The Dominion of Crystal Palais is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Michael Lucerne with an even hand, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, vat-grown people, and national health service. The hard-nosed, democratic, humorless population of 35.926 billion Crystal Palaisians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The tiny, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Mare Crisium. The average income tax rate is 3.0%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Crystal Palaisian economy, worth an astonishing 12,109 trillion solaris a year, is quite specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 337,064 solaris, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Hidden bedroom-cams are installed to catch mothers doing their kids' homework, the government seizes the property of the recently deceased, homeless people can be found sleeping on streets in front of unoccupied second homes, and death compensation has some family members fearing to pay back others' debt they may be disappearing. Crime is totally unknown. Crystal Palais's national animal is the mantlion, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Crystal Palais is ranked 43^rd in the world and 1^st in The Heartland for Least Corrupt Governments, with 98.97 Percentage Of Bribes Refused.