The Pacific Alpine Commonwealth of Mount Seymour is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Prime Minister Nathaniel Gardiner with a fair hand, and renowned for its keen interest in outer space, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 9.803 billion Seymourians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Fort-Frédéric-sur-le-Montagne. The average income tax rate is 98.4%.

The large but stagnant Seymourian economy, worth 283 trillion pounds a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Tourism. Average income is 28,937 pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Employers are finding it hard to screen candidates now that everyone gets A grades in their exams, the saying 'break a leg' is now taken literally, fifteen-year-olds cannot walk younger siblings to school without a professional Childcare and Education Certificate, and Seymourian police have to pay out of their own pockets for bulletproof vests. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mount Seymour's national animal is the Purple-Spotted Newt, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Seymourian Humanistic Naturalism.

Mount Seymour is ranked 226,002^nd in the world and 454^th in Forest for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -35.68 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.