shows often have children as guests whenever they need commentary on world religions, petting zoos have loose fingers strewn about, and members of the government all have oddly similar anecdotes about their childhoods. 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 17,371^st in the world and 458^th in the South Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 23.8 average smiles per day.