The Grand Duchy of Bertaeynn is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, frequent executions, and irreverence towards religion. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 728 million Bertaeynnians 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 medium-sized, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Avalon. The average income tax rate is 32.5%.

The powerhouse Bertaeynnian economy, worth 74.7 trillion Statères a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Soda Sales. Black market activity is extensive. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 102,587 Statères, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.8 times as much as the poorest.

Eerie glow-in-the-dark cornfields give farmlands an uncanny appearance, small businesses are gobbled up almost daily by corporate giants, Bertaeynnians believe the only thing that will make you happy is being unhappy with who you are, and a blood-red mark on the doorframe means a building must be passed over for destruction. Crime is a problem, possibly because it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many regulations. Bertaeynn's national animal is the Boar, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Bertaeynn is ranked 39,430^th in the world and 2,546^th in Balder for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 179.63 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.