The Empire of Shalum is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Imperator Tyler Holland with an even hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, smutty television, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, devout population of 14.687 billion Shalumites enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aragon. The average income tax rate is 87.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Shalumite economy, worth a remarkable 2,080 trillion Dollars a year, is quite specialized and dominated by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 141,627 Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Sex education has become an intricate maze of stick figures and complex metaphors, female newsreaders distract the nation by breastfeeding during broadcast, the internet has been placed under government control, and the nation is automatically assumed to be the source of all unmarked weapons. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Shalum's national animal is the Cuderae, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Shalum is ranked 33,967^th in the world and 8^th in Tyran for Highest Drug Use, scoring 90.4 on the Pineapple Fondness Rating.