The Democratic Republic of Torness is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its state-planned economy, ban on automobiles, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 276 million Tornessians 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 government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Luxemgrad. The average income tax rate is 79.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Tornessian economy, worth 5.42 trillion Tornessian Pounds 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 Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Cheese Exports. Average income is 19,637 Tornessian Pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Tornessians are regularly fired for looking at MyFace during their lunch breaks, all recreational drugs are legal, it is illegal to have the wrong clock time showing on your microwave oven, and re-education centers are being added to most prisons. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Torness's national animal is the Dove, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Torness is ranked 258,871^st in the world and 185^th in The Internationale for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring -8.37 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.