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The Brazen Panoply of Steam and Clockwork

“A God in every Machine”

Overview • Factbook • Policies • People • Government • Economy • Rank • Trend • Cards

The Brazen Panoply of Steam and Clockwork is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Archsophist Archimedes Babbage with a fair hand, and renowned for its free-roaming dinosaurs, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-working, democratic, cheerful population of 10.261 billion Cogs are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The medium-sized, corrupt, pro-business, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Gear and Sprocket. The average income tax rate is 98.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Cog economy, worth a remarkable 4,876 trillion atomic bucks a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Retail, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an amazing 475,252 atomic bucks, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 4,258,051 per year while the poor average 6,832, a ratio of 623 to 1.

Listless juries are assembled for the simplest of court cases, city rooftops are pockmarked with the shattered remains of high velocity delivery drones, military minds worry that 'the blue screen of death' on brand new operating systems may be a literal description, and the daily weather forecast often predicts light showers of debris. Crime is totally unknown. Steam and Clockwork's national animal is the Automaton, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Cult of Dædalus.

Steam and Clockwork is ranked 1,934^th in the world and 2^nd in The Horde for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 10,744.29 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.

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