The Republic of Stone Vanguard is a huge, orderly nation, renowned for its disturbing lack of elderly people, smutty television, and enslaved workforce. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 706 million Stone Vanguardians 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, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 34.8%.

The powerhouse Stone Vanguardian economy, worth 59.6 trillion Monies a year, is fairly diversified and dominated by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Cheese Exports, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Black market activity is extensive. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 84,381 Monies, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 291,990 per year while the poor average 17,818, a ratio of 16.4 to 1.

Lawyers turn down litigation cases and corporate work in order to focus on lucrative public defence work, victims of limb-mauling industrial accidents are told to keep working with their remaining hand, nature magazines featuring stick insects on their covers are sometimes mistaken for fashion magazines, and concert halls sport signs proclaiming "No Shorts, Sandals or Swastikas". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Stone Vanguard's national animal is the Card, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Stone Vanguard is ranked 93,303^rd in the world and 1,278^th in Island of Hope for Most Conservative, scoring 69.58 on the Bush-Santorum Dawning Terror Index.