The Commonwealth of New Varchi is a massive, safe nation, ruled by Rory Doo with a fair hand, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 4.092 billion New Varchians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nova Animalia. The average income tax rate is 84.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong New Varchian economy, worth 255 trillion Paws a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Pizza Delivery and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 62,476 Paws, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The consent form for routine blood pressure measurement has been nominated for the 'Novel Of The Year' award, national park visitors are reporting a rash of poison ivy sightings, factories grind to a halt every time there is an election, and companies struggle to cover for the hordes of employees on parental leave. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. New Varchi's national animal is the Bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

New Varchi is ranked 32,615^th in the world and 524^th in The Communist Bloc for Lowest Crime Rates, with 81.22 law-abiding acts per hour.