The Borderlands of New Petra is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Ali Oseram with a fair hand, and notable for its rampant corporate plagiarism, daily referendums, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.771 billion New Petrans 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.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass — juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Free Heap. The average income tax rate is 75.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse New Petran economy, worth 103 trillion dollars a year, is highly specialized and led by the Uranium Mining industry, with major contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 58,592 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government regularly reassures citizens that there are no monsters under their beds, referenda are held for every conceivable government action, students and teachers are regularly stopped and searched for symbols of religious affiliation before class, and orphans would rather live their life of luxury than be adopted by prospective parents. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. New Petra's national animal is the owl, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

New Petra is ranked 109,270^th in the world and 489^th in Europe for Most Extreme, scoring 18.47 on the Paul-Nader Subjective Decentrality Index.