The Empire of THE Ash is a mid-sized, cultured nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, fear of technology, and pith helmet sales. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic, devout population of 95 million Ashians have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Welfare, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 25.1%.

The strong Ashian economy, worth 4.92 trillion Dirhams a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Uranium Mining industry, with major contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 51,777 Dirhams, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.3 times as much as the poorest.

Maxtopian tourists make expensive pilgrimages to THE Ash City to enjoy their national art, Brasilistanis face layers of paperwork in a different language just to visit a doctor, the education system is famed for its taxing exams, and the New Ashian Thesaurus lists "love" and "oppress" as synonyms. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. THE Ash's national animal is the Panther, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

THE Ash is ranked 205,259^th in the world and 46^th in Ensio for Most Corrupt Governments, with 2.9 kickbacks per hour.