The Empire of House Tarkin is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its public floggings, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 673 million House Tarkinians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Defense, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 56.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The House Tarkinian economy, worth 34.5 trillion Credits a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Furniture Restoration. Black market activity is notable. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 51,227 Credits, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.1 times as much as the poorest.

Cinemas play art-house movies to ever-shrinking audiences as film critics rule the industry, truancy officers have a hard time catching children trained in advanced camouflage skills, the new one Credit coin also makes a handy throwing-star, and the nation's first space rocket -- sponsored by Eckie-Ecola and shaped like an enormous soda bottle -- is being developed. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. House Tarkin's national animal is the Falcon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

House Tarkin is ranked 39,885^th in the world and 83^rd in Fifth Empire for Most Cultured, scoring 75 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.