The Empire of Verconia is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by Emperor Vercon with an iron fist, and remarkable for its otherworldly petting zoo, pith helmet sales, and zero percent divorce rate. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, cheerful population of 10.53 billion Verconians are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Veltcona. The average income tax rate is 92.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Verconian economy, worth a remarkable 3,565 trillion vercoins a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. Average income is an amazing 338,617 vercoins, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

The latest drugs are only legally available to private patients, nuclear physics is the most popular course at university, elementary school children develop thousand-yard stares, and students consistently complain that the wi-fi ate their homework. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Verconia's national animal is the Falcon, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is secularism.

Verconia is ranked 307,584^th in the world and 4,111^th in The East Pacific for Fattest Citizens, with 1.38 Obesity Rate.