The Colony of Lyre is a large, safe nation, notable for its compulsory military service, restrictive gun laws, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate population of 134 million Lyreans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 38.1%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Lyrean economy, worth 4.64 trillion Harps a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Beef-Based Agriculture, Book Publishing, and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 34,592 Harps, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Mining safety laws are often more expensive than what's being mined, battlefield gains are quickly lost when enemies don't respect a time-out, the rich tend their gardens inside gated urban farming communities, and many aides in Leader's office are known to be serial jaywalkers. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lyre's national animal is the Narwhal, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Lyre is ranked 39,876^th in the world and 1,020^th in The North Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 18.66 average smiles per day.