Location: Grand Alliance

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Consortium of Asfaltum is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by The Grand Master with an iron fist, and renowned for its complete lack of public education. Its compassionate, hard-working, cynical population of 8.764 billion 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 government stops and the rest of society begins, but it devotes most of its attentions to Defence, with areas such as the Environment and Public Transport receiving almost no funds by comparison. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Storm Fleet Headquarters. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 47%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Arms Manufacturing and Book Publishing.

Crime suspects are forced to submit to blood testing, the government regularly hires contractors to construct high rise apartments, students abandon classrooms for online education, and birds and children's kites are regularly brought down by anti-aircraft fire. Crime is a problem. Asfaltum's national animal is the Raven, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the Astrocredit.

Asfaltum is ranked 4th in Grand Alliance and 74,751st in the world for Best Weather, with -23 Metres of Sunlight Above Expected.

Preview

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and