The Gold Shroud of Taun is a mammoth, efficient nation, ruled by Kaykaus with a fair hand, and remarkable for its free-roaming dinosaurs, prohibition of alcohol, and vat-grown people. The compassionate, hard-working, democratic population of 8.599 billion Tau are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The medium-sized, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Kaykhshahr. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 64.6%.

The frighteningly efficient Tau economy, worth a remarkable 1,495 trillion Taunis a year, is broadly diversified and dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Basket Weaving. Black market activity is frequent. Average income is an impressive 173,947 Taunis, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 574,197 per year while the poor average 39,424, a ratio of 14.6 to 1.

Children are often punished for the sins of the fathers, preschoolers outnumber veteran politicians in government, the saying 'break a leg' is now taken literally, and starry-eyed convention goers have their heads in the clouds. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Taun's national animal is the Pallid Bat, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Lion of a Moon.

Taun is ranked 80,949^th in the world and 420^th in the Outback for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 2,861.27 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.