The Kingdom of Aleth is a huge, safe nation, notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, vat-grown people, and sprawling nuclear power plants. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 225 million Alethians have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Defense, and Education. The average income tax rate is 15.2%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Alethian economy, worth 21.9 trillion guilders a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Retail, Basket Weaving, and Book Publishing. Average income is 97,119 guilders, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.4 times as much as the poorest.

Teenage male videogamers often suffer repetitive strain wrist injuries, rural communities are all but disenfranchised as politicians focus all their attention on winning the deciding urban votes, rich people sell their mansions to pay for endless rows of mobile homes, and Jennifer Government is a bestseller. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Aleth's national animal is the swan, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Aleth is ranked 41,982^nd in the world and 78^th in Concord for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 171.16 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.