The United Serene Republic of Saint Shepard is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Madame President with a fair hand, and renowned for its compulsory military service, absence of drug laws, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 10.127 billion Paragons 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 government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Saint Citadel. The average income tax rate is 98.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Paragon economy, worth a remarkable 1,875 trillion dollars a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 185,162 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

News headlines suggest that Madame President has a sideline in guinea pig pimping, the traditional Violetist dish of stuffed sheep's head is served with an intense look of shock upon its face, teenagers performing appendectomies on their friends has become a popular schoolyard prank, and feeling like a winner comes at a price. Crime is totally unknown. Saint Shepard's national animal is the cobra, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Saint Shepard is ranked 3,349^th in the world and 81^st in The Communist Bloc for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 17,615.74 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.