The Republic of Zakhoren is a titanic, orderly nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, deadly medical pandemics, and public floggings. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 10.784 billion Zakhorenians 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 enormous, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Industry, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Zakhoren City. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 76.0%.

The frighteningly efficient Zakhorenian economy, worth a remarkable 1,544 trillion Koronas a year, is quite specialized and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Retail, Pizza Delivery, Uranium Mining, and Furniture Restoration. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 143,252 Koronas, with the richest citizens earning 5.9 times as much as the poorest.

No one is worried about government policies any more, gossip magazines are more interested in astrological stars than celebrity ones, veterans are directed into environmental cleanup operations, and gambling addicts regularly lose their families' nest eggs at Native Zakhorenian casinos. Crime, especially youth-related, is almost non-existent, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zakhoren's national animal is the Wasp, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Zakhoren is ranked 305,659^th in the world and 21^st in Sonnel for Most Cultured, scoring 33 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.