The Empire of Vertuza is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by JeongJam with an iron fist, and renowned for its public floggings, ubiquitous missile silos, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 8.883 billion Jungers 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 medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Xcyv. The average income tax rate is 91.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Vertuzan economy, worth a remarkable 1,779 trillion Jungs 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 large, well-organized, fairly diversified black market in Information Technology, Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. 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 an amazing 200,328 Jungs, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

People with dyslexia are told to tough through it, welfare recipients frequently parlay checks into homelessness, recent converts to Frisbeetarianism are just doing it for the love of the game, and the future is monochrome. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vertuza's national animal is the falcon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Vertuza is ranked 323,920^th in the world and 4,636^th in The North Pacific for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 12.32 on the Kitten Softness Rating.