The Despotism of Altekea is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Director Bolson with an even hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, anti-smoking policies, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, humorless population of 12.429 billion Alteks are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social and economic equality; they tend to view other countries as corrupted by the hollow pageantry of sham elections.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Shiloh. The average income tax rate is 99.8%.

The enormous but inefficient Altekean economy, worth a remarkable 1,263 trillion Palanoes a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 101,667 Palanoes, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.9 times as much as the poorest.

Estate agents justify funky smells by revealing how often the previous owners showered, funny-looking kids are stood at the front of the classroom for everybody to point and laugh at, advanced mathematics books explain how two plus two equals five, and teenage boys are raving about how the latest AI assistant sounds exactly like a sexy movie star. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Altekea's national animal is the Kodiak Bear, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Sumerism.

Altekea is ranked 53,607^th in the world and 25^th in Kantrias for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 172.9 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.