The Republic of Hartlan is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, notable for its vat-grown people, keen interest in outer space, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.758 billion Hartlanians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Leopard City. The average income tax rate is 76.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Hartlanian economy, worth 292 trillion dollars a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an impressive 166,432 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Preschools put children down for naps with milk, cookies, and a gruesome story of vengeance, executions are marked by quiet dignity and maybe a final round or two of whist, kids these days know how to throw a proper punch, and foreign nations kill migratory animals at random in the hope that Hartlan will pay them to stop. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Hartlan's national animal is the leopard, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Hartlan is ranked 5,941^st in the world and 94^th in the Rejected Realms for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 521.34 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.