The United Kingdom of Marie Byrd is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by King Terrance with an iron fist, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, parental licensing program, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 3.037 billion Marie Byrdians 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 medium-sized, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Deheubarth. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 76.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Marie Byrdian economy, worth 533 trillion Grant Island Pounds a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is an impressive 175,776 Grant Island Pounds, with the richest citizens earning 5.9 times as much as the poorest.

Genetic research has been halted, government officials are phoning up good-looking celebrities to say they want to breed with them, blind dates reemerge as a necessary evil in the quest for love, and the nation's orphanages and maternity wards have been nicknamed 'the Killbot Factories'. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Marie Byrd's national animal is the Penguin, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Church of Marie Byrd.

Marie Byrd is ranked 173,741^st in the world and 286^th in Thaecia for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 20.9 on the Bus Surprisal Index.