The Empire of Thornidor is a colossal, safe nation, ruled by James Griffin with a fair hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, keen interest in outer space, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 4.733 billion Thornidorians have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The large, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Thornidor City. The average income tax rate is 83.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Thornidorian economy, worth 533 trillion Tolids a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Arms Manufacturing, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 112,515 Tolids, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government's giant servers are often used as a tourist trap, the internal market is thriving, lines at the bank stretch around the block as tellers struggle with basic arithmetic, and search-and-rescue organisations are the biggest employer in the country. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thornidor's national animal is the Wyvern, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Thornidor is ranked 12,055^th in the world and 547^th in Lazarus for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring 5 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.