The Terrible Swift Sword of Hilo Bay is a titanic, cultured nation, remarkable for its ubiquitous missile silos, daily referendums, and triple-decker prams. The quiet, industrious population of 21.987 billion Hilo Bayians have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 20.4%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The very strong Hilo Bayian economy, worth a remarkable 1,079 trillion $$s a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Woodchip Exports, and Uranium Mining. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 49,076 $$s, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Urban graffiti is hand-calligraphed in perfectly kerned elegant fonts, the police use sound cannons and mortars to deal with loud parties, people who tease dwarfs are being cut down to size, and the weather report is the prisoners' favourite programme. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hilo Bay's national animal is the Death's-head hawkmoth, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Hilo Bay is ranked 70,721^st in the world and 1^st in Third Rome for Largest Black Market, with 6.00 trillion Standard Monetary Units.