The Socialist Heroes Republic of Riyon is a massive, safe nation, ruled by The General Da Biyong Hoh with an iron fist, and remarkable for its closed borders, anti-smoking policies, and zero percent divorce rate. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 2.152 billion Riyonians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Yangyong City. The average income tax rate is 84.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Riyonian economy, worth 86.4 trillion Wuns a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Cheese Exports, Arms Manufacturing, Woodchip Exports, and Furniture Restoration. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 40,145 Wuns, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.4 times as much as the poorest.

Slavery has been abolished, people take government jobs for the frequent flier miles, interviewees for teaching jobs are waterboarded to "reveal undesirable histories", and the cheese exports industry has been boxed into a corner. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Riyon's national animal is the White Crane, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Riyon is ranked 254,963^rd in the world and 727^th in The Leftist Assembly for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 20.37 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.