The Holy Imperium of Ostermarch is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by Maximilian with an iron fist, and remarkable for its ritual sacrifices, punitive income tax rates, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 16.256 billion Imperials 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, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of El Escorial. The average income tax rate is 95.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Imperial economy, worth a remarkable 6,934 trillion crowns a year, is broadly diversified and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Retail, and Woodchip Exports. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an amazing 426,553 crowns, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Parking lots are littered with coffee cups and doughnut crumbs, the nation gives peace a chance - usually one in a million, a nickname of "Doctor Death" probably indicates a decorated war hero, and the line of people waiting for a visa interview in front of foreign embassies is typically a mile long. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ostermarch's national animal is the demigryph, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Imperial Cult.

Ostermarch is ranked 306,702^nd in the world and 1,478^th in Europe for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -25.67 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.