The Hive City of Rho Ophiuchi is a titanic, efficient nation, ruled by Corporations with an even hand, and remarkable for its rum-swilling pirates, free-roaming dinosaurs, and infamous sell-swords. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, cheerful, devout population of 11.565 billion Rho Ophiuchians enjoy some of the most opulent lifestyles in the region, unless they are unemployed or working-class, in which case they are variously starving to death or crippled by easily preventable diseases.

The tiny, corrupt, pro-business government prioritizes Industry, with Defense, Education, and Administration also on the agenda, while Environment and Law & Order receive no funds. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Rho Ophiuchian economy, worth a remarkable 7,039 trillion Kilograms of Iron a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Arms Manufacturing, and Gambling. Average income is a breathtaking 608,706 Kilograms of Iron, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 5,180,978 per year while the poor average 12,719, a ratio of 407 to 1.

Rare ecosystems are being ground into profit at a record pace, construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway, corporations feel proud all year round, and environmental protestors are being rounded up and taken away in sinister black vans as a massive land development campaign gets underway. Crime, especially youth-related, is so common that it is unusual to encounter someone following the law, probably because of the absence of a police force. Rho Ophiuchi's national animal is the Rotifer, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Christianity.

Rho Ophiuchi is ranked 311,378^th in the world and 3,185^th in the Pacific for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring -48.37 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.