Upstream from the capital city, Veloxeter, the River Crease meanders slowly through the water meadows and pastures of the provinces of Velox and Campana. Many barges ply up and down the river transporting grain, timber, wool and stone. The old 18^th-century tow-paths and sluices are still preserved in the middle reaches of the river, making it possible to walk along most of the Crease between March and Hubcaster. A fast cycleway snakes along the southern side of the river while the northern bank is followed by the main electric train line. The river is a popular for rowing, the annual Campana versus Velox race towards the lower reaches of the Crease as it enters Veloxeter being the Dynamoan equivalent of the Oxford versus Cambridge race on the Thames in London.

The River Crease marks the boundary between the two provinces, separating the lake-lands of Velox to the north from the drier arable fields of Campana to the south. The Willow Lakes are enjoyed not only for their unspoilt natural beauty, their plentiful fish and wildfowl, but also as a place for water sport. It is a common sight therefore to see yachts apparently sailing across the countryside, as the shallow broads and river bends of the Willow Lakes and tributaries of the Crease provide waterways through the fen and carr that characterise the region. The abundant reeds harvested give rise to a thatch industry that still thrives as the old vernacular style of building and roofing persists into the 21^st century.

Velox is also home to the Dynamoan cricket, with the country’s most famous club (the March Cricket Club or MCC) established at March, the regional capital. The approach to March is particularly spectacular as its medieval cathedral, built on an island on a broad bend in the river, appears to row with its flying buttresses towards approaching craft. The willow trees that line the river banks (they are symbol of the province) and lakeshore provide the wood for cricket bats while the leather used in the manufacture of cricket balls comes from the cattle-rearing plains of Campana, south of the river. March is also a major railway junction on the main West-East line connecting Veloxeter to Hubcaster and the upland towns of Upper March, Top March, Oarhouse and Rugby. The name ‘March’ derives from the ‘Marches’ that punctuated the Roman armies’ 3^rd-century progress up the River Crease from Veloxeter.

Forming a more or less equilateral triangle marked by the River Wicket to the north and the Rafter to the south, Spokane is Dynamo’s most mountainous province, boasting the country’s highest peak, Mount David, that rises to over 5000 feet. The western wall of the Handlebar Mountains is so impenetrable that the main east-west railway line from Lower March to Gary Head, on Dynamo’s western coast, has at its western extremity to burrow through a long tunnel. Before the railway was built, traffic had to cross the mountain peaks by the Connor Pass, 50 km upstream from Rory Gap in the Crease valley, a route that in bad winters was often closed by snow. The upper tributaries of the Crease cut deep valleys into the mountains which, in winter, become popular skiing resorts, with Rory Gap becoming the country’s centre for winter sports. Toboggan courses there are among the most hair-raising in the world. The pure waters, pellucid mountain air and lush pastures of the lower slopes of the Handlebars, make this area in the summer, like the European Alps, a favourite place for hiking and rambling, activities much promoted among all ages in Dynamo, providing an accessible outlet to the populous industrial towns of neighbouring Sparta. The coastal towns situated on Spokane’s western seaboard – St Sebastian and Gary Head (like Cliveden, further north in Sparta), are major fishing ports with many canning and fish-processing factories. The coasts are famous for their shellfish and their many excellent seafood restaurants. Fresh oysters and mussels as well as fish are sent daily by rail eastwards via Hubcaster to Veloxeter, the capital, 450km away.

The province’s capital, Oarhouse, is a major industrial town, specialising in electric locomotives and boat-building. Surrounded by rich pine and deciduous forests, it is also the centre of the country’s paper-milling and furniture industries, with an important college of industrial design. It is also a pioneer in the re-cycling industry, managing to maintain an 80% re-use rate of discarded materials.

The ban on plastic throughout Dynamo, except for medical and electrical purposes, massively facilitates the re-cycling process since the glass/metal, organic, and paper/cardboard categories of waste are relatively easily submitted to re-processing. Several experimental villages have recently been constructed in Spokane almost entirely based on re-cycled material, and powered by solar and water sources. The wooden hut style of chalet, with its traditional painted and carved decorations, has been maintained in Spokane (outside of Oarhouse), while the larger settlements and farmhouses continue to combine stone for the basements and cattle-sheds and wood for the habitable parts of the buildings. The region is also famous for its dairy products – in particular goats’ cheeses and yoghourts – and its chocolate, the beans for which are imported from south America via St Sebastian and Gary. The most famous brand is Periwinkle, whose bright blue logo is also the badge of the province.

