The Borderlands of The Barren is a huge, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its rum-swilling pirates, frequent executions, and absence of drug laws. The hard-nosed, devout population of 694 million Barrenians enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The large, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Defense, and Environment. The average income tax rate is 44.9%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Barrenian economy, worth 17.5 trillion drops 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 black market in Tourism, Uranium Mining, Book Publishing, and Retail. 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 25,208 drops, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Ships no longer sail as no one wants to encounter Barrenian pirates, peace talks occasionally rack up a higher body count than the wars they seek to stop, international collectors know that a grease-stain on a work of art probably means it's passed through The Barren, and flight attendants rip down curtains with revolutionary fervor. Crime is totally unknown. The Barren's national animal is the dust worm, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

The Barren is ranked 167,660^th in the world and 36^th in the South Caribbean for Largest Basket Weaving Sector, scoring 1,429.57 on the Hickory Productivity Index.