The Federal Republic of Lion523 is a very large, safe nation, renowned for its lack of airports, national health service, and infamous sell-swords. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 392 million Lion523ians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 51.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Lion523ian economy, worth 22.3 trillion catnips 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 slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Tourism, and Automobile Manufacturing. 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 56,864 catnips, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

CSI Forest is this year's hit new crime show, saying that someone looks a bit pale can be construed as hate speech, a law degree is required before telling people not to drink and drive, and children's TV shows are having a gay old time. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lion523's national animal is the Meowing Cats, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Lion523 is ranked 299,491^st in the world and 18^th in Stubby Toe for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -11.88 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.