The Free Cities of Kautas is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by First Arbiter Cael Virex with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, national health service, and complete lack of prisons. The compassionate, cheerful population of 9.944 billion Kautasians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, moralistic government prioritizes Education, with Administration, Environment, and Healthcare also on the agenda, while Spirituality and Defense aren't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aureaxis. The average income tax rate is 98.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Kautasian economy, worth a remarkable 2,151 trillion Lumens a year, is quite specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 216,376 Lumens, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Small shoes often wash up on the beach, lovesick people are told 'it's not them, it's you', treaties are taken to be mere rules of thumb, and mantis shrimp studies is academia's fastest-growing field. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Kautas's national animal is the Gargyl, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Lux Communis.

Kautas is ranked 1,263^rd in the world and 4^th in Fifth Empire for Most Developed, scoring 98.37 on the Human Development Index.