The Great Desert of Sigma Octavus is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by The Archon with an iron fist, and notable for its avant-garde cinema, prohibition of alcohol, and national health service. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 43.911 billion Sigmans are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Thresh. The income tax rate is 100%.

The all-consuming Sigman economy, worth an astonishing 19,407 trillion Sigs a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Uranium Mining industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 441,982 Sigs, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Official Sermon-Free Zones are set-up around the nation's hotels, when you fly on Air Sigma Octavus you win a seat or you die, an increasing number of citizens believe the world is flat, and hordes of gardening enthusiasts are being banished from cities nationwide. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sigma Octavus's national animal is the Sand Diver, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is nonexistent.

Sigma Octavus is ranked 313,931^st in the world and 12^th in The Vast for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -244 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.