The Corporate Federation of Maritzal is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by President Cornelius Crewes with an iron fist, and remarkable for its closed borders, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 16.44 billion Maritzalians 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 relatively small, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Meridian. The average income tax rate is 96.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Maritzalian economy, worth a remarkable 9,307 trillion Pistas a year, is quite specialized and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Information Technology, Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is a breathtaking 566,135 Pistas, with the richest citizens earning 6.4 times as much as the poorest.

Clowns are being rounded up and admitted to mental institutions, cities are engulfed by smog, people say chess victor President Cornelius Crewes can kill you with mind-bullets, and signatures have been replaced with illegible scribbles. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Maritzal's national animal is the Cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Maritzal is ranked 272,674^th in the world and 1,349^th in Europe for Highest Food Quality, scoring 6.54 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.