The Fiefdom of Istylis is a titanic, orderly nation, ruled by Headman Murali Jacobson with an iron fist, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, rampant corporate plagiarism, and avowedly heterosexual populace. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 22.822 billion Istylisians 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 enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 68.7%.

The all-consuming Istylisian economy, worth a remarkable 2,165 trillion Poers a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, quite specialized black market in Retail, Uranium Mining, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. 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 94,867 Poers, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.5 times as much as the poorest.

Theories that hold water are considered to have failed, citizens gather eagerly to witness exotic animals being blasted out of cannons, Headman Murali Jacobson has just been declared ruler of Istylis in an international press conference, and any reference to a higher being is punished with public shaming. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Istylis's national animal is the turtle, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways, and its national religion is the Church of Istylis.

Istylis is ranked 320,669^th in the world and 3^rd in The Empire of Kierania for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -10.73 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.