The Ancient Tellurian Union of The Gallant Old Republic is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by King Alfred IV Edgar Oswin Athelstan with an even hand, and renowned for its triple-decker prams, fear of technology, and hatred of cheese. The hard-nosed, democratic, devout population of 25.261 billion Olds are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The minute government, or what there is of one, is dominated by the Department of Spirituality, with Environment and Education also on the agenda, while Social Policy and Welfare are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Winchester. The average income tax rate is 2.1%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Olden economy, worth 550 trillion Gallants a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector is mostly comprised of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 21,773 Gallants, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

There's a lot of babies crying for milk in the middle of the day, out-of-work basketball players loom over the unemployment line, some are born loving old plays and some have old plays thrust upon them, and politicians tend to speak more loudly and slowly these days. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. The Gallant Old Republic's national animal is the Carthusian Marmot, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is English Ordinariate Catholic Church.

The Gallant Old Republic is ranked 122,111^th in the world and 82^nd in Right to Life for Lowest Crime Rates, with 63.5 law-abiding acts per hour.