The Republic of Thorn48 is a colossal, orderly nation, renowned for its rum-swilling pirates, restrictive gun laws, and stringent health and safety legislation. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 5.807 billion Thorn48ians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Administration, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 86.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Thorn48ian economy, worth 733 trillion Euros 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 a large, well-organized black market in Beef-Based Agriculture, Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, and Woodchip Exports. 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 126,341 Euros, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.1 times as much as the poorest.

It can be a real jungle in a modern courtroom, hell hath no fury like an ocean scorned, the "feminist protest" defence is increasingly common for cases of armed robbery, and old fossils give the tours at the parliamentary museum. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thorn48's national animal is the Lion, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Thorn48 is ranked 270,252^nd in the world and 5,865^th in the Rejected Realms for Most Extensive Civil Rights, with 21.33 Martin Luther King, Jr. Units.