The People's Republic of Ersmark is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Agata Bertilius with a fair hand, and notable for its smutty television, avant-garde cinema, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.106 billion Ersmarkers hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, liberal, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hedvigstad. The average income tax rate is 92.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Ersmarkian economy, worth 106 trillion Crowns a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 96,232 Crowns, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Brains have been removed from lists of best brain foods, cotton candy made from genuine cotton cellulose doesn't quite satisfy, the new Refuse Hills housing development is under construction, and almost all products in Ersmark are hand-crafted due to strict employment laws. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ersmark's national animal is the Moose, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Frienhedommen.

Ersmark is ranked 70,088^th in the world and 25^th in Scandinavian Liberal Paradise for Highest Average Incomes, with 96,232.93 Standard Monetary Units.