Location: Balder

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Holy Republic of Askadar is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Toril Maelstrom with a fair hand, and notable for its keen interest in outer space. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 8.124 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, the Environment, and Social Welfare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Askalopolis. The average income tax rate is 95%. 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.

Abortion is only legal in unusual circumstances, CEOs can't hear the term 'Fire Sale' without bursting into tears, the airship business has been driven out of the country by strict regulations and high fines, and the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Askadar's national animal is the white six-winged eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Sol.

Askadar is ranked 152nd in Balder and 4,733rd in the world for Largest Public Sector, scoring 27 on the Bureaucratic Comprehensiveness Rating Scale Index.

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and