The Paradise of Parenthos is a titanic, genial nation, ruled by a Phoenix named Aslan with an iron fist, and notable for its teetotalling pirates, vat-grown people, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cynical, humorless population of 19.924 billion Parenthians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized morass — prioritizes Education, with Environment, Industry, and Healthcare also on the agenda, while Defense and Spirituality aren't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Voa. The average income tax rate is 98.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Parenthosian economy, worth a remarkable 4,491 trillion golds a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Tourism, Book Publishing, and Basket Weaving. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is an amazing 225,450 golds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.5 times as much as the poorest.

Feuilletons can only be deciphered with a Galliennais dictionary, the populace harbors a fierce hatred of the metric system, people can't decide between preserving forests and buying print copies of 'Dogman Versus The Giggler', and Brancaland has gifted over nine thousand putrid moose carcasses to Parenthos as a reminder of their "special relationship". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, despite the fact that it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many laws. Parenthos's national animal is the Phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is kombucha.

Parenthos is ranked 317,369^th in the world and 4,125^th in the South Pacific for Highest Drug Use, scoring 8.39 on the Pineapple Fondness Rating.