The Holy Empire of Haropa is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, complete lack of prisons, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 622 million Haropans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Cadia. The average income tax rate is 53.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Haropan economy, worth 41.9 trillion Markers a year, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Automobile Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 67,341 Markers, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Children are terrified that the 'flying police monster' will come to take them away in the night, scientific journals publish third-graders' school essays, the children of Haropa are often remarked upon for their cheery attitude to extreme violence, and the nation's diplomats shake hands with those whose hands are drenched in the blood of innocents. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Haropa's national animal is the Octopus, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Haropa is ranked 68,784^th in the world and 1^st in East Indian Colonies for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 139.64 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.