The Republic of Zakiel is a huge, efficient nation, notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, irreverence towards religion, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 872 million Zakielians are either ruled by a sleek, efficient government or a conglomerate of multinational corporations; it's difficult to tell which.

The relatively small, pro-business government is primarily concerned with Defense, although Education, Law & Order, and Administration are also considered important, while International Aid and Welfare are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Mian. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 8.7%.

The very strong Zakielian economy, worth 53.4 trillion National Default Credits a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Beef-Based Agriculture, Book Publishing, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 61,263 National Default Credits, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 265,277 per year while the poor average 8,991, a ratio of 29.5 to 1.

Court cases mostly involve lawyers shouting questions at witnesses giving silent shrugs, airplane passenger seat sizes and ticket prices are both first-class, economists confusingly list "fusarium rot and leaf blight" as major risk factors for monetary deflation, and streaming video is considered to be a myth by most citizens. Crime is moderate. Zakiel's national animal is the Dragon, which can occasionally be seen dodging aircraft in the nation's cities.

Zakiel is ranked 220,447^th in the world and 10^th in Yelzar for Safest, scoring 50.02 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.