The Social Democratic Dominion of Hopal is a titanic, genial nation, ruled by Prime Minister Ollie Hendricks with an even hand, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, smutty television, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate population of 13.733 billion Hopalians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Administration, Healthcare, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hopton. The average income tax rate is 93.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Hopalian economy, worth a remarkable 1,395 trillion Currents a year, is highly specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 101,600 Currents, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Foreign workers are flooding in as Currents flood out, the government is funding experimental battery technology while the power grid continues to crumble, cutting-edge missile systems are being retrofitted to twin-prop air force biplanes, and old fossils give the tours at the parliamentary museum. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hopal's national animal is the Elephant, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Hopal is ranked 305,370^th in the world and 4^th in Union of Democrats for Largest Arms Manufacturing Sector, scoring -19.48 on the Charon Conveyancy Index.