The Ur-Quan Masters of Hesperonis is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Lord 353 with an iron fist, and renowned for its infamous sell-swords, zero percent divorce rate, and sprawling nuclear power plants. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, cheerful population of 44.178 billion Ur-Quans are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The minute, corrupt, pro-business, well-organized government, or what there is of one, is effectively ruled by the Department of Defense, although Industry is also considered important, while Social Policy and Welfare are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Delta Crateris V. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Hesperonisian economy, worth an astonishing 28,660 trillion Sa-Matras a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Retail, Soda Sales, and Gambling. Average income is a breathtaking 648,747 Sa-Matras, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 2,337,588 per year while the poor average 128,745, a ratio of 18.2 to 1.

New mothers can pay for their weekly grocery shop with a bottle of breast milk, tantrum-throwing toddlers are regularly imprisoned on assault charges, military pilots spend more time scraping feathers off their engines than flying their aircraft, and confused-looking pigeons slide gently off frictionless window ledges. Crime, especially youth-related, is so common that it is unusual to encounter someone following the law, probably because of the absence of a police force. Hesperonis's national animal is the Dnyarri, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Path of Now and Forever.

Hesperonis is ranked 287,080^th in the world and 11,140^th in Lazarus for Highest Foreign Aid Spending, scoring -87.18 on the Clooney Contribution Index.