The Most Holy Empire of Routcher is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Emperor Tywin II with an iron fist, and remarkable for its national health service, frequent executions, and infamous sell-swords. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 15.606 billion Routcherians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Saint Mary. The average income tax rate is 93.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Routcherian economy, worth a remarkable 1,678 trillion Crowns a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 107,559 Crowns, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The army lives rent-free in foreigners' heads and houses, most pop videos prominently feature the Routcherian flag, promising seven years of bad luck leads to seven years of community service, and officer recruitment and police brutality have reached an all-time high. 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 Orthodox Church of Routcher.

Routcher is ranked 29,143^rd in the world and 66^th in Fifth Empire for Smartest Citizens, with 57.25 quips per hour.