The Empire of Shalum is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Imperator Tyler Holland with an even hand, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, infamous sell-swords, and smutty television. The hard-nosed, devout population of 16.797 billion Shalumites are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aragon. The average income tax rate is 90.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Shalumite economy, worth a remarkable 2,414 trillion Dollars a year, is quite specialized and dominated by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, and Information Technology. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 143,767 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Claiming to have performed the Heimlich Maneuver is a popular defense for assault charges, school history books often refer to Imperator Tyler Holland as "that imperialist pig dog", Shalum isn't what it used to be, and the inside lane of every highway is for parked vehicles only. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Shalum's national animal is the Cuderae, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Shalum is ranked 116,377^th in the world and 15^th in Tyran for Least Corrupt Governments, with 92.98 Percentage Of Bribes Refused.