The Grand Duchy of Hardiesia is a small, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service and infamous sell-swords. The hard-working, cynical population of 29 million Hardiesians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. The average income tax rate is 41.7%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Hardiesian economy, worth 1.45 trillion hardis a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Retail. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 49,867 hardis, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.0 times as much as the poorest.

Things are looking up for patients accidentally prescribed erectile dysfunction medication, collisions between bicycles and carnival floats are on the rise, teenagers claim that morning paper rounds are performance art, and creating dance remixes is the newest form of conspicuous consumption. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hardiesia's national animal is the Cat, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities.

Hardiesia is ranked 146,561^st in the world and 42^nd in Ridgefield for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring 802.35 on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.