County / Region / Territory

Berkshire, England

Berkshire, the Royal County, takes its name from a Celtic word for a forest of box trees that once grew near Newbury. The Thames forms its historic northern boundary across one hundred and three miles from Buscot to Old Windsor, and the presence of Windsor Castle — built by William the Conqueror and continuously occupied by the Crown for nearly a thousand years — earned the county its royal designation, confirmed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Eton College, founded by Henry VI in 1440, stands within its borders.

Cambridgeshire, England

Cambridgeshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England, bordered by Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire. Covering 3,389 square kilometres of predominantly flat terrain — the northern and eastern reaches dominated by the drained Fenland, including Britain's lowest point at Holme Fen — the county has been shaped by the interplay of water and human endeavour across four millennia. Its county town, Cambridge, is home to the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209, whose thirty-one colleges have produced 126 Nobel laureates.

Cornwall, England

Cornwall — Kernow in the language of its people — is the granite peninsula at the extreme south-western tip of England, a land bounded by the Celtic Sea to the north and west, the English Channel to the south, and the River Tamar to the east, which has served as the boundary with Devon since King Æthelstan fixed it in 936 AD. Covering 3,546 square kilometres with 422 miles of coastline, Cornwall has existed for most of its recorded history in a condition of qualified separateness: neither a conquered province nor a fully integrated county, but a territory whose Celtic language, feudal Duchy, stannary laws, and deep-rooted maritime and mining traditions set it apart from the England to which it was administratively attached. Its people — fishing families from Newlyn and St Ives, tin miners from Camborne and Redruth, packet men from Falmouth, farmers from the Penwith hinterland — have carried their skills and their stubbornness to every corner of the globe, from the copper mines of South Australia to the goldfields of California, leaving behind a landscape of engine houses and harbour walls, chapel spires and granite cottages, that speaks of both hardship endured and independence fiercely defended.

Derbyshire, England

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordered by Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire. Its landscape ranges from the wild gritstone moorlands of the Peak District — Britain's first national park, designated in 1951 — to the fertile lowlands of the Trent valley in the south. The county was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, where Richard Arkwright's water-powered cotton mill at Cromford in 1771 transformed the world of manufacturing. Its county town is Matlock, and its largest settlement is the city of Derby.

Devon, England

Devon is a ceremonial county in south-west England, occupying the broad peninsula between the Bristol Channel to the north and the English Channel to the south, with Cornwall beyond the River Tamar to the west. England's third-largest county by area, it encompasses two national parks, two coastlines, and a landscape shaped by the Dumnonii Celts, Saxon expansion, medieval wool wealth, Elizabethan exploration, and centuries of agriculture and seafaring. Its settlements range from the naval city of Plymouth to hamlets of barely two hundred souls.

Hampshire, England

Hampshire is the oldest shire in England's historical record, first named in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 757 AD and rooted in the Saxon trading port of Hamwic — the settlement that would become Southampton and give its name to an entire county. Spanning 1,455 square miles of chalk downland, ancient woodland, and Solent coastline, Hampshire has served as the seat of Wessex kings, the treasury of Norman monarchs, and the home of the Royal Navy. Its county town, Winchester, was England's capital before London claimed the title; its ports at Portsmouth and Southampton have launched fleets, emigrants, and convict transports to every corner of the known world. From the New Forest, where William the Conqueror cleared villages to make a hunting ground, to the quiet Hampshire downs where Gilbert White pioneered the study of natural history and Jane Austen wrote her novels, the county's character is one of deep institutional continuity overlaid with centuries of human departure — voluntary and otherwise.

Leicestershire, England

Leicestershire was a landlocked county in the heart of England, a shire of rich farmland and old market towns gathered around its county town of Leicester. Its ground held some of the oldest rocks and fossils in the country, in the crags of Charnwood Forest; its fields held a fallen king's last battle at Bosworth and a doomed queen's childhood at Bradgate. Famous for its pork pies, its Stilton, its hunting country and its agricultural improvers, it was the quiet, productive middle of England.

Midlothian, Scotland

Midlothian, the historic county encircling Edinburgh's southern approaches, has served as crucible for forces shaping Scottish history and dimensional affairs. From Bronze Age settlements to Enlightenment brilliance, the region's farmlands and ancient burghs have nurtured generations whose destinies extend beyond ordinary comprehension. The Campbell family's stewardship, culminating in the catastrophic attack on their Morningside estate on 7 April 2025, exemplifies Midlothian's enduring role as guardian of hidden knowledge.

Sangama, Clivilius

Sangama is a region whose history spans over a millennium of settlement, trade, conflict, and cultural convergence. First inhabited by a Hittite-founded community in 1370 BCE, the area accumulated settlements from Assyrian, Egyptian, Indian, and Greek traditions across the following centuries, their interactions producing a complex regional culture that no single founding civilisation could claim. The region was formally designated Sangama — Sanskrit for confluence — by Mauryan administrators in 241 BCE.

August 15, 1775 AD

Stewartshire, Caledonia, Clivilius

Stewartshire is the founding shire of Caledonia, established on 15 August 1775 alongside the Directorate that formalised New Edinburgh's governance. Named in honour of the four Stewart sisters who founded New Edinburgh in 1762, the shire encompasses the settlements of New Edinburgh and Chewbathia along with surrounding territories. As the administrative and political heart of Scottish-influenced Clivilius, Stewartshire serves as the model for regional governance throughout Caledonia.