The Most Loyal Blessed Regency of Aethetia is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Lord Regent ███████ ██████ with an iron fist, and remarkable for its national health service, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 1.312 billion Aethetians 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 Spirituality, Administration, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 76.0%.

The Aethetian economy, worth 63.9 trillion Aethetian Dollars a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Beef-Based Agriculture industry, with significant contributions from Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 48,722 Aethetian Dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.2 times as much as the poorest.

New homeowners go furniture hunting with crowbars, the nation has become a pariah for giving pirates letters of marque, love is in the air, and people with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia faint upon diagnosis. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Aethetia's national animal is the East-Aethetian Azure River Squid, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Veiled One Worship.

Aethetia is ranked 301,918^th in the world and 40^th in Cape of Good Hope for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring zero on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.