The People's Ascendency of Svarte Tarnet is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Superintendent Karenina Keiserinne with an iron fist, and notable for its unlimited-speed roads, strictly enforced bedtime, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 6.727 billion Tarts are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Haute Colline. The average income tax rate is 91.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Tartian economy, worth 514 trillion soieries a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Retail, and Soda Sales. Average income is 76,548 soieries, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Spoiler warnings are now given out before political speeches, businesses are abandoning the city centre because of the lack of transport connections, childhood friends of Superintendent Karenina Keiserinne are living it large abroad at the taxpayers' expense, and the men in trenchcoats hanging around playgrounds are actually police officers. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Svarte Tarnet's national animal is the pine marten, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Svarte Tarnet is ranked 7,853^rd in the world and 122^nd in Europe for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 12,195.47 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.