The Cold Spell of Winter Orb is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by GrandWizardOrb with an iron fist, and remarkable for its national health service, smutty television, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 35.317 billion Winter Orbians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of WinterCity. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 57.8%.

The frighteningly efficient Winter Orbian economy, worth a remarkable 4,421 trillion snowflakes 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, fairly diversified black market in Uranium Mining, Retail, Gambling, and Arms Manufacturing. 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 125,186 snowflakes, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 460,162 per year while the poor average 24,082, a ratio of 19.1 to 1.

Business is banging at no-tell motels, small children are learning a lot of new words from a teacher with Tourette Syndrome, convicted felons are forced into slavery for their crimes, and the nationalised Arms Manufacturing Industry is not interested in making weapons. Crime is a serious problem, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. Winter Orb's national animal is the polar bear, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Atheism.

Winter Orb is ranked 285,036^th in the world and 207^th in Nederland for Highest Food Quality, scoring 4.77 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.