The Republic of Galdona is a huge, genial nation, notable for its smutty television, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 597 million Galdonans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Echelon. The average income tax rate is 76.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The very strong Galdonan economy, worth 42.7 trillion gilders a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 71,455 gilders, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Fashion magazine covers finally display realistic body images following photo-manipulation becoming illegal, billion-gilder sentient AI killbots roll through the streets dispensing hot dogs and T-shirts, the traditional Violetist dish of stuffed sheep's head is served with an intense look of shock upon its face, and Leader has no checks and balances after the upper house was abolished. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Galdona's national animal is the falcon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Galdona is ranked 58,708^th in the world and 1,242^nd in the South Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 128.08 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.