The Terrors Manifold of Cold Thunder is a gargantuan, cultured nation, remarkable for its state-planned economy, complete lack of prisons, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic, humorless population of 10.396 billion Cold Thunderians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The large, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Social Policy. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Thunder Bay. The average income tax rate is 76.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Cold Thunderian economy, worth 684 trillion Words a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Trout Farming, Tourism, and Cheese Exports. Average income is 65,861 Words, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Holiday light displays just aren't the same without seizure-inducing strobe effects, tourists on boat cruises can't figure out why they smell so fishy afterward, the saying 'break a leg' is now taken literally, and ambitious "businessmen" use their children to sell and advertise their products. Crime is totally unknown. Cold Thunder's national animal is the Skunk, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Cold Thunder is ranked 101,934^th in the world and 2^nd in Universal Dream Network for Most Primitive, scoring -18.47 on the Scary Big Number Scale.