The Queendom of Ciellan is a small, orderly nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, compulsory military service, and lack of airports. The hard-nosed, cynical, devout population of 45 million Swanborne are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Spirituality, Law & Order, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 69.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Swanborne economy, worth 1.04 trillion Plumes a year, is quite specialized and led by the Cheese Exports industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Gambling. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 23,079 Plumes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Prisoners due for execution often use their final statement to complain about soggy bread rolls, nations that kill a Daughter of Ciel can expect a strongly worded letter, psychiatrists bizarrely accompany Leader to meetings with foreign heads of state, and couples are discouraged from marrying until they can rank their partner on a scale of one to ten. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ciellan's national animal is the Swan, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ciellan is ranked 36,625^th in the world and 1^st in Paidi Kyknos for Most Cultured, scoring 77 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.