The Democracy of Merni is a colossal, socially progressive nation, ruled by Emperor Xaranas IV with an even hand, and renowned for its frequent executions, keen interest in outer space, and multi-spousal wedding ceremonies. The compassionate, humorless population of 9.272 billion Mernians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Qersi. The average income tax rate is 95.2%.

The Mernian economy, worth 829 trillion koras a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 89,462 koras, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Politicians that report exaggerated crowd sizes for their speeches are dismissed for being delusional, abortion is only legal in unusual circumstances, a generation of children conceived in hell and born in strife is growing up inside government-run care villages, and ambitious "businessmen" use their children to sell and advertise their products. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Merni's national animal is the horse, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Merni is ranked 89,410^th in the world and 71^st in The Labyrinth for Most Politically Free, scoring 64.48 on the Diebold Election Inking Scale.