The Borderlands of Ictus is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Prime Minister ZG Edmondson with an even hand, and renowned for its vat-grown people, sprawling nuclear power plants, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 21.831 billion Ictusians enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Stratton City. The average income tax rate is 97.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Ictusian economy, worth a remarkable 3,161 trillion Fiats a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 144,806 Fiats, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Administrative districts are increasingly defined by their taste in housing architecture, citizens are deployed to barren deserts to protect small territorial claims, the government is using tax revenues to provide jobs for the poor, and textbooks are exactly twice as heavy as they used to be. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ictus's national animal is the Human, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ictus is ranked 4,498^th in the world and 174^th in Balder for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 20,058.87 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.