The Paradise of Parenthos is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by a Phoenix named Aslan with an iron fist, and notable for its ban on automobiles, fear of technology, and vat-grown people. The compassionate, cynical, humorless population of 19.906 billion Parenthians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized morass — prioritizes Education, with Environment, Industry, and Healthcare also on the agenda, while Defense and International Aid receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Voa. The average income tax rate is 98.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Parenthosian economy, worth a remarkable 4,476 trillion golds a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Tourism, Book Publishing, and Basket Weaving. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is an amazing 224,868 golds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.5 times as much as the poorest.

Psychiatrists bizarrely accompany a Phoenix named Aslan to meetings with foreign heads of state, books are so highly regarded in Parenthos that libraries are often revered as holy shrines, the government is avowedly secular, and corrupt officials have adopted the greater good as their catchphrase. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, despite the fact that it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many laws. Parenthos's national animal is the Phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is kombucha.

Parenthos is ranked 126^th in the world and 6^th in the South Pacific for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 29,983.4 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.