The Kingdom of Roud is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by King Cuthred with a fair hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, daily referendums, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 12.186 billion Roudians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Beacon Alley. The average income tax rate is 70.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Roudian economy, worth 976 trillion marks a year, is quite specialized and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 80,123 marks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Politicians are losing their jobs in a plan to make the government 'leaner and fitter', administrative districts are increasingly defined by their taste in housing architecture, crossword puzzles have been co-opted as a symbol of racial discrimination, and hidden bedroom-cams are installed to catch mothers doing their kids' homework. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Roud's national animal is the squirrel, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is pagan.

Roud is ranked 38,468^th in the world and 15^th in Wihtwara for Lowest Crime Rates, with 78.33 law-abiding acts per hour.