The Holy Matriarchy of Coldsea is a mammoth, safe nation, ruled by Marcus with an even hand, and renowned for its smutty television, national health service, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 6.071 billion Coldials are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Koldhavn. The average income tax rate is 94.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Coldial economy, worth 843 trillion gold coins a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 138,895 gold coins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The recycled air in planes is nauseating, the endangered saltwater humpback bat is only seen in captivity programs, scientists are terrified of fabulous new breakthroughs, and park rangers struggle to deal with a rash of stolen pic-a-nic baskets. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Coldsea's national animal is the bat, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Paganism.

Coldsea is ranked 187,297^th in the world and 488^th in Carcassonne for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -3 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.