The Social Darwinist Imperium of The Ascendant Hive is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Oryx the Taken King with an iron fist, and remarkable for its strictly enforced bedtime, keen interest in outer space, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 15.466 billion Ascendant Spawn are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The relatively small, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government is primarily concerned with Defense, although Law & Order, Industry, and Administration are also considered important, while Social Policy and Welfare are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ascendant Dreadnaught. The average income tax rate is 99.6%.

The frighteningly efficient Ascendant Brood economy, worth an astonishing 13,348 trillion Ascendant Runes 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 Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Retail. 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 a breathtaking 863,087 Ascendant Runes, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Authorities are looking for a stool pigeon to rat out who is stealing food from pigeon toilets, the nation's soldiers sleep four to a bed in order to use space economically, the nation's student exchange programs are something of a one way street, and Animal Liberationists are regularly arrested. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Ascendant Hive's national animal is the Ascendant Worm, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is the Sword-Logic.

The Ascendant Hive is ranked 76^th in the world and 4^th in the Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 1,769.39 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.