The Badlands of Fauias is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by The High Duke of the Arctic with an even hand, and renowned for its deadly medical pandemics, ubiquitous missile silos, and fear of technology. The hard-nosed, humorless, devout population of 8.836 billion Fauians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt morass — juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Qikiqtarjuaq. The average income tax rate is 85.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Fauiasian economy, worth 730 trillion Sovereigns 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Pizza Delivery. 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 82,724 Sovereigns, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Community organizers have given up going door to door because nobody is home, confessions don't count if suffixed with "izzle", nuclear physics is the most popular course at university, and legislators must raise their hands if they want to speak. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Fauias's national animal is the Thunderbird, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Fauias is ranked 285,237^th in the world and 23^rd in Safan for Highest Food Quality, scoring 4.72 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.