The Federation of Etherion Circadia is a very large, safe nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, avowedly heterosexual populace, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 170 million Circadians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 60.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Circadian economy, worth 7.63 trillion Cores a year, is dominated by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Retail, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 44,880 Cores, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.1 times as much as the poorest.

In life full of care there is no time to stop and stare, a handful of megacorporations own every "craft brewery" in the nation, police regularly arrest families playing Monopoly, and code enforcement officers circle wealthy Circadians like vultures. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Etherion Circadia's national animal is the Butterfly.

Etherion Circadia is ranked 260,372^nd in the world and 5,765^th in The North Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 0.91 average smiles per day.