The Lazarene Ambassador Duchy of Retz is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Duke Athanase Aaryn de Retz with an even hand, and remarkable for its pith helmet sales, public floggings, and ubiquitous missile silos. The hard-nosed, devout population of 11.324 billion Retzians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Pornic. The average income tax rate is 29.0%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Retzian economy, worth 776 trillion Retzian Pounds a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Automobile Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Trout Farming, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 68,614 Retzian Pounds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.8 times as much as the poorest.

A five-year-old and a convicted terrorist can sit alongside one another in jury service, the last thing Retzian soldiers hear before charging into battle is a preacher trying to convert them, drills and shovels have been banned as the government cracks down on any means of fracking, and you need a signed affidavit from a registered psychiatrist to claim that you have crazy low prices. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, despite the fact that it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many laws. Retz's national animal is the Stoat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Retz is ranked 27,448^th in the world and 511^th in the Pacific for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 52.44 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.