The United Kingdom of The Higher and Lower Bautlands is a massive, cultured nation, remarkable for its daily referendums, avant-garde cinema, and absence of drug laws. The quiet, industrious population of 3.46 billion Bautan people have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Mireid. The average income tax rate is 67.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Bautan economy, worth 276 trillion kroner a year, is quite specialized and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Retail, Uranium Mining, and Soda Sales. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 80,047 kroner, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

Monocled merchants with funny accents are applying for Bautan citizenship in droves, panels from bankrupt rooftop solar companies are used as props for sci-fi B-movies, getting an infected tattoo is considered a rite of passage in The Higher and Lower Bautlands, and loading sixteen tons of laundry gets you another year older and deeper in debt. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Higher and Lower Bautlands's national animal is the salmon, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Menalianism.

The Higher and Lower Bautlands is ranked 13,657^th in the world and 372^nd in The East Pacific for Safest, scoring 117.49 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.