The Theocracy of Hounds Torch is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, anti-smoking policies, and public floggings. The compassionate, devout population of 503 million Hounds Torch Bearers are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 44.5%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Hounds Torchian economy, worth 45.3 trillion Denarii a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Beef-Based Agriculture industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Trout Farming, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 90,059 Denarii, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Producers insist that movie stars wear crash helmets in every scene, earthquake sirens are a leading cause of hearing loss, only fully-fledged members of MENSA are allowed to vote, and what goes down must come up. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hounds Torch's national animal is the Lamb, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Hounds Torch is ranked 307,942^nd in the world and 74^th in Catholic for Largest Black Market, with 9.00 billion Standard Monetary Units.