The Dominion of Cerran is a massive, orderly nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, infamous sell-swords, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 1.089 billion Cerranians 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 medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Defense, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Cer. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 31.3%.

The Cerranian economy, worth 61.5 trillion Notaries 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 a slick, highly efficient, fairly diversified black market in Pizza Delivery, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Uranium Mining, and Arms Manufacturing. 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 56,517 Notaries, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 170,316 per year while the poor average 14,621, a ratio of 11.6 to 1.

Whales in captivity live in little more than glorified goldfish bowls, Leader has just been declared ruler of Cerran in an international press conference, government doublethinkers have declared that voting is slavery, and motorbike jousters live young and die fast. Crime, especially youth-related, is almost non-existent, thanks to a capable police force. Cerran's national animal is the Scylla, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Cerran is ranked 129,772^nd in the world and 397^th in The Frontier Sea for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 80.93 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.