The Republic of New Derse is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Arch Minister Tiff with a fair hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 2.216 billion New Dersites are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Midnight City. The average income tax rate is 90.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming New Dersite economy, worth 249 trillion Boondollars a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 112,395 Boondollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Private pharmacies close down as medicinal drugs are given away freely by the government, eerie glow-in-the-dark cornfields give farmlands an uncanny appearance, the national guard is mobilized whenever a mother gets separated from her child at the mall, and Super Barry Brothers is the most popular video game in the nation. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. New Derse's national animal is the Panther, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

New Derse is ranked 164,220^th in the world and 3,584^th in The North Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 218.29 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.