The Ryder Trust is a sovereign nation-state hidden within a 50,000-acre series of volcanic grabens in Wyoming's Absaroka Mountains, founded in 1289 CE by Baltic Kuršu refugees fleeing the Northern Crusades. Formally recognized as an independent nation by the United States via an 1806 treaty, it presents itself to the outside world as an intensely reclusive but exceptionally successful cattle ranch, while secretly operating as the seat of a global industrial and financial empire encompassing logistics, manufacturing, athletics, and more.