The Great Socialist Kingdom of Thornstorm and the Holy Cross is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by King Victor XX with an iron fist, and remarkable for its soft-spoken computers, frequent executions, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, cynical population of 2.798 billion Thornians 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 large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Victorshire. The average income tax rate is 85.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Thornian economy, worth 356 trillion Thornian Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Basket Weaving. Average income is an impressive 127,508 Thornian Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

One tree's worth of paperwork accompanies each imported log of timber, there's a literal nanny state for the legions of children taken by social services, the explosive fireball of the disintegrating space shuttle has devastated Cape Thornstorm And The Holy Cross, and the nation's reputation for treachery has left it sidelined on the international stage. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thornstorm and the Holy Cross's national animal is the Thornstorm Red-Eyed Wolf, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Crown Catholicism.

Thornstorm and the Holy Cross is ranked 245,808^th in the world and 9,493^rd in Lazarus for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 18,106.24 Standard Monetary Units.