The Armed Republic of Laeris is a small, safe nation, remarkable for its parental licensing program, irreverence towards religion, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 40 million Laerisians are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

The medium-sized, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 26.4%.

The very strong Laerisian economy, worth 2.34 trillion golds a year, is led by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Automobile Manufacturing. Average income is 58,609 golds, with the richest citizens earning 7.8 times as much as the poorest.

Garden stores are not allowed to sell water butts, meetings involving club finances are frequently broken up by men in black suits, only the brainiest citizens become academics, and the police have been known to wiretap confessional boxes. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force. Laeris's national animal is the jew, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Laeris is ranked 206,415^th in the world and 67^th in The Invaders for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring -2.05 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.