The Empire of Etherton is a colossal, orderly nation, ruled by Marisol Vega with an iron fist, and notable for its national health service, ubiquitous missile silos, and public floggings. The compassionate, cynical, cheerful, devout population of 5.853 billion Ethertonians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Vista Heights. The average income tax rate is 97.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Ethertonian economy, worth a remarkable 1,272 trillion Ethertonian dollars a year, is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 217,425 Ethertonian dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

'The Anti-Government Hour' is a popular programme on many of Etherton's radio stations, female newsreaders distract the nation by breastfeeding during broadcast, libraries have replaced overdue book fines with mandatory mental health assessments, and builders across Etherton are blocked up with orders for new public loos. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Etherton's national animal is the Bighorn sheep, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Etherton is ranked 2,029^th in the world and 1^st in The Three Isles for Lowest Crime Rates, with 144.19 law-abiding acts per hour.