The People's Republic of Zarkona is a very large, genial nation, remarkable for its lack of airports, absence of drug laws, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 479 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, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Esterabad. The average income tax rate is 92.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The very strong Zarkonan economy, worth 45.6 trillion rubles 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, highly specialized black market in Information Technology, Trout Farming, Arms Manufacturing, and Tourism. 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 95,142 rubles, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.4 times as much as the poorest.

People take government jobs for the frequent flier miles, heirs who take too long in the bathroom are declared missing and presumed dead, elderly citizens regularly buy posh multimillion-ruble mansions, and drill sergeants yell in the ears of bespectacled nerds in cybermilitary "reboot camps". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very 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 38,277^th in the world and 5^th in Squeaky Squeakers for Most Advanced Law Enforcement, scoring 6,276.82 on the Orwell Orderliness Index.