The Grand Imperial Republic of Aarman is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Emperor Shane I with an even hand, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 3.279 billion Aarmanians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Shandria. The average income tax rate is 73.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Aarmanian economy, worth 187 trillion aureuses a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 57,081 aureuses, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Private pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are given away freely by the government, the new Refuse Hills housing development is under construction, when flight control tells pilots to alter course the usual reply is "No, YOU move!", and earthquake sirens are a leading cause of hearing loss. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Aarman's national animal is the sheep, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Aarman is ranked 212,238^th in the world and 203^rd in The Union of Democratic States for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -3.07 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.