The United Peoples Land of Marcistani is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by Mercury with a fair hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, state-planned economy, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 3.491 billion Marcistanians 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, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ilos. The average income tax rate is 93.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Marcistanian economy, worth 407 trillion Mercury kroner 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 led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 116,711 Mercury kroner, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Burning twigs to keep warm while lost in the wild is now a felony, rare art has become a significant factor in negotiating all foreign trade agreements, mountain rescue missions can end with more people lost than found, and 50% of adverts on children's television are for clothes made of cotton wool. Crime is totally unknown. Marcistani's national animal is the Snow fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Nature.

Marcistani is ranked 5,103^rd in the world and 2^nd in The Maritimes for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 59.87 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.