The Armed Republic of Cades is a very large, orderly nation, renowned for its museums and concert halls, state-planned economy, and compulsory military service. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 173 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 70.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Cadesian economy, worth 4.56 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 26,340 Lire, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Being Leader has been voted one of the top ten most dangerous jobs, vats of anabolic steroids are being dumped into the ocean to make Cadesian mussels the biggest in The North Pacific, the wearing and manufacture of fur apparel is banned, and artists are pillars of society. 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 244,697^th in the world and 5,057^th in The North Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -5.6 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.