The United Socialist States of Norniver is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its state-planned economy, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical population of 643 million Norniverians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The enormous, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Norn City. The average income tax rate is 70.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Norniverian economy, worth 9.68 trillion florins a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Pizza Delivery, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 15,057 florins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Hordes of tourists are ruining the environment, nobody ever questions the unquestioned rule that questions must always be asked, stealing from a clothesline is a serious offence, and claiming that "my cousin said it was legal" is a common courtroom defense. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Norniver's national animal is the wolf, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Norniver is ranked 59,668^th in the world and 3,172^nd in Lazarus for Most Cultured, scoring 70 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.