The Confederacy of Ethissos is a huge, efficient nation, renowned for its infamous sell-swords, enslaved workforce, and prohibition of alcohol. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 813 million Ethissosians 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, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Welthoss. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 37.8%.

The all-consuming Ethissosian economy, worth 91.0 trillion Florens 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 Arms Manufacturing, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Book Publishing, and Information Technology. 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 111,899 Florens, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 474,805 per year while the poor average 17,010, a ratio of 27.9 to 1.

Hand-to-hand combat experience is udderly essential for all dairy ranchers, a nickname of "Doctor Death" probably indicates a decorated war hero, calling dibs is an unalienable right, and CSI Forest is this year's hit new crime show. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ethissos's national animal is the Falcon, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Ethissos is ranked 1,540^th in the world and 1^st in The waters for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 8,822.96 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.