The Republic of Watai is a huge, efficient nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape and spontaneously combusting cars. The hard-working, democratic population of 590 million Watais are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The tiny, pro-business, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Law & Order. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 5.1%.

The very strong Wataian economy, worth 46.7 trillion iùns a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Gambling industry, with major contributions from Woodchip Exports, Basket Weaving, and Automobile Manufacturing. Average income is 79,167 iùns, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 278,335 per year while the poor average 16,317, a ratio of 17.1 to 1.

There has been a series of riots between local cannibals and health food advocates, voters are one of the nation's top imports, the native owl population is in permanent hibernation, and film studios own the rights to actors' likenesses until the next millennium. Crime, especially youth-related, is moderate, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Watai's national animal is the Watai alligator, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways.

Watai is ranked 282,497^th in the world and 1^st in Astris for Largest Black Market, with 61.0 billion Standard Monetary Units.