The Snake Shifter of String-Bean is a mammoth, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Lumity with an iron fist, and notable for its keen interest in outer space, ubiquitous missile silos, and absence of drug laws. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 7.45 billion String-Beanians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Boiling Isles. The average income tax rate is 73.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse String-Beanian economy, worth 821 trillion snails 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 large, well-organized black market in Information Technology, Tourism, Uranium Mining, and Arms Manufacturing. 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 an impressive 110,285 snails, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Illegal book-trafficking rings dominate the black market, children are raised bilingual from an early age, a three-year-old has been selected to run the civil service, and half of the nation's import/export industry is run from a location known only as 'Dead Man's Cove'. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. String-Bean's national animal is the owl, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Cards.

String-Bean is ranked 234,652^nd in the world and 16^th in Temporary Home for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 27.27 on the Bus Surprisal Index.