The Grand Republic of Vista Major is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Alexand Vox with a fair hand, and notable for its infamous sell-swords, soft-spoken computers, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 11.723 billion Vistonians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, liberal, socially-minded morass — prioritizes Education, with Welfare, Industry, and Healthcare also on the agenda, while Defense and Spirituality are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Sonoma Coast. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Vistonian economy, worth a remarkable 2,481 trillion Aurics a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. Average income is an amazing 211,688 Aurics, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Captains must wait until all rats are safe before jumping ship, theatre audiences often need a telescope to see the stage, the volume of paperwork used to complete a single environmental assessment defeats the purpose, and science centers and state of the art laboratories are ubiquitous. Crime is totally unknown. Vista Major's national animal is the Phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Vista Major is ranked 5,394^th in the world and 295^th in Lazarus for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 535.22 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.