The Democratic States of Terlibe is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by President Theodore Franklin with a fair hand, and renowned for its keen interest in outer space, national health service, and complete lack of prisons. The compassionate, democratic population of 14.786 billion Terlibians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Libertatis. The average income tax rate is 95.8%.

The frighteningly efficient Terlibean economy, worth a remarkable 1,685 trillion Mallers a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 113,990 Mallers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The only things written in the stars are arrest warrants for astrologers, physics lessons mostly involve talking about emotional management techniques, the installation of street lights across remote goat tracks has left citizens bemused, and people stand their fridges back-to-front to benefit from the free heating. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Terlibe's national animal is the Giraffe, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Terlibe is ranked 324,673^rd in the world and 164^th in Democratic Socialist Assembly for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 19.65 on the Bus Surprisal Index.