The Watchers of Mintaka III is a colossal, safe nation, ruled by Nuria with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, zero percent divorce rate, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate population of 5.538 billion Mintakans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Village. The average income tax rate is 65.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Mintakan economy, worth 148 trillion Tapestries a year, is highly specialized and led by the Basket Weaving industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Uranium Mining, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 26,727 Tapestries, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Students do more community service than homework, contestants on Mintaka III's Got Talent are screened by the government to make sure that they actually have talent, athletes are renowned for being the best at maths, and the banhammer is a standard police sidearm. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mintaka III's national animal is the Hornbuck, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is The Picard.

Mintaka III is ranked 304,270^th in the world and 159^th in United Earth Space Probe Agency for Most Patriotic, with 0.63 flags saluted per person per day.