The Empire of Lacard 18 is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its lack of airports, hatred of cheese, and stringent health and safety legislation. The devout population of 2.148 billion Lacard 18ians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 66.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Lacard 18ian economy, worth 68.2 trillion kronor 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 a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Beef-Based Agriculture, Information Technology, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. 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 31,766 kronor, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Most fires are already out by the time the bucket brigade gets to them, wildlife near farms is slowly becoming extinct, Red Cross demand for body bags is rising while sutures go unused, and 13-year-old internet trolls are treated as a threat on par with terrorists. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lacard 18's national animal is the sheep, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Lacard 18 is ranked 215,475^th in the world and 1,623^rd in the Rejected Realms for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 47.76 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.