The Confederated Empire of Sovereign California is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Empress Fiora Devnostraeva with a fair hand, and notable for its otherworldly petting zoo, pith helmet sales, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic, humorless population of 43.086 billion Californians hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The relatively small, corrupt, liberal, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Los Angeles ― Los Angeles NCD. The average income tax rate is 40.3%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Californian economy, worth an astonishing 14,719 trillion Sovereigns a year, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Gambling, and Information Technology. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is an amazing 341,640 Sovereigns, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.5 times as much as the poorest.

Appliance stores are finding spy cameras embedded in their unboxed merchandise, kids these days know how to throw a proper punch, dozens of viewers go online to hear whether a comma has been added to Clause 5 in Subsection B of Law 58375, and roadside walls are being built and mother nature is paying for it. Crime, especially youth-related, is pervasive, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Sovereign California's national animal is the Phoenix, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Devnostraevism.

Sovereign California is ranked 1,684^th in the world and 1^st in Earth Prime for Most Cultured, scoring 291 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.