The Great Congregation of Brethren is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by Archdolphop Snow Warslayer with an even hand, and renowned for its rum-swilling pirates, state-planned economy, and lack of airports. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 4.372 billion Brethren are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Thriwich. The average income tax rate is 98.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Brethren economy, worth 557 trillion tokens a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. Average income is an impressive 127,590 tokens, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Enemy navies sail within bombardment range of major coastal cities with impunity, young girls and senior citizens alike can be spotted wearing colourful short shorts, the mining industry is making inroads into environmentally sensitive areas, and the constant playing of Merry Birthday on Brethren radio has led to calls for the song to be classified as a crime against humanity. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Brethren's national animal is the Seagull, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Dolphinism.

Brethren is ranked 180,592^nd in the world and 3,469^th in The East Pacific for Largest Black Market, with 49.4 billion Standard Monetary Units.