The Racist Commune of Thermopylae is a huge, cultured nation, ruled by Lycurgus with an even hand, and renowned for its avowedly heterosexual populace, compulsory military service, and absence of drug laws. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 942 million Thermopylaeans have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The medium-sized government prioritizes Education, with Healthcare, Administration, and Law & Order also on the agenda, while Spirituality and International Aid receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Caeadas Chasm. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 62.7%.

The thriving Thermopylaean economy, worth 100 trillion Iron Bars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, broadly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 106,295 Iron Bars, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 442,603 per year while the poor average 16,687, a ratio of 26.5 to 1.

Cogitators and mass debaters are skiving off work to hang around the National Symposium Park, prisons are filled with the cackles and sobs of a deranged inmate population, it is said that a Thermopylaean woman's work is never done, and children crying over dropped ice creams are offered high doses of experimental antidepressants. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thermopylae's national animal is the Lernaean Hydra, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Thermopylae is ranked 12,575^th in the world and 1^st in Volkisch Sparta for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 11,432.73 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.