The Austral Confederacy of Thycinia is a huge, efficient nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, feral children, and national health service. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic, devout population of 636 million Thyceni are free to succeed or fail in life on their own merits; the successful tend to enjoy an opulent (but moralistic) lifestyle, while the failures can be seen crowding out most jails.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Wælmingsby. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 20.4%.

The powerhouse Thycene economy, worth 60.6 trillion Tremisses a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Retail, Gambling, and Basket Weaving. Average income is 95,282 Tremisses, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 345,183 per year while the poor average 18,750, a ratio of 18.4 to 1.

Students who refuse to pray are expelled from school, police shackle estranged spouses to their ol' ball and chain, flatulent people are left to die of cancer at the end of hospital waiting lists, and out-of-work actors say they can't complain. Crime, especially youth-related, is relatively low, thanks to a capable police force. Thycinia's national animal is the Grey Goshawk, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Thycinia is ranked 32,846^th in the world and 10^th in The Charter for Most Cultured, scoring 78 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.