The Dark Sun Empire of Varhemia is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Empress Ocultia with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, soft-spoken computers, and keen interest in outer space. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 8.765 billion Varhemians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dust City. The average income tax rate is 91.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Varhemian economy, worth 966 trillion Varns a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Tourism. Average income is an impressive 110,249 Varns, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Tax revenue is often intercepted by international accountants before ever seeing the national treasury, the nation's infamous boot camp is more brutal than most battlefields, trade policy consists of ganging up on the new guy, and the poor are often seen pale and dizzy after selling their blood to make ends meet. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Varhemia's national animal is the Sparrow, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Universal Paganism.

Varhemia is ranked 9,761^st in the world and 230^th in The East Pacific for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 11,315 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.