The Big Think of The Synod is a titanic, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Thinking Emoji with an iron fist, and renowned for its ritual sacrifices, compulsory vegetarianism, and frequent executions. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 21.535 billion Sapphites 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 large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Law & Order, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 54.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but inefficient Sapphite economy, worth 830 trillion Cyan Orbs a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Information Technology, and Book Publishing. Average income is 38,555 Cyan Orbs, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Museums occasionally burn priceless artifacts in order to intimidate foreign curators, a large concrete wall is being built around the country's borders, Thinking Emoji is the self-declared God of all The Synod, and Thinking Emoji has been self-declared as the Most Supreme Magnificent Overlord of Everything You Ever Saw. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Synod's national animal is the Zelth, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is irony.

The Synod is ranked 293,390^th in the world and 3^rd in Imperium Figarium for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 17,388.58 Standard Monetary Units.