The Nationalist Nation of Mercian Legions is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, sprawling nuclear power plants, and avowedly heterosexual populace. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 544 million Mercians 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 medium-sized, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Liberty. The average income tax rate is 70.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Mercian economy, worth 69.3 trillion Imperial Currencies a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, broadly diversified black market in Information Technology, Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Trout Farming. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 127,352 Imperial Currencies, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.7 times as much as the poorest.

It takes months to get the proper permits for a child's first tricycle, citizens have never heard foreign radio, elevator music has been replaced by thrash metal played at maximum volume, and sex offenders find themselves cut off from the ability to repeat their crimes. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mercian Legions's national animal is the Sand Manticore, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Mercian Legions is ranked 144,579^th in the world and 2,744^th in the South Pacific for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 915.9 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.