The Commonwealth of Valkenstein is a titanic, cultured nation, renowned for its otherworldly petting zoo, unlimited-speed roads, and sprawling nuclear power plants. The hard-nosed, hard-working, humorless population of 21.255 billion Valkensteiners 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 Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Zurik. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Valkensteiner economy, worth an astonishing 10,081 trillion Syns a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Retail, and Book Publishing. Average income is an amazing 474,306 Syns, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 2,224,144 per year while the poor average 60,304, a ratio of 36.9 to 1.

Hazardous waste now comes with multilingual death warnings, cotton candy made from genuine cotton cellulose doesn't quite satisfy, contestants on Valkenstein's Got Talent are screened by the government to make sure that they actually have talent, and ministers are now allowed to put suggestions in the governmental suggestion box. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Valkenstein's national animal is the Pheonix, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Valkenstein is ranked 317,654^th in the world and 1^st in Hollenthon for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -63 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.