The Republic of Lys Ardh is a titanic, safe nation, renowned for its soft-spoken computers, state-planned economy, and restrictive gun laws. The cynical population of 20.854 billion Lys Ardhians 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, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. The average income tax rate is 20.2%.

The Lys Ardhian economy, worth a remarkable 1,149 trillion $$s a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, fairly diversified black market in Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, Cheese Exports, and Furniture Restoration. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 55,104 $$s, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.9 times as much as the poorest.

The "feminist protest" defence is increasingly common for cases of armed robbery, aides are afraid to ask if Leader wants a cup of tea or coffee, commuters are denied boarding for attempting to bring packed lunches onto trains, and fans doing the wave routinely disrupt the finals of Go tournaments. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lys Ardh's national animal is the Death's-head Hawkmoth, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Lys Ardh is ranked 176,192^nd in the world and 1^st in The Lizard for Most Developed, scoring 54.3 on the Human Development Index.