The Community of Casterbrious is a very large, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its state-planned economy, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 253 million Casterbrions are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded, outspoken government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Welfare, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Arcadia. The average income tax rate is 85.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Casterbrion economy, worth 6.92 trillion Pandaks a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is 27,333 Pandaks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Euthanasia is legal, spies caught red-handed are served cocktails on their first-class flights home, Casterbrious has designated Arcadia as its capital city, and it is believed that belligerence is a passing phase foreign leaders will soon outgrow. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Casterbrious's national animal is the Tafelshrew, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Casterbrious is ranked 10,771^st in the world and 108^th in Refugia for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 63.02 on the Kitten Softness Rating.