Matrix entries of real representations of the groups and .
With this work and its sequel, Moduli of unipotent representations II, we initiate a study of the finite dimensional algebraic representations of a unipotent group over a field of characteristic zero from the modular point of view. Let be such a group. The stack of all representations of dimension is badly behaved. In this first installment, we introduce a nondegeneracy condition which cuts out a substack which is better behaved, and, in particular, admits a coarse algebraic space, which...