The Republic of Grativalu is a colossal, orderly nation, renowned for its teetotalling pirates, free-roaming dinosaurs, and hatred of cheese. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 6.522 billion Grativaluans are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government is effectively ruled by the Department of Industry, with Administration also on the agenda, while Education and Welfare are ignored. The average income tax rate is 84.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Grativaluan economy, worth a remarkable 1,174 trillion currencies a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, broadly diversified black market in Gambling. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 180,073 currencies, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.2 times as much as the poorest.

Package deals offer tourists the chance to visit the frozen remains of the previous tour group, children who can't memorize their multiplication tables are sent to the mines, children gain their first sex education from reading the dictionary, and no one knows how to tie a reef knot. Crime is so common that it is unusual to encounter someone following the law, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. Grativalu's national animal is the animal, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Grativalu is ranked 290,012^th in the world and 5^th in Vickenian experiment containment zone for Most Beautiful Environments, with 1.81 pounds of wildlife per square mile.