The State of Cathedral is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by the Governor with an even hand, and renowned for its state-planned economy, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 31.628 billion Cathedralians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capital Heights. The average income tax rate is 73.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but stagnant Cathedralian economy, worth 421 trillion betales 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 led by the Door-to-door Insurance Sales industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Tourism, and Book Publishing. Average income is 13,328 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Tourists from around the world come to visit the country's famous rainforests, political parties are banned from advertising and receiving private donations, Cathedral has designated Capital Heights as its capital city, and The Governor has just been declared ruler of Cathedral in an international press conference. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cathedral's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cathedral is ranked 103,901^st in the world and 1^st in Cathedral for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 33.59 on the Bus Surprisal Index.