The Shadow Realm of Cuatela is a behemoth, safe nation, ruled by Elizabeth Rendino with an even hand, and notable for its pith helmet sales, keen interest in outer space, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic, devout population of 51.581 billion Cuatelans have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass — juggles the competing demands of Environment, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Velocia. The average income tax rate is 71.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Cuatelan economy, worth a remarkable 3,054 trillion credits a year, is extremely specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 59,219 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government is continually probing the galaxy in search of alien life, toy versions of heroin paraphernalia let kids pretend to be their favourite TV characters, EpiPen sales have skyrocketed, and new pilots are regularly reminded that they are more expendable than their planes. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cuatela's national animal is the panther, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cuatela is ranked 21,190^th in the world and 374^th in the Pacific for Safest, scoring 112.88 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.