The Borderlands of Sympathy Mesa is a huge, safe nation, ruled by Wenis the Eviscerator with a fair hand, and notable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, anti-smoking policies, and rampant corporate plagiarism. The compassionate, democratic population of 784 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 80.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Sympathy Mesan economy, worth 56.3 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 71,765 souls, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Holiday light displays just aren't the same without seizure-inducing strobe effects, young children are learning advanced physics to scientifically disprove the existence of Santa Claus, the nation has nearly as many history museums as Sympathy Mesans, and police conduct weekly raids looking for contraband cheeseburgers. 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 21,559^th in the world and 982^nd in The North Pacific for Most Advanced Public Transport, scoring 2,163.44 on the Societal Mobility Rating.