The Grand Duchy of Bans Chum is a massive, genial nation, notable for its museums and concert halls, daily referendums, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic population of 3.666 billion Bans Chumians enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Badger Bay. The average income tax rate is 80.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Bans Chumian economy, worth 264 trillion marks 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 Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Pizza Delivery, and Basket Weaving. Average income is 72,200 marks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It is technically inaccurate to call the dead 'worm food', the 'Museum Of Stuff We Stole' is a tourist favourite, life-saving resuscitation is denied based on decades-old teenage diaries that declare "I want to die before I get old", and RPG fans reminisce fondly about when people thought they were evil and dangerous rather than geeky and socially inept. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bans Chum's national animal is the badger, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Mustelidism.

Bans Chum is ranked 271,010^th in the world and 6,569^th in the Rejected Realms for Largest Cheese Export Sector, scoring -8.58 on the Mozzarella Productivity Index.