Location: Stargate

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Alterans of Apaelas is a massive, safe nation, ruled by Captain Geretier with an even hand, and remarkable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate population of 4.958 billion are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, the Environment, and Religion & Spirituality. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Caelestia. The average income tax rate is 92%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

The minority inevitably have their addenda vetoed, CEOs can't hear the term 'Fire Sale' without bursting into tears, the government extracts trade concessions from poor nations in exchange for humanitarian aid, and midnight pizza breaks are common among the work-from-home population. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Apaelas's national animal is the unascended being, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is Ascension, and its currency is the obscure ancient device.

Apaelas is ranked 64th in Stargate and 95,391st in the world for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -5 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and