The Empire of Ateala is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Titus Carlisle with an iron fist, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, pith helmet sales, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, cynical, cheerful, devout population of 17.595 billion Atealans are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The relatively small, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Diza. The average income tax rate is 53.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Atealan economy, worth a remarkable 3,909 trillion Soliduses a year, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 222,167 Soliduses, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Mountain rescue missions can end with more people lost than found, aspiring musicians couldn't give away their music if they tried, cremation is compulsory for the deceased, and Atealan novella fans become unusually flustered when thinking about Titus Carlisle. Crime is totally unknown. Ateala's national animal is the Fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ateala is ranked 2,366^th in the world and 120^th in The North Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 762.98 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.