The Democratic Free Republic of Karlando is a titanic, socially progressive nation, ruled by Karl McSwansson with an even hand, and remarkable for its daily referendums, restrictive gun laws, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cheerful population of 22.621 billion Karlandonians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Karlandonia City. The average income tax rate is 98.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Karlandonan economy, worth a remarkable 4,300 trillion Krawas a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Tourism. Average income is an impressive 190,124 Krawas, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, modelling agencies send their clients to work in nursing homes, museums stand half-empty as all foreign exhibits are returned to their countries of origin, and the government single-handedly sustains the bunk bed market. Crime is totally unknown. Karlando's national animal is the Swan, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Swanism.

Karlando is ranked 3,490^th in the world and 58^th in 10000 Islands for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 659.32 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.