The Metempsychotic Emirate of Houran is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Shuayb al-Khairi with an iron fist, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, pith helmet sales, and free-roaming dinosaurs. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 8.124 billion Druze are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Romtha. The average income tax rate is 70.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Druze economy, worth a remarkable 1,608 trillion lire 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 black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Woodchip Exports. 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 an impressive 197,946 lire, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Citizens are expected to be proficient in at least five languages, only AIs know why the nation is rapidly increasing its semiconductor stockpile, the aphorism "there's no need to argue" has been dismissed by Druze, and mining safety laws are often more expensive than what's being mined. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Houran's national animal is the caracal, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Druze.

Houran is ranked 286,060^th in the world and 43^rd in Pecan Sandies for Highest Food Quality, scoring 4.6 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.