The Borderlands of Sympathy Mesa is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Wenis the Eviscerator with a fair hand, and remarkable for its rampant corporate plagiarism, daily referendums, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 808 million Sympathy Mesans 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 enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Halcyon. The average income tax rate is 82.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Sympathy Mesan economy, worth 57.3 trillion souls a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Cheese Exports. Average income is 70,903 souls, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

All recreational drugs are legal, flu research is commonly shut down for fear of creating a superbug, retirement homes are often fitted with luxurious suites, and ice-filled coffins are ominously positioned in the corner of every hospital ward. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sympathy Mesa's national animal is the European polecat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Sympathy Mesa is ranked 12,825^th in the world and 701^st in The North Pacific for Most Popular Tourist Destinations, with 1,570.32 Tourists Per Hour.