The Island Imperium of Markanite is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Emperor Mark with an even hand, and renowned for its punitive income tax rates, suspicion of poets, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, devout population of 31.297 billion Markaniteans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bastion. The average income tax rate is 69.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Markanitean economy, worth a remarkable 2,481 trillion Marks a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 79,295 Marks, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.0 times as much as the poorest.

Television executives are interested in turning Emperor Mark's zany home life into a sitcom, kids looking for shark teeth have become ancient history, the nation's WA representatives have received a very public sacking after Markanite allowed its WA membership to lapse, and the nation is renowned abroad for its love of blood and guts. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Markanite's national animal is the White Marked Tree Dog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Catholicism.

Markanite is ranked 287,363^rd in the world and 792^nd in 10000 Islands for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -17.37 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.