The Kingdom of Great Nortend is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by King Alexander II with an iron fist, and notable for its avant-garde cinema, public floggings, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 12.92 billion Nortchmen are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Spirituality. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lendert-with-Cadell. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 63.1%.

The powerhouse Erbonian economy, worth 976 trillion pound martens a year, is led by the Basket Weaving industry, with major contributions from Cheese Exports, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. Black market activity is extensive. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 75,618 pound martens, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 219,316 per year while the poor average 20,649, a ratio of 10.6 to 1.

Many politicians are serving jail time for minor drug offenses, jaywalking is punishable by public flogging, the clergy of Church of Nortend remains a single-sex institution, and the judicial system legislates morality. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Great Nortend's national animal is the lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Church of Nortend.

Great Nortend is ranked 40,458^th in the world and 11^th in Astyria for Most Beautiful Environments, with 722.82 pounds of wildlife per square mile.