The Federal Republic of Sternow is a mid-sized, socially progressive nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, irreverence towards religion, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 56 million Sternowitzes are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The tiny, pro-business, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Defense, and Law & Order. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 6.8%.

The powerhouse Sternowian economy, worth 4.48 trillion Sternowitze Marks a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Gambling industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 80,041 Sternowitze Marks, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 261,390 per year while the poor average 18,431, a ratio of 14.2 to 1.

Street gangs rule most of the nation's major cities, it's said that a Sternowitze always pays his debts with significant compounding, after every storm there's an expensive government-funded rainbow, and the "feminist protest" defence is increasingly common for cases of armed robbery. Crime is a problem, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Sternow's national animal is the Great Egret, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Sternow is ranked 143,592^nd in the world and 409^th in Europe for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 1,168.47 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.