The Protectorate of Lazarus Group is a colossal, efficient nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, complete absence of social welfare, and spontaneously combusting cars. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 5.948 billion Lazarenes are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

The tiny, moralistic, pro-business, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 5.5%.

The thriving Lazarene economy, worth 460 trillion guilders a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Gambling, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 77,393 guilders, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 313,793 per year while the poor average 12,706, a ratio of 24.7 to 1.

Farmers are complaining that the buzzing and the sparks from the nearby MagRail are blighting their crops, the Coast Guard is pioneering a quixotic program to train fish, government police forces protect public schools from the threat of protest, and hairdressers are forced to use all the tricks of the trade after citizens became required to wear helmets at all times. Crime is moderate, possibly because it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many regulations. Lazarus Group's national animal is the crocodile, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways.

Lazarus Group is ranked 13,006^th in the world and 2^nd in Hegemony for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring 6,439.4 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.