The Republic of Eastern Marlan is a very large, socially progressive nation, renowned for its daily referendums, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 277 million Eastern Marlanians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 68.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Eastern Marlanian economy, worth 8.10 trillion marts 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 led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Retail, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 29,256 marts, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A favorite "life hack" for gap year backpackers is to pretend to be homeless for government handouts, the government recently donated a surfboard to an impoverished family in a landlocked region, Eastern Marlan has designated Eastern Marlan City as its capital city, and airplanes have giant grilles on their noses to knock drones out of their path. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Eastern Marlan's national animal is the White-tailed Tropicbird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Eastern Marlan is ranked 307,030^th in the world and 2,655^th in the West Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -15.2 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.