The Free Land of Quirin is a tiny, genial nation, renowned for its irreverence towards religion, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 16 million Quirinians 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 large, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 54.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Quirinian economy, worth 266 billion Rubles a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient black market in Information Technology, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Uranium Mining. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 16,654 Rubles, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Pareidolic SETI scientists swear there's a message from aliens hidden within pi, surveillance cameras are banned, the Northen Mockingbird is a protected species, and euthanasia is legal. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Quirin's national animal is the Northen Mockingbird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Quirin is ranked 235,466^th in the world and 3,174^th in The East Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 64 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.