The Dominion of Bardo is a titanic, orderly nation, ruled by The Shepherd with an iron fist, and remarkable for its closed borders, compulsory vegetarianism, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 13.218 billion Bardoans 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 Law & Order, Industry, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Sanctum. The average income tax rate is 95.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Bardoan economy, worth a remarkable 5,174 trillion utopis a year, is broadly diversified and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Information Technology, Retail, Uranium Mining, and Woodchip Exports. Average income is an amazing 391,453 utopis, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 1,309,412 per year while the poor average 86,989, a ratio of 15.1 to 1.

Genocide is seen as a topic best avoided in history lessons, ancestry test results arrive bundled with patent applications, prime real estate is devoted to wind farms and solar energy generators, and unused plastic recycling bins are being dumped into landfills by the tonne. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bardo's national animal is the crystal giant, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Second Dawn.

Bardo is ranked 1,037^th in the world and 1^st in Alvarez for Largest Black Market, with 8,014 trillion Standard Monetary Units.