The Holy Empire of Pogaria is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Emperor Emmanuel with a fair hand, and notable for its national health service, anti-smoking policies, and hatred of cheese. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 39.2 billion Pogarians 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.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dominion. The income tax rate is 100%.

The enormous but underdeveloped Pogarian economy, worth a remarkable 3,442 trillion kosses a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector is solely comprised of the Book Publishing industry. Average income is 87,807 kosses, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The law says that all Pogarians are created equal — no matter how they were created, burning yourself alive is not okay but starving and whipping yourself is fine, the best-of-the-best athletes have been replaced by the best-of-the-mediocre, and the beauty of coastal towns is marred only slightly by all the closed-down storefronts. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Pogaria's national animal is the phoenix, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Truthism.

Pogaria is ranked 145,278^th in the world and 3^rd in The Empire for Largest Black Market, with 153 billion Standard Monetary Units.