The Empire of Sautu is a massive, orderly nation, ruled by António da Silva with an iron fist, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, frequent executions, and keen interest in outer space. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 2.008 billion Sautuans are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Rei. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 81.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Sautuan economy, worth 268 trillion euros a year, is broadly diversified and dominated by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Uranium Mining. Average income is an impressive 133,672 euros, with the richest citizens earning 5.4 times as much as the poorest.

Citizens are tied down and forced to watch educational videos on empathy, 'To Regulate And Beyond' is the unofficial motto of the Sautuan Space Agency, Sautu has one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world, and power stations shutting down at night has made bedtime reading tricky. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sautu's national animal is the horse, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Roman Catholicism.

Sautu is ranked 188,223^rd in the world and 9,188^th in the South Pacific for Most Income Equality, scoring 18.52 on the Marx-Engels Emancipation Scale.