The Commonwealth of Astra Prime is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by Lance Hornsby with an iron fist, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, ubiquitous missile silos, and infamous sell-swords. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 11.439 billion Astrans 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 relatively small, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Alexandria. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 1.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Astra Primean economy, worth a remarkable 4,051 trillion gold coins a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, and Soda Sales. Black market activity is frequent. Average income is an amazing 354,216 gold coins, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 1,364,516 per year while the poor average 63,245, a ratio of 21.6 to 1.

The end of autumn is celebrated with a bonfire of designer bags, warfare increasingly resembles a video game, party leaders rely on horoscopes to create "ticket balance", and not even adulthood can save you from truant officers. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Astra Prime's national animal is the sea dragon, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Talos.

Astra Prime is ranked 114,572^nd in the world and 1,014^th in the West Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 1,344.53 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.