The Community of Vertumna is a huge, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, absence of drug laws, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 605 million Vertumnans 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 enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 84.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Vertumnan economy, worth 57.3 trillion credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Basket Weaving, and Retail. Average income is 94,774 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government regularly publishes lengthy reports on its own excessive recordkeeping, re-education centers are being added to most prisons, convicts released after being found "wrongfully imprisoned" are surprisingly chill about the whole thing, and lifelong celibates are surprised to receive government-issue condoms in the post. Crime is totally unknown. Vertumna's national animal is the Meerkat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Vertumna is ranked 235,178^th in the world and 351^st in The Communist Bloc for Largest Pizza Delivery Sector, scoring -5.3 on the Pepperoni Propulsion Productivity Index.