The Empire of Retfor is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, avowedly heterosexual populace, and irreverence towards religion. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 550 million Retforians 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, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Stanis. The average income tax rate is 60.0%.

The frighteningly efficient Retforian economy, worth 56.4 trillion Rubles a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 102,467 Rubles, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.9 times as much as the poorest.

Parking's carefree without parking car fees, there is no other place with more lab coats per square mile than former houses of worship, annulments are on the rise as couples discover their ancestors were born in the same hospitals, and crime suspects are forced to submit to blood testing. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Retfor's national animal is the Fox, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Retfor is ranked 11,968^th in the world and 368^th in The North Pacific for Largest Manufacturing Sector, scoring 28,035.1 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index.