The Community of Vertumna is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its compulsory vegetarianism, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 545 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 83.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Vertumnan economy, worth 47.5 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 Cheese Exports. Average income is 87,180 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Politicians tend to jump ship to whichever party is currently leading in the polls, debates on whether toilet seats should be left up or down are increasingly commonplace, the recycled air in planes is nauseating, and dinner parties often end in politically charged fist fights. Crime is totally unknown. Vertumna's national animal is the Meerkat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Vertumna is ranked 268,661^st in the world and 507^th in The Communist Bloc for Largest Populations, with 545 million capita.