The Confederation of Conioste is a colossal, orderly nation, ruled by Supreme Ruler Aiku with an iron fist, and notable for its avant-garde cinema, enslaved workforce, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 2.699 billion Coniosteans 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, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nova Abroy. The average income tax rate is 86.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Coniostean economy, worth 97.7 trillion Marks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing and Uranium Mining. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 36,196 Marks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Summer science camps are regularly raided by narcotics police, prisons in Conioste are the summer homes of murderers, every worker receives exactly the same pay regardless of productivity, and prolonged government investigations are a common revenge tactic among spurned significant others. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Conioste's national animal is the Golden Eagle, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is The Solar Ascendancy.

Conioste is ranked 116,604^th in the world and 2^nd in The Junkyard for Highest Poor Incomes, with 27,292.26 Standard Monetary Units.