The Federation of Eta Aquarii is a very large, cultured nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 244 million Hydrians 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 large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Welfare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 68.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Eta Aquariian economy, worth 10.5 trillion Hydrian dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is broadly diversified, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Tourism, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 42,974 Hydrian dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Graffiti graces every city's streets, in distant lands the nation is known as a lovely place that was even better in the good old days, people boast about their low income on their dating profiles, and hundreds of subterranean tunnels are being built as part of "Project Morlock". Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Eta Aquarii's national animal is the Lion, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Eta Aquarii is ranked 74,660^th in the world and 577^th in the Rejected Realms for Highest Poor Incomes, with 40,432.84 Standard Monetary Units.