The District of VanWarner is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by the Governor with an iron fist, and notable for its compulsory military service and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 40.661 billion VanWarnerians 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 relatively small, well-organized government is dominated by the Department of Law & Order, although Education and Industry are also considered important, while Spirituality and Social Policy receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capital Heights. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 9.8%.

The thriving VanWarnerian economy, worth a remarkable 1,692 trillion betales a year, is led by the Trout Farming industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Book Publishing, and Information Technology. Average income is 41,617 betales, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 123,742 per year while the poor average 10,973, a ratio of 11.3 to 1.

The latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller, VanWarner has designated Capital Heights as its capital city, a major religion has been named as VanWarner's national religion, and the Governor has just been declared ruler of VanWarner in an international press conference. Crime is moderate. VanWarner's national animal is the deer, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities.

VanWarner is ranked 206,875^th in the world and 1^st in VanWarner for Nudest, with 110.25 cheeks per square mile.