The Commonwealth of Beaufort is a mammoth, safe nation, ruled by Clark Seeder with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, ubiquitous missile silos, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 8.829 billion Beaufortians 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 Administration, Healthcare, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Waddon. The average income tax rate is 95.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Beaufortian economy, worth a remarkable 1,164 trillion Beaufortian Dollars a year, is quite specialized and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Information Technology, and Arms Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 131,884 Beaufortian Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Pop stars who make it big overseas are hailed as economic heroes, scientists who publish a non-reproducible result are tarred and feathered, art is not complete without a touch of alizarin blood and titanium sweat, and the saying "when pigs fly" has been changed to "when the lights work". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Beaufort's national animal is the Beaver, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Christianity.

Beaufort is ranked 11,047^th in the world and 1^st in Teremara for Smartest Citizens, with 91.28 quips per hour.