The Grand Duchy of Marldeep is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by First Chief Havelock Danelaw with a fair hand, and notable for its ubiquitous missile silos, national health service, and daily referendums. The hard-nosed, democratic, humorless population of 49.6 billion Marldeepians enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The tiny government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Horstgraben. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Marldeepian economy, worth an astonishing 32,461 trillion Kronkites a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. Average income is a breathtaking 654,461 Kronkites, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

College students make ends meet by selling their kidneys, the government subsidizes those who produce the worst results, hot dogs have been renamed lukewarm pigs, and moles make up an incredible part of the upper crust. Crime is totally unknown. Marldeep's national animal is the Woolly Rhino, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Marldeep is ranked 332,212^th in the world and 37^th in Wysteria for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring -79.31 on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.