Sparta is the largest province of Dynamo island and the most intensively industrialised. The region between Rugby, on the River Pitch, and Top March, Upper March and Lower March on the River Wicket, is the most densely populated part of the country with a wide range of manufacturing and processing industries. The existence of large iron ore deposits, and some coal, in the limestone escarpments and of lead, zinc, copper and gold in the Handlebar Mountains, led from the late 18^th century to an important metallurgical industry, one that with modernisation and refinement has continued to thrive until today. Rugby’s city centre is still an attractive jumble of late 18^th– and early 19^th-century metal workshops, many of which are still active, and is criss-crossed by an old narrow-gauge railway that continues to provide essential transport for raw materials and finished products between the various workshops and depots of the city.

While Rugby from the beginning of the railway age in the early 19^th century became the country’s leading producer of steel rails, bridging, cranes and dockland winches, nearly two hundred years later, Lower March, at the confluence of the Crease and the Rafter, is the centre of engineering (machine tools, factory robotics, electric motors) and is famous for its Dynamo Institute of Technology (DRIT). Upper March is famous for its ceramic and glass industries, using local clay and sand, while Top March specializes in high quality clockwork, camera and other optical equipment. ‘Wicket’ watches are prized throughout the country, while ‘Top March’ digital cameras are an important export. Significant dying and chemical industries are established at Lower March, using the abundant waters of the converging tributaries of the Crease and the local potash deposits. Hydroelectric stations towards the headwaters of these tributaries provide the energy to power not only the region’s industry but also the bulk of the country’s electric train system. The more recent development of wind- and wave-power is centred at Philadelpho and New Dublin on the north coast of Sparta, which is itself the choice site of these energy-producing installations as it is exposed to Atlantic winds and tides. Philadelpho is also an important port for coal and other raw material imports and for export of Spartan industrial goods.

The rugged nature of Spartan scenery, particularly the hills to the west, is reflected in the proverbial strength and resistance of the natives. Sparta is the home of Dynamoan rugby (the province’s badge is the rugby pine), with the various March towns, along with Rugby, Philadelpho and Oarhouse (in Spokane) engaging in strong regional sporting rivalries. The tough resistance of the Celtic tribes to Roman invasion meant that for several centuries there were violent skirmishes between the two, though the famous repulsion of the Roman legionaries by the Celtic chieftain, Rory, at Rory Gap in 300AD, marked the end of Roman domination and the start of a progressive unifying of the different traditions. Owing to its gold deposits and, further east, the outcrops of flint, the high limestone plains of Sparta and Spokane were the site of a pre-historic civilization, whose most famous monument is the 3000-year-old stone henge situated at Marl Grange, at the confluence of the rivers Rafter and Crease. Aligned on a north-south axis, it seems to have had both religious and astrological functions.

In many ways Pugilia offers the most varied and dramatic scenery of Dynamo Island. The pasture and arable land of the northern part of the province rises dramatically in the south to the Ring Mountains, themselves carved into a spiral by the concentric circles of the River Antinous, that rises high up at the peak of Mount Eoin (3000 feet) and travels in a 200-kilometre loop to the broad estuary leading to the Atlantic. Mount Eoin rises like a clenched fist, one that local mythology ascribes to the local deity of that name, master of boxing, the sport in which, since Roman times, the province has most prided itself in. The rich deciduous forests of the Ring Mountains still harbour wild boar and are famous for the truffles, much prized in Anasi restaurants, found in the beech-woods on the lower slopes. They are also home to the rare crimson-flowered boxglove that is the province’s badge. Owing to their steep climbs and hairpin bends, the mountains are training grounds for cyclists, providing a testing range of biking challenges. The southern coast is particularly dramatic as the Ring Mountains’ walls rise shear from the sea, followed by the main Anasi-Hadrianopolis railway that carves a tortuous route along a narrow coastal ledge, often having to plunge into tunnels blasted from solid rock before crossing the estuary of the River Antinous via a long suspension bridge.

Pugilia’s two main cities, Boxcaster and Hadrianopolis, are of great of historical importance. As its name suggests, Hadrianoplis was founded by the 2^nd-century Roman emperor who had sought shelter in the estuary of the river Hadrian later named the Antinous when blown off course on a trip to Britannia. It was from the bridge-head of the camp established in this protected site that the Romans later began their campaign to invade the island as a whole, their first victory being achieved at Boxcaster, where a violent battle between them and the defending Celtic tribes (the Velociae and the Pugiliae) took place. The valour of the native Celtic tribes and their fighting skills, in unarmed as well as armed combat, was much appreciated by the Romans who, when they had pacified them, engaged their pugