The Commonwealth of Detlan Republic is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Michael Laled with a fair hand, and remarkable for its hatred of cheese, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 19.447 billion Detlans love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Detla. The average income tax rate is 88.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Detlan Republician economy, worth a remarkable 1,470 trillion Detlan dollars a year, is extremely specialized and mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 75,590 Detlan dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Park rangers struggle to deal with a rash of stolen pic-a-nic baskets, tax revenue is often intercepted by international accountants before ever seeing the national treasury, Michael Laled has been seen stealthily slicing fifths off bread loaves, and an epidemic of unpopped kernels causes movie goers to gnash their teeth. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Detlan Republic's national animal is the Viper, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Detlan Republic is ranked 272,175^th in the world and 10,634^th in Balder for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 8,692.91 Standard Monetary Units.