The Holy Federation of New Fernia is a colossal, orderly nation, ruled by Carter Rowland with an iron fist, and notable for its avant-garde cinema, enslaved workforce, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 5.512 billion New Fernians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Spirituality. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ferncliffe. The average income tax rate is 80.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but sluggish New Fernian economy, worth 197 trillion pounds 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 Uranium Mining, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. 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 35,743 pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Endangered bison are herded across the border to prevent them from trampling on native prairie grass, students cut up leftover pounds during Arts and Crafts, it's widely agreed that to tennis players love means nothing, and heroes long thought dead are promptly killed upon their return. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. New Fernia's national animal is the mountain dragon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Fennism.

New Fernia is ranked 16,852^nd in the world and 1^st in Flygon for Most Patriotic, with 56.96 flags saluted per person per day.