The United Socialist States of Peratia is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by Chairman Delque Isnyem with an even hand, and renowned for its national health service, frequent executions, and public floggings. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 23.278 billion Peratians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, socially-minded morass — prioritizes Law & Order, with Administration, Industry, and Defense also on the agenda, while International Aid and Public Transport are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ch'tulash. The average income tax rate is 90.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Peratian economy, worth a remarkable 2,345 trillion Choels 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 large, well-organized, highly specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. 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 an impressive 100,753 Choels, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government defends a woman's right to choose, resident physicians are said to have a silver scalpel in their hands, government workers are more efficient and more unhappy than ever, and every day is laundry day. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Peratia's national animal is the devil frog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Peratia is ranked 31,069^th in the world and 10^th in St Abbaddon for Most Cultured, scoring 78 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.