The Dictatorship of El Vangardia is a very large, safe nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service and irreverence towards religion. The cynical population of 166 million El Vangardians 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 medium-sized, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 32.6%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The El Vangardian economy, worth 7.48 trillion Kores a year, is dominated by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Furniture Restoration, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 45,037 Kores, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The El Vangardian delegation to the World Assembly is having a hard time convincing people that international law will "pay for itself somehow...", the wearing and manufacture of fur apparel is banned, mining safety laws are often more expensive than what's being mined, and police officers that upset their bosses get assigned to 24 hour stakeouts of bike sheds. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. El Vangardia's national animal is the Anglerfish .

El Vangardia is ranked 239,616^th in the world and 9,511^th in the South Pacific for Smartest Citizens, with 5.72 quips per hour.