The Department of Hautes-Pyrenees is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Michel Pelieu with an even hand, and remarkable for its compulsory military service, keen interest in outer space, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, hard-working, devout population of 20.053 billion Bigourdans are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Spirituality, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Tarbes. The average income tax rate is 18.3%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The Bigourdan economy, worth 920 trillion francs a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Information Technology. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 45,914 francs, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.0 times as much as the poorest.

The government-sponsored autobiography 'A Michel Pelieu For All Seasons' has only been bought by the most loyal of Michel Pelieu's supporters, nobody likes bad boys any more, the optimally efficient parking strategy for business commuters is referred to as the "traveling salesman problem", and police are trained in using their steel-capped boots as a tool of law enforcement. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force. Hautes-Pyrenees's national animal is the lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Hautes-Pyrenees is ranked 198,099^th in the world and 57^th in Department Store for Highest Average Incomes, with 45,914.45 Standard Monetary Units.