The Cajun empire of Mermaids of the Bayou is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Ariel the human skinner with an iron fist, and remarkable for its compulsory military service, smutty television, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, hard-working, cynical, devout population of 11.696 billion Mermaids are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The tiny government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Welfare, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aquaria. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7.7%.

The very strong Cajun economy, worth 820 trillion Fishhooks a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Furniture Restoration, Retail, and Trout Farming. Average income is 70,114 Fishhooks, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 230,359 per year while the poor average 16,002, a ratio of 14.4 to 1.

Ariel the human skinner has been self-declared as the Most Supreme Magnificent Overlord of Everything You Ever Saw, Fisjing has been named as Mermaids of the Bayou's national religion, translators have been hired to deal with the varying regional accents during national political debates, and exorbitant spending on icebreakers breaks the ice at every budget meeting. Crime is moderate, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Mermaids of the Bayou's national animal is the Alligator, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is Fisjing.

Mermaids of the Bayou is ranked 33,656^th in the world and 2^nd in The Flying Fishes Bait Shop for Nicest Citizens, with 18.34 average smiles per day.