The Egalitarian Republic of Araine is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Ashton Thorne with a fair hand, and remarkable for its smutty television, complete lack of prisons, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.834 billion Araineans love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Vraisten. The average income tax rate is 80.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Arainean economy, worth 161 trillion Credits a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 88,231 Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Social media sites go into shutdown for days at a time to censor user content, surveillance cameras are banned, the carbon tax fund gladly supplies warm blankets when the poor can't pay their heating bills, and the new airport at Mr. Giles' farm is panicking his sheep. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Araine's national animal is the simien fox, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Agnosticism.

Araine is ranked 162,450^th in the world and 89^th in Refugia for Largest Mining Sector, scoring 137.94 on the Blue Sky Asbestos Index.