The Merchant Guild of Dusk Tides is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by Laidos with a fair hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, national health service, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 5.266 billion Duskites love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Novasto. The average income tax rate is 72.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Dusk Tidesian economy, worth 649 trillion Dusks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an impressive 123,325 Dusks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Election officials are delivered in 30 minutes or money back, the government guarantees extra-soft tissues to fire-snorting elephants, government leaders testify at international tribunals on why the sun went out, and it turns out that trees grow on Dusks. Crime is totally unknown. Dusk Tides's national animal is the Silverthorn Stag, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Dusk Tides is ranked 15,492^nd in the world and 650^th in Osiris for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 350.56 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.