The Dark Void empire of Hellkan is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Emperor Balthazar with an iron fist, and notable for its state-planned economy, smutty television, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 10.362 billion Subjects 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, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nova Cassia. The average income tax rate is 48.6%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Hellkanian economy, worth a remarkable 2,400 trillion Platinums 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, fairly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, 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 an amazing 231,617 Platinums, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Any body part that can be cut off a person is no longer considered to be their property, physics lessons mostly involve talking about emotional management techniques, Moby Dick can only be sold by pornographers, and international tensions are high as Hellkan threatens any government with the audacity to arrest its citizens. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hellkan's national animal is the Dark Vestige, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Cult of Darkness.

Hellkan is ranked 14,055^th in the world and 35^th in The League for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 341.32 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.