The Realm Past the Horizon of Merethin is a mammoth, efficient nation, ruled by Iris with a fair hand, and remarkable for its soft-spoken computers, smutty television, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 5.505 billion Merethinians enjoy a sensible mix of personal and economic freedoms, while the political process is open and the people's right to vote held sacrosanct.

The enormous, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Merethin City. The average income tax rate is 98.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Merethinian economy, worth a remarkable 1,075 trillion golden coins 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 mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Tourism. Average income is an impressive 195,351 golden coins, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Promising seven years of bad luck leads to seven years of community service, cheese lovers have a case of the bleus, elementary school children develop thousand-yard stares, and corrupt officials have adopted the greater good as their catchphrase. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Merethin's national animal is the axolotl, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Star Sister.

Merethin is ranked 303,879^th in the world and 573^rd in Starlight for Largest Pizza Delivery Sector, scoring -21.67 on the Pepperoni Propulsion Productivity Index.