The Free Lands of The Selkie is a gargantuan, efficient nation, ruled by the Elder Council with a fair hand, and remarkable for its national health service, keen interest in outer space, and state-planned economy. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 20.879 billion Selkies love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded, outspoken government prioritizes Education, with Environment, Healthcare, and Welfare also on the agenda. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Elder Castle in Fortham. The average income tax rate is 96.7%.

The frighteningly efficient a Selkie economy, worth a remarkable 2,755 trillion Gils a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 131,972 Gils, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Kissing cousins produce the heartiest babies, the price of freedom is about half a million Gils, policy reversals are more often graceful demi-détournés than u-turns, and skateparks can be found in every city. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Selkie's national animal is the Horse, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Selkie-Paganism.

The Selkie is ranked 6,250^th in the world and 8^th in The Strategic and Economic Alliance for Highest Food Quality, scoring 192.14 on the Meeshlin-Starr Index.