The Principality of Merkez is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its museums and concert halls, daily referendums, and hatred of cheese. The compassionate population of 2.054 billion Merkezians 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 — prioritizes Education, although Environment, Healthcare, and Administration are also considered important, while Spirituality isn't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Merkez. The average income tax rate is 86.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Merkezian economy, worth 124 trillion Gold Coins 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 Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. Average income is 60,491 Gold Coins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Sales of disinfectant wipes have skyrocketed, the endangered saltwater humpback Panda is only seen in captivity programs, the words 'private' and 'enterprise' must never appear in the same sentence, and funeral directors are frequently looking at their watches during funerals. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Merkez's national animal is the Panda, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Merkez is ranked 11,904^th in the world and 342^nd in The East Pacific for Most Beautiful Environments, with 1,466.78 Pounds Of Wildlife Per Square Mile.