The Borderlands of Glaciertop is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by The Lord-Baron with a fair hand, and renowned for its rum-swilling pirates, barren, inhospitable landscape, and vat-grown people. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic, humorless, devout population of 4.487 billion Glaciertopians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The minute, corrupt, pro-business, outspoken government, or what there is of one, juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Glaciertop. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Glaciertopian economy, worth a remarkable 1,189 trillion Yeti Toenails a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Retail, and Soda Sales. Average income is an amazing 265,193 Yeti Toenails, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.5 times as much as the poorest.

There's more vermin than ever on the metro, the government recently donated a surfboard to an impoverished family in a landlocked region, neighboring nations are tired of Glaciertop's big fish stories, and shaken martini sales have soared in nations surrounding Glaciertop. Crime, especially youth-related, is all-pervasive, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. Glaciertop's national animal is the Yeti, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Yetism.

Glaciertop is ranked 179^th in the world and 1^st in Santas Workshop for Rudest Citizens, with 901.6 insults per minute.