The Commonwealth of Ferristia is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Mo Spinoza with a fair hand, and remarkable for its lack of airports, ban on automobiles, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 5.042 billion Ferristians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Healthcare, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Archigo City. The average income tax rate is 93.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Ferristian economy, worth 521 trillion Millipenses 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 Book Publishing and Trout Farming. Average income is an impressive 103,529 Millipenses, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government is ignoring the latest terrorist atrocities in Archigo City for fear of causing a fuss, aeroplanes have been converted into housing units after all air travel was outlawed, it is mandatory to learn evolution in schools, and people seem disproportionately distraught when told a museum has a phones-off policy. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ferristia's national animal is the Octopus, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Ferristia is ranked 23,932^nd in the world and 570^th in the South Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 252.69 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.