The Colony of Splintered is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, ritual sacrifices, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 685 million Splinteredians 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 large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hobart. The average income tax rate is 61.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Splinteredian economy, worth 39.1 trillion Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, quite specialized black market in Trout Farming and Arms Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 57,150 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Children who can't memorize their multiplication tables are sent to the mines, military chiefs are predicting extra funding in this year's budget, not showing enough enthusiasm for mutual assured destruction is a court-martial offence, and government policies change at the drop of a rabbit. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Splintered's national animal is the Eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Splintered is ranked 278,314^th in the world and 61^st in Van Diemens Land for Nicest Citizens, with 0.41 average smiles per day.