The Holy Order of The Children of Mercy is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by The Most Moral Priesthood with an iron fist, and renowned for its closed borders, lack of airports, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 1.125 billion Mercyites 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 enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Spirituality. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lex Aedificium. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 92.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Children of Mercyian economy, worth 189 trillion favors 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Trout Farming, Basket Weaving, 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 an impressive 168,148 favors, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 716,505 per year while the poor average 25,375, a ratio of 28.2 to 1.

The police crack down on tax evaders without mercy, policemen regularly conduct midnight raids on closed donut shops to 'collect evidence', many politicians are in rehab for minor drug offenses, and no personal detail is too tiny for the suede-denim census police. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Children of Mercy's national animal is the lamb, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is True Christianity.

The Children of Mercy is ranked 130,840^th in the world and 1,486^th in the Pacific for Highest Poor Incomes, with 25,375.65 Standard Monetary Units.