The Republic of Virlen is a massive, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, vat-grown people, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic population of 1.133 billion Virlenians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The relatively small, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Virn. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 9.4%.

The powerhouse Virlenian economy, worth 101 trillion Einschmarks a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Retail, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 89,967 Einschmarks, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 258,458 per year while the poor average 24,897, a ratio of 10.4 to 1.

Re-education centers are being added to most prisons, guide dogs for the blind have been seen using government websites, the nation's universities are often mistaken for foreign embassies, and criminals and college students are taking an interest in the government's new weed-killing program. Crime, especially youth-related, is a problem, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Virlen's national animal is the White fox, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Virlen is ranked 263,336^th in the world and 1^st in Greater Orden for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring zero on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.