The Melthing of Ratateague is a gargantuan, efficient nation, renowned for its anti-smoking policies, soft-spoken computers, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 33.89 billion Ratatekkers love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Holtmímir. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Ratatasque economy, worth an astonishing 16,095 trillion ʝarls a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Basket Weaving. Average income is an amazing 474,928 ʝarls, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Nine-year-olds are discovering that they can grow gardens in real life too, the nation's atlases tend to go out of date every few weeks, tough diplomacy is often best handled with a nutcracker, and Leader's media campaigns take a hiatus around exam week. Crime is totally unknown. Ratateague's national animal is the flying squirrel, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Ratateague is ranked 306,258^th in the world and 79^th in The Social Liberal Union for Most Advanced Defense Forces, scoring -79.5 on the Total War Preparedness Rating.