The Holy Empire of Routcher is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by Emperor Alexander IV with an iron fist, and renowned for its sprawling nuclear power plants, frequent executions, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 4.818 billion Routcherians are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Saint Mary. The average income tax rate is 76.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Routcherian economy, worth 261 trillion Crowns a year, is quite specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Cheese Exports, and Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 54,228 Crowns, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

The government is notorious for leaving citizens with almost nothing from their inheritance, the justice of Routcher is considered superior to that of other nations, cricket farmers use magnifying glasses to fit every member of their herd with tiny tracking tags, and Little League matches are often attended by riot police with water cannon... just in case. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Routcher's national animal is the stag, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Autocephalous Morrainean Catholic Church.

Routcher is ranked 11,217^th in the world and 1^st in Alliance of Absolute Monarchs for Highest Foreign Aid Spending, scoring 1,600.11 on the Clooney Contribution Index.