The Armed Republic of Cades is a very large, cultured nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and ban on automobiles. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 160 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, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 70.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Cadesian economy, worth 2.40 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 14,974 Lire, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Students memorise knock-knock jokes for their mandatory twice-a-term Comedy Examinations, the nationalised Arms Manufacturing Industry is not interested in making weapons, the nation has declared its intention to "stretch out", and there have been reports of people marrying housepets. 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 197,719^th in the world and 4,698^th in The North Pacific for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 141.66 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.