The Repressed memory of What Lies Beneath is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by Madison Elizabeth Frank with an iron fist, and remarkable for its public floggings, avowedly heterosexual populace, and compulsory military service. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 10.743 billion possessed 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 large, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of bath tub. The average income tax rate is 64.2%.

The very strong possessed economy, worth 895 trillion dollars 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 large, well-organized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Tourism, and Book Publishing. 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 83,313 dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.7 times as much as the poorest.

The nightly news reports prosaically on the government blindly throwing money at despotic kidnappers, record sales of 'child-whacking sticks' have been reported, citizens who become homeless are immediately executed, and only Madison Elizabeth Frank's friends count in the eyes of the government. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. What Lies Beneath's national animal is the corpse, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Spiritualism.

What Lies Beneath is ranked 217,447^th in the world and 113^th in Middle Earth for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring 176.94 on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.