The Republic of -Astoria- is a gargantuan, genial nation, renowned for its museums and concert halls, national health service, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 11.056 billion Astorians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 76.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Astorian economy, worth a remarkable 1,002 trillion livres a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Pizza Delivery. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 90,631 livres, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government tries to improve relations with hostile countries by sending gift baskets, a weakened police force struggles to maintain law and order, an online tea-bagging epidemic is getting worse and (meta)worse, and there has been a rapid increase of noise complaints over the sound of buzzing bees. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. -Astoria-'s national animal is the marten, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

-Astoria- is ranked 66,720^th in the world and 2^nd in Council of Constructed Languages for Most Extreme, scoring 28.1 on the Paul-Nader Subjective Decentrality Index.