The Golden Holy Duchy of Azaelya is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Grand Duchess Thoreau with an iron fist, and notable for its soft-spoken computers, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, cynical, cheerful population of 11.16 billion Azaelyans are ruled with an iron fist by the socialist government, which grants its people the freedom to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't involve getting richer than anybody else or challenging the government.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Kalmia. The average income tax rate is 98.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Azaelyan economy, worth a remarkable 1,974 trillion Gold Bars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 176,908 Gold Bars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Farting etiquette is taught in schools, conductors wield diamond-encrusted batons to fit in with their freshly gilded surroundings, literature classes frequently go on field trips to rock concerts, and the new Refuse Hills housing development is under construction. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Azaelya's national animal is the Cow, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Agnosticism.

Azaelya is ranked 2,837^th in the world and 1^st in The Azalean Collective for Lowest Crime Rates, with 132.19 law-abiding acts per hour.