The Federation of Mardano is a huge, genial nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, national health service, and free-roaming dinosaurs. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic population of 228 million Mardanoans 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 Healthcare, Education, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 13.1%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The Mardanoan economy, worth 15.0 trillion Mardano Dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Basket Weaving industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Tourism, and Book Publishing. Average income is 65,781 Mardano Dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

Soldiers' positions are given away by the glint of their bayonets, the government seizes all major gold finds, doctors prescribe videos of political debates to patients with insomnia, and the nightly news reports prosaically on the government blindly throwing money at despotic kidnappers. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Mardano's national animal is the Grayscal Porpoise.

Mardano is ranked 109,800^th in the world and 4,449^th in The North Pacific for Most Advanced Public Transport, scoring 803.42 on the Societal Mobility Rating.