The Catgirls of Altasund is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Hildegard von Bingen with an even hand, and remarkable for its ban on automobiles, compulsory military service, and frequent executions. The compassionate, devout population of 12.166 billion Benedictines are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bingen. The average income tax rate is 70.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Benedictine economy, worth 846 trillion marks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 69,549 marks, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

Military equipment stores have a tendency to go up in flames, an underground movement of cigarette smokers has sprung up in response to a government ban, libraries have replaced overdue book fines with mandatory mental health assessments, and counselors have to sign pledges supporting gay rights before they can speak to any patients. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Altasund's national animal is the cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Catholicism.

Altasund is ranked 77,299^th in the world and 1,811^th in the Rejected Realms for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 2,334.39 on the Gilded Widget Scale.