The Free State of Cloudembourg is a mammoth, orderly nation, ruled by Ben Kaylum with an iron fist, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, compulsory military service, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 5.946 billion Cloudish are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Defense, and Public Transport. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Maddison City. The average income tax rate is 71.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Cloudish economy, worth 203 trillion Euros 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 Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Pizza Delivery, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 34,150 Euros, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Power to the people comes from the barrel of a gun, billions are being spent on a new island airport, knitting needles have been banned in the name of public safety, and curtailed social programs have left many citizens bereft of any safety net. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cloudembourg's national animal is the Seahorse, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways, and its national religion is Cloudish.

Cloudembourg is ranked 292,086^th in the world and 4^th in Maschint Alliance for Smartest Citizens, with 11.97 quips per hour.