The Allied States of ArkTech is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its public floggings, enslaved workforce, and aversion to nipples. The hard-nosed, hard-working, humorless, devout population of 5.993 billion ArkTechians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ark. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 72.9%.

The frighteningly efficient ArkTechian economy, worth 483 trillion dollars a year, is highly specialized and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Retail, Basket Weaving, and Gambling. Black market activity is extensive. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 80,652 dollars, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 364,570 per year while the poor average 10,967, a ratio of 33.2 to 1.

A milk bath costs more than bathing in money, illegal book-trafficking rings dominate the black market, ArkTech Barrier Island residents anxiously await their 'Bridge to Somewhere', and the ArkTech Automotive Racing Series draws millions of spectators annually while those near the tracks complain about the noise. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. ArkTech's national animal is the panther, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

ArkTech is ranked 31,244^th in the world and 1,949^th in Balder for Most Beautiful Environments, with 821.35 pounds of wildlife per square mile.