The Empire of Zapazhia is a mid-sized, orderly nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical population of 79 million Zapazhians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. The average income tax rate is 62.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Zapazhian economy, worth 902 billion Glimmers a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is dominated by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Basket Weaving, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 11,421 Glimmers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

College students make ends meet by selling their kidneys, defense lawyers suggestively note to juries how flagrantly happy victims were, military spending is on the increase, and counselors have to sign pledges supporting gay rights before they can speak to any patients. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Zapazhia's national animal is the Siberisk Eagle.

Zapazhia is ranked 254,222^nd in the world and 12^th in Chordis for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -8 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.