The People's Republic of Zarkona is a very large, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its parental licensing program, smutty television, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 357 million Zarkonans 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 enormous, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Esterabad. The average income tax rate is 87.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Zarkonan economy, worth 30.8 trillion dirhams a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Tourism, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 86,134 dirhams, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.9 times as much as the poorest.

Military strategists are questioning the wisdom of subsidizing the economies of sworn enemies, diplomats agree to the terms and conditions of peace treaties without reading them, relations with Dàguó have warmed from frosty to chilly, and school lunches are made with hypo-allergenic wood pulp. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zarkona's national animal is the fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Zarkona is ranked 279,304^th in the world and 25^th in Squeaky Squeakers for Largest Populations, with 357 million capita.