The Lacustrine People's Communes of Gaviastan is a massive, genial nation, ruled by the Soviet of Communal Representatives with a fair hand, and remarkable for its absence of drug laws, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The democratic population of 3.866 billion Gaviastanians 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 large, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Isle Royale. The average income tax rate is 48.8%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Gaviastanian economy, worth 65.0 trillion feathers 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 slick, highly efficient, fairly diversified black market in Trout Farming, Book Publishing, Tourism, and Pizza Delivery. 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 16,819 feathers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The art of conversation has been rediscovered, there's an aura of pseudoscience around academia, the navy plans patrols according to how many pubs nearby ports have, and the nation's only university is the School of Hard Knocks. Crime is totally unknown. Gaviastan's national animal is the loon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Gaviism.

Gaviastan is ranked 119,202^nd in the world and 2^nd in Great Lakes Alliance for Most Armed, with 0.36 weapons per person.