Location: Sparta

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Servile Helots of Spartan Messenia is a colossal, economically powerful nation, ruled by Theopompus I of Sparta with an even hand, and renowned for its suspicion of poets. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 9.89 billion are either ruled by a sleek, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and Commerce. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ithome. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 67%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, followed by Uranium Mining and Gambling.

Citizens are regularly arrested in queues for 'loitering', Spartan Messenia's army is full of two-metre tall super-soldiers, employers may fire workers without giving any reason, and record sales of 'child-whacking sticks' have been recorded. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Spartan Messenia's national animal is the helot, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is the cult of the Dioscuri, and its currency is the perioeci.

Spartan Messenia is ranked 1st in Sparta and 358th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring 60 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and