The Empire of Maister is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its frequent executions, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The cynical, devout population of 288 million Masters 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, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Spirituality. The average income tax rate is 63.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Master economy, worth 13.3 trillion dominis a year, is quite specialized and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 46,114 dominis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Police spend their Saturday nights breaking up illegal street races, sleeping on the job is recommended, pocket calculators are seen as status symbols for the ostentatiously wealthy, and administrative districts are increasingly defined by their taste in housing architecture. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Maister's national animal is the wingless flying hippo, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Maister is ranked 150,096^th in the world and 1,025^th in Europe for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 65.83 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.