The Armed Republic of Cades is a very large, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its pith helmet sales, ban on automobiles, and compulsory military service. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 133 million Cadesians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The enormous, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 69.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Cadesian economy, worth 2.22 trillion Lire a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is dominated by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Uranium Mining, Arms Manufacturing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 16,673 Lire, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Earthquake sirens are a leading cause of hearing loss, kids are taught in schools to argue with their parents, frequent fliers are obliged to submit to invasive security procedures by government security, and all the playground's a stage for Cadesian schoolchildren. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cades's national animal is the Ziz, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cades is ranked 41,122^nd in the world and 1,384^th in The North Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 75 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.