The Commonwealth of Ruppelia is a massive, safe nation, ruled by Premier Tandri with an even hand, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, parental licensing program, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate population of 2.104 billion Ruppelians 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 Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Sungate. The average income tax rate is 93.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Ruppelian economy, worth 217 trillion ergocredits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Information Technology. Average income is an impressive 103,259 ergocredits, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Elderly citizens regularly buy posh multimillion-ergocredit mansions, shanty towns are forming in the suburbs of major cities, late night talk show hosts are having a field day over Premier Tandri's questionably sane new coalition partners, and nine out of ten citizens of Ruppelia answered 'nuclear safety inspector' when asked their occupation. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ruppelia's national animal is the Spinner Dolphin, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Antitheism.

Ruppelia is ranked 9,865^th in the world and 38^th in Refugia for Lowest Crime Rates, with 101.36 law-abiding acts per hour.