The Essence of Grain of Sand is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Water and Wind with an even hand, and remarkable for its frequent executions, rampant corporate plagiarism, and ritual sacrifices. The hard-nosed, hard-working, humorless, devout population of 29.843 billion Grain of Sandians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Policy, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Fata Morgana. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 76.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Grain of Sandian economy, worth a remarkable 3,204 trillion sands a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector is mostly comprised of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 107,380 sands, with the richest citizens earning 5.9 times as much as the poorest.

Programmes of questionable content are shown at peak-hours, Water and Wind steals from the rich and gives to the needy, the official Grain Of Sandian Phrase Book weighs as much as a small child, and the sun rises an hour later on border communities. Crime, especially youth-related, is all-pervasive. Grain of Sand's national animal is the sand, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Grain of Sand is ranked 292,418^th in the world and 11,217^th in Lazarus for Lowest Crime Rates, with 6.61 law-abiding acts per hour.