The Republic of Dustcards is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Dustwind with an iron fist, and remarkable for its cultivated feral children, prohibition of alcohol, and frequent executions. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 12.92 billion Dustwindians are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Industry, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 76.8%.

The frighteningly efficient Dustcardsian economy, worth a remarkable 2,299 trillion dusts 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Basket Weaving, and Retail. 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 an impressive 177,987 dusts, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.1 times as much as the poorest.

Former customs officers are adjusting to their new lives as market stall traders, citizens are told that foreigners are hungry ghosts who eat the flesh of the overly curious, ancient antique swords have had their blades replaced with latex boffer LARP replicas, and the government enforces a policy of 'from each according to their ability, to each according to the available budget'. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Dustcards's national animal is the Eagle, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Sufferology.

Dustcards is ranked 41,622^nd in the world and 130^th in 10000 Islands for Most Patriotic, with 37.51 flags saluted per person per day.