The Democratic Republic of Sao is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by Governor Murphy with an iron fist, and renowned for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The cynical population of 31.122 billion Saoans are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Law & Order, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Trenton. The average income tax rate is 66.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Saoan economy, worth 880 trillion principes a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Beef-Based Agriculture, Automobile Manufacturing, Arms Manufacturing, and Gambling. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 28,305 principes, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Governor Murphy's handshakes with opposition leaders usually lead to thumb wars, election ballot papers are so long that unused ones are recycled as toilet roll, baby dolls thrown in the trash are a leading cause of panic attacks, and town nameplates frequently raise giggles from passing tourists. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sao's national animal is the Sao Tome Grosbeak and its national religion is Judaism.

Sao is ranked 72,558^th in the world and 1^st in Another Galaxy for Safest, scoring 93.58 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.