The Commonwealth of Hastur is a massive, safe nation, ruled by General Chaofrarc with an iron fist, and remarkable for its state-planned economy, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 2.786 billion Hasturians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Sraphport. The average income tax rate is 63.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but inefficient Hasturian economy, worth 104 trillion florins a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, fairly diversified black market in Information Technology, Retail, Furniture Restoration, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 37,492 florins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A small country is wondering where their capitol building's gold dome went, the Holy Office of the Inquisition is the highest court in the land, prolonged government investigations are a common revenge tactic among spurned spouses, and employers are finding it hard to screen candidates now that everyone gets A grades in their exams. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hastur's national animal is the turtle, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways.

Hastur is ranked 139,146^th in the world and 5^th in Gatehouse by the P2TM for Most Efficient Economies, scoring 33.19 on the Krugman-Greenspan Business Outlook Index.