The People's Republic of HS Astaria is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, public floggings, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, democratic, devout population of 295 million HS Astarians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Education, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 49.1%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish HS Astarian economy, worth 6.85 trillion credits 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, Trout Farming, and Cheese Exports. 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 23,208 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

International trade can be a pain to deal with, consumption of cat memes has skyrocketed, no suburban lawn is complete without barbed wire and landmines, and government employees from HS Astaria dominate international lumberjack competitions. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. HS Astaria's national animal is the unicorn, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

HS Astaria is ranked 185,991^st in the world and 2^nd in HS Hermits for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 1,198.72 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.