The Cooks' Guild of Norchlin is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by Chef de cuisine Cookthechef with a fair hand, and notable for its digital currency, ubiquitous missile silos, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 24.923 billion Norch hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Industry, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Catherby Cooking Ranges. The average income tax rate is 88.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Norch economy, worth a remarkable 6,139 trillion Karambwan banknotes a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Automobile Manufacturing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 246,327 Karambwan banknotes, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Sailors spend their shore leave helping old ladies cross the street, the only thing that can pin down a "superhero" is red tape, the law says it's okay to sell a bomb to a terrorist so long as they promise not to detonate it, and attendance of fathers at PTA meetings is at an all-time high. Crime is totally unknown. Norchlin's national animal is the Blue-Beaked Seagull, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is 99 Cooking.

Norchlin is ranked 8,456^th in the world and 1^st in Free Market Federation for Largest Populations, with 24.9 billion capita.