The Republic of Altazaro is a colossal, orderly nation, ruled by Grandmaster Ishamael with an iron fist, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, avant-garde cinema, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 8.642 billion Altazaroans are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ro'hadan. The average income tax rate is 91.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Altazaroan economy, worth a remarkable 2,112 trillion salots a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, broadly diversified black market in Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Basket Weaving. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an amazing 244,418 salots, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.4 times as much as the poorest.

The banhammer is a standard police sidearm, there's nothing special about Grandmaster Ishamael, Blueriver mercenaries routinely do the army's dirty work, and Grandmaster Ishamael is too busy listening to praise to get any work done. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Altazaro's national animal is the tawny elephant-wolf, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Forsakenism.

Altazaro is ranked 270,422^nd in the world and 269^th in The Land of Kings and Emperors for Most Primitive, scoring -243.33 on the Scary Big Number Scale.