The Community of Hikki is a small, safe nation, notable for its compulsory military service, zero percent divorce rate, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 29 million Hikkihito 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 enormous, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 72.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The struggling Hikkihito economy, worth 620 billion pohyas 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 Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 21,392 pohyas, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Unpopular politicians are often caught between a rock and a hard place, Leader claims to be the epitome of family values, weekends are spent tilting at windmills, and on hunt days the unpleasant peasant runs in lieu of the pheasant. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hikki's national animal is the cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Hikki is ranked 278,192^nd in the world and 6,122^nd in The North Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring -67.08 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.