The Community of Vertumna is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its museums and concert halls, ban on automobiles, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 636 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 84.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Vertumnan economy, worth 60.9 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 highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Basket Weaving, and Retail. Average income is 95,731 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The nation leads The Communist Bloc in per capita stalking, power to the people comes from the barrel of a gun, restaurant owners fear visits from government officials more than the actual food critics, and dubiously qualified East Lebatuckese doctors prescribe ice baths as a treatment for pneumonia. Crime is totally unknown. Vertumna's national animal is the Meerkat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Vertumna is ranked 5,573^rd in the world and 184^th in The Communist Bloc for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 79.16 on the Kitten Softness Rating.