Location: Optimum

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Monolythian Wildlands of Vorx is a huge, cultured nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 644 million are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Defence, although Social Welfare and Education are secondary priorities. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Monlyth. The average income tax rate is 68%, and even higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Tourism industry, followed by Book Publishing and Gambling.

The nation's first space rocket -- sponsored by Pepsi and shaped like an enormous soda bottle -- is being developed, Vorx successfully hosted the Optimum Olympics, schoolchildren have twice-weekly sex education classes, and police officers have been re-kitted with designer uniforms and gold plated handcuffs. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vorx's national animal is the Zanoroun, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Varuct.

Vorx is ranked 59th in Optimum and 78,927th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -17 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and