The Free Land of Bard the Bowman is a mammoth, efficient nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, public floggings, and suspicion of poets. The hard-working, democratic, devout population of 8.928 billion Bard the Bowmanians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The medium-sized, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Administration. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 20.4%.

The powerhouse Bard the Bowmanian economy, worth 546 trillion Black Arrows a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Beef-Based Agriculture industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Retail, and Information Technology. Average income is 61,192 Black Arrows, with the richest citizens earning 9.3 times as much as the poorest.

The government will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today, babies are a small but significant export, lines of trenches demarcate the nation's borders, and eating kids as food has been enshrined in law. Crime is moderate, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Bard the Bowman's national animal is the Dragon, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Bard the Bowman is ranked 60,835^th in the world and 1^st in Erebor for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 4,711.61 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.