The Night-Watchman State of Barchadi is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Emperor Friedrich De Horche with an iron fist, and remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, public floggings, and avant-garde cinema. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 16.874 billion Barchadians 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 large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Danbruche. The average income tax rate is 99.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Barchadian economy, worth a remarkable 7,022 trillion Squables 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, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Woodchip 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 an amazing 416,147 Squables, with the richest citizens earning 5.5 times as much as the poorest.

Light entertainment shows are light on actual entertainment, workers' complaints never reach central planning, newborns are being raised as mindless killing machines, and Emperor Friedrich De Horche's new office has a propensity to catch on fire. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Barchadi's national animal is the Beaver, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is The Church of The True Emperor.

Barchadi is ranked 423^rd in the world and 1^st in Knights of The Templar Order for Lowest Crime Rates, with 206.53 law-abiding acts per hour.