The Empire of Shadowstorm 98 is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by The Dark Creator with an iron fist, and remarkable for its compulsory military service, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and enforced nudity. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 24.776 billion demons 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 relatively small, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Ninth Realm. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 18.8%.

The very strong corrupt economy, worth a remarkable 1,850 trillion slaves a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Woodchip Exports, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 74,701 slaves, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 222,113 per year while the poor average 19,697, a ratio of 11.3 to 1.

The state has declared war on the environment and environmentalists by association, traffic jams are a common sight due to construction work from a massive overhaul of the nation's freeways, crooks and people with too many kids are being kicked out of the country, and The Dark Creator has been self-declared as the Most Supreme Magnificent Overlord of Everything You Ever Saw. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force. Shadowstorm 98's national animal is the abyssal wyvern, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Shadowstorm 98 is ranked 140,537^th in the world and 6^th in The Geometrix for Lowest Crime Rates, with 62.94 law-abiding acts per hour.