The Rolling Thunder of Gewitter is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by Thor with an iron fist, and renowned for its enslaved workforce, frequent executions, and ban on automobiles. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless population of 32.942 billion Gewitterians are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The minute, corrupt, pro-business government, or what there is of one, prioritizes Defense, although Industry is also considered important, while Environment and Welfare receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Gewitter City. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 1.2%.

The frighteningly efficient Gewitterian economy, worth a remarkable 5,852 trillion Currents a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Gambling industry, with major contributions from Soda Sales, Retail, and Pizza Delivery. Average income is an impressive 177,653 Currents, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 1,642,647 per year while the poor average 1,871, a ratio of 877 to 1.

Smiling in public is seen as criminally suspicious behaviour, ghost regiments exist only on paper, women complaining about lack of opportunity are told to "man up", and the Gewitterian Tourism Bureau has described the abolition of coastal defences as a "kick to the groyne". Crime, especially youth-related, is all-pervasive, probably because of the absence of a police force. Gewitter's national animal is the Cow Zombie, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Gewitter is ranked 326,677^th in the world and 2^nd in The Skeleton Army for Nicest Citizens, with 0.25 average smiles per day.