The Galactic Empire of Flarbinia is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Grand Emperor Vladimir Novgorod IV with an even hand, and notable for its daily referendums, public floggings, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 31.376 billion Flarbinians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The tiny, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Deroth Ungol. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Flarbinian economy, worth an astonishing 21,768 trillion Shark'towels a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Retail, and Uranium Mining. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are common. Average income is a breathtaking 693,786 Shark'towels, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

Modelling agencies send their clients to work in nursing homes, lifelong celibates are surprised to receive government-issue condoms in the post, 100-year-old politicians are now a thing of the past, and no animal is considered endangered if there's another that looks kind of like it. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Flarbinia's national animal is the Hellhound, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Church Of Crulmoxius.

Flarbinia is ranked 175,460^th in the world and 6,719^th in Lazarus for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 141.21 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.