The Green Otters' State of Garbelia is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Lutra Otto with an iron fist, and renowned for its soft-spoken computers, ban on automobiles, and labour-free parental leave. The compassionate, cynical population of 12.83 billion Garbelerians are ruled with an iron fist by the socialist government, which grants its people the freedom to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't involve getting richer than anybody else or challenging the government.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Garvida. The average income tax rate is 98.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Garbelery economy, worth a remarkable 1,607 trillion Garbels a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry. Average income is an impressive 125,300 Garbels, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government guarantees that tourists will have the ultimate trip on their trips, the saying "when pigs fly" has been changed to "when the lights work", punting clubs and posh accents have been added to the national curriculum, and resident physicians are said to have a silver scalpel in their hands. Crime is totally unknown. Garbelia's national animal is the Otter, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Lutrianism.

Garbelia is ranked 4,203^rd in the world and 43^rd in Forest for Most Developed, scoring 95.62 on the Human Development Index.