The Federation of Bardaevia is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its daily referendums and compulsory military service. The hard-working population of 545 million Bardaevs 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 medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 20.8%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The Bardaevian economy, worth 30.9 trillion Freedom Dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Beef-Based Agriculture, Uranium Mining, and Information Technology. Average income is 56,608 Freedom Dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.6 times as much as the poorest.

Endangered species are effective hostages against the Bardaevian military, environmentalists are advocating slash-and-burn in the nation's forests, the importance of winning Olympic gold medals is indoctrinated from an early age, and it's a long jump to get onto the housing ladder. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bardaevia's national animal is the Steller's Sea Eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Bardaevia is ranked 142,745^th in the world and 36^th in Audinesca for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 76.81 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.