The Protectorate of Spice Harvester 398 is a colossal, orderly nation, renowned for its strictly enforced bedtime, frequent executions, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 8.456 billion Spice Harvester 398ians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Industry, and Law & Order. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 69.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Spice Harvester 398ian economy, worth 663 trillion spices a year, is quite specialized and led by the Retail industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Arms Manufacturing, and Information Technology. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 78,454 spices, with the richest citizens earning 7.8 times as much as the poorest.

The leaders of Spice Harvester 398 are given the nod by their predecessors, the national anthem is a rather effective sleeping aid, slavers view "what did your last slave die of" as a request for a demonstration, and the name of the "Butcher of Bigtopia" adorns shirts across Spice Harvester 398. Crime is a problem, possibly because it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many regulations. Spice Harvester 398's national animal is the sandworm, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Spice Harvester 398 is ranked 257,480^th in the world and 1,142^nd in Jihad Army of the Emperor for Lowest Crime Rates, with 47.68 law-abiding acts per hour.