The Republic of Ulm 348 is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its ritual sacrifices, national health service, and compulsory gun ownership. The compassionate, cynical, humorless, devout population of 1.668 billion Ulm 348ians 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 medium-sized, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 47.8%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Ulm 348ian economy, worth 229 trillion Ducats 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 a slick, highly efficient, broadly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, Information Technology, and Automobile Manufacturing. 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 impressive 137,213 Ducats, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Activists sabotage clean energy in the name of the environment, babies are a small but significant export, Leader's military council has been nicknamed 'The Knights of the Rotund Table', and any citizen who cries is immediately assigned a psychiatrist. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ulm 348's national animal is the Bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ulm 348 is ranked 29,300^th in the world and 50^th in Swabian autonomous region for Smartest Citizens, with 57.13 quips per hour.