The Community of Steso is a massive, efficient nation, notable for its deadly medical pandemics, ritual sacrifices, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, hard-working population of 1.356 billion Stesoans are either ruled by a sleek, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

There is no government in the normal sense of the word; however, a small group of community-minded, pro-business individuals juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Spirituality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 3.7%.

The thriving Stesoan economy, worth 54.4 trillion Euros a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Soda Sales industry, with significant contributions from Uranium Mining and Pizza Delivery. Average income is 40,100 Euros, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 168,328 per year while the poor average 6,209, a ratio of 27.1 to 1.

Surf's up and hypothermia's down, children spend all morning taking out a comma and all afternoon putting it back in again, the government prefers to leave the past buried, and charities reserve the right to not help those who go against religious teachings. Crime, especially youth-related, is pervasive, probably because of the absence of a police force. Steso's national animal is the Dog, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Steso is ranked 343,307^th in the world and 19^th in Trading Cards for Largest Cheese Export Sector, scoring -12.68 on the Mozzarella Productivity Index.