The Commonwealth of Astra Prime is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Lance Hornsby with an iron fist, and notable for its museums and concert halls, barren, inhospitable landscape, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical, cheerful population of 6.321 billion Astrans are proud of their wide-ranging civil freedoms, and those who aren't tend to be dragged off the streets by men in dark suits and hustled into cars with tinted windows.

The relatively small, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Alexandria. The average income tax rate is 28.6%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Astra Primean economy, worth a remarkable 1,712 trillion gold coins a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Soda Sales. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an amazing 270,877 gold coins, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Geosynchronous satellites are now manned by unpaid interns, many believe that the only good sea dragon is a dead sea dragon, Lance Hornsby has been seen stealthily slicing fifths off bread loaves, and the nation is infamous for its mass graves of discarded robots. Crime is totally unknown. Astra Prime's national animal is the sea dragon, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Talos.

Astra Prime is ranked 68,216^th in the world and 829^th in the West Pacific for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 3,497.39 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.