The Phospholipid Bilayer of Tripod II is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Carey Weed with an iron fist, and remarkable for its ritual sacrifices, free-roaming dinosaurs, and frequent executions. The compassionate, cynical population of 2.74 billion Tripodlians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Administration, Environment, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of a jar by the door. The average income tax rate is 95.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Tripodlian economy, worth 296 trillion Synonyms a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Basket Weaving. Average income is an impressive 108,066 Synonyms, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Families are left homeless as entire suburbs are bulldozed on the whim of tribal chiefs, the only science is political science, playground injuries are considered academic progress, and sweat stains are proof of political acumen. Crime is totally unknown. Tripod II's national animal is the Scone, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Electoral Carnage.

Tripod II is ranked 8,825^th in the world and 31^st in The Region That Has No Big Banks for Most Developed, scoring 91.33 on the Human Development Index.