The Galactic Socialist Empire of The Dark Aether is a mammoth, efficient nation, ruled by Kortimex Exalor SD-N with an iron fist, and notable for its soft-spoken computers, prohibition of alcohol, and hatred of cheese. The compassionate, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 8.21 billion Aetherans are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, well-organized government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Der Eisendrache. The average income tax rate is 94.6%.

The frighteningly efficient Aetheran economy, worth a remarkable 1,146 trillion Aetheran Marks a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, extremely specialized black market in Information Technology. 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 139,622 Aetheran Marks, with the richest citizens earning 5.2 times as much as the poorest.

Hotels often double as quarantine zones, television executives are interested in turning Kortimex Exalor SD-N's zany home life into a sitcom, the nation's diplomats shake hands with those whose hands are drenched in the blood of innocents, and sushi is sold on the black market. Crime is all-pervasive, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. The Dark Aether's national animal is the Cosmic Fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Umbrism.

The Dark Aether is ranked 570^th in the world and 1^st in United Kingdom for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 18,891 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.