The Republic of Grativalu is a colossal, orderly nation, remarkable for its vat-grown people, lack of airports, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 5.663 billion Grativaluans 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, well-organized government is effectively ruled by the Department of Industry, although Administration is also considered important, while Education and Welfare are ignored. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 86.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Grativaluan economy, worth a remarkable 1,002 trillion currencies a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector is mostly comprised of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 176,968 currencies, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 516,243 per year while the poor average 47,935, a ratio of 10.8 to 1.

Looting and pillaging are now considered vital intelligence-gathering activities, anyone who sleeps in past 9am can be declared legally dead, ethnic minorities are often refused admission to some of the nation's best schools, and the government has legalised small-scale capitalism. Crime is so common that it is unusual to encounter someone following the law, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. Grativalu's national animal is the animal, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Grativalu is ranked 57,350^th in the world and 11^th in Vickenian experiment containment zone for Greatest Rich-Poor Divides, with 10.77 Rich To Poor Income Ratio.