The Free Land of Duskari is a small, safe nation, renowned for its sprawling nuclear power plants, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cynical population of 40 million Duskari are ruled with an iron fist by the socialist government, which grants its people the freedom to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't involve getting richer than anybody else or challenging the government.

The enormous, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 74.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The imploded Duskarian economy, worth 306 billion Bits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Trout Farming, Tourism, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 7,657 Bits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Leader is called 'Patches' at international summits, officials pull all-nighters to check immigrants for potential links to terrorists, factories place endangered birds in their rafters in pursuit of government protections, and nations that kill a Duskarian can expect a strongly worded letter. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Duskari's national animal is the Cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Duskari is ranked 20,271^st in the world and 366^th in The Leftist Assembly for Nicest Citizens, with 22.81 average smiles per day.