The Empire of Bathera is a titanic, cultured nation, ruled by Grand Baron Elam Ol'ced IX with an even hand, and remarkable for its daily referendums, frequent executions, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, humorless, devout population of 20.381 billion Batherans are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The relatively small, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bathera City. The average income tax rate is 37.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Batheran economy, worth a remarkable 4,707 trillion Baht a year, is quite specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Information Technology, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 230,977 Baht, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.3 times as much as the poorest.

Children who can't memorize their multiplication tables are sent to the mines, cash-strapped Batherans scour their bodies for fortuitous zits, boys are shocked by the revolutionary lesson that women are actually human, and wildlife near farms is slowly becoming extinct. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bathera's national animal is the Bat, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Techno-Puritanism.

Bathera is ranked 509^th in the world and 21^st in Europe for Most Developed, scoring 99.14 on the Human Development Index.