The Empire of Mistborn is a mammoth, safe nation, ruled by Elend with an iron fist, and renowned for its closed borders, fear of technology, and pith helmet sales. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 9.039 billion Mistbornians 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 Law & Order, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Scadrial. The average income tax rate is 46.9%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Mistbornian economy, worth a remarkable 1,010 trillion Metals a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Uranium Mining. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 111,772 Metals, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Overly distant dads are conscripted into national nappy service, translators have been hired to deal with the varying regional accents during national political debates, arbitrary election rules are considered sacrosanct, and the optimally efficient parking strategy for business commuters is referred to as the "traveling salesman problem". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mistborn's national animal is the Skaa and its national religion is Church of the Survivor.

Mistborn is ranked 106,919^th in the world and 1^st in The Cosmere for Smartest Citizens, with 35.47 quips per hour.