The Directorate of Valkalan is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Director Vikko with an even hand, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, frequent executions, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, humorless population of 35.222 billion Valks are either ruled by a sleek, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

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

The frighteningly efficient Valk economy, worth an astonishing 28,021 trillion Syns a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. Average income is a breathtaking 795,576 Syns, but there is an enormous disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 4,292,261 per year while the poor average 76,523, a ratio of 56.1 to 1.

Citizens seem fixated on 105m x 45m rectangles, homebuyers must agree to name their firstborn after the previous owner, statistics show that terrorists often come from broken families, and citizens are exhausted from weekly general elections. Crime is totally unknown. Valkalan's national animal is the Orca, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways.

Valkalan is ranked 380^th in the world and 1^st in Zarathustra for Largest Manufacturing Sector, scoring 129,448.42 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index.