The Corporate Federation of Maritzal is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by President Cornelius Crewes with an even hand, and renowned for its complete lack of prisons, public floggings, and frequent executions. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 16.491 billion Maritzalians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The relatively small, corrupt 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 96.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Maritzalian economy, worth a remarkable 9,378 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 568,683 Pistas, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Surgical tape has taken on a distinctly red color, crowded passenger trains are near-silent save for the soft tap of fingers on touchscreens, the legal system for the political class is completely separate from the one for normal citizens, and private digital records now come with a convenient "download" button. 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 3,245^th in the world and 58^th in Europe for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 679.04 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.