The Holy Empire of Syringa is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, devout population of 465 million syringians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Stella Nova. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 68.3%.

The strong Syringan economy, worth 48.6 trillion Lilac petals a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, broadly diversified black market in Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, Book Publishing, and Arms Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 104,488 Lilac petals, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 297,458 per year while the poor average 29,284, a ratio of 10.2 to 1.

Women who walk into the ladies' changing room are accused of being Peeping Toms, the colors pink and purple are banned from military unit insignia, the government finds the idea of having an army to be rather distasteful, and people say that cubists are rubbish because they can't draw faces. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Syringa's national animal is the Raven, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Syringa is ranked 148,320^th in the world and 725^th in Europe for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 469.23 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.