The Armed Republic of Fort Ashland is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its public floggings, frequent executions, and compulsory military service. The hard-nosed, hard-working, devout population of 486 million Ashlandians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The relatively small, moralistic government prioritizes Defense, although Education, Law & Order, and Healthcare are also considered important, while International Aid and Social Policy receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Asheville. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 14.7%.

The powerhouse Fort Ashlandian economy, worth 48.4 trillion doubloons a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Information Technology, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 99,650 doubloons, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 294,114 per year while the poor average 26,551, a ratio of 11.1 to 1.

The question "please would you...?" is usually laden with passive aggression, a firework a day does not in fact keep the doctor away, getting an infected tattoo is considered a rite of passage in Fort Ashland, and economics is a shrinking field. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Fort Ashland's national animal is the dolphin, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Fort Ashland is ranked 171,012^th in the world and 859^th in Europe for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 128.87 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.