The Federal Republic of Asterborne is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Franz with a fair hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, otherworldly petting zoo, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.238 billion Asterborneans are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The medium-sized, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Northford. The average income tax rate is 75.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Asterbornean economy, worth 165 trillion dollars a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 133,964 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Political detractors refer to Franz as 'that Bigtopian puppet', the nation's counterintelligence budget is all up in the air, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal, and tax returns detail how many games of slots each citizen will be able to play with their refund. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Asterborne's national animal is the tamaraw, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Asterborne is ranked 13,979^th in the world and 307^th in The East Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 342.52 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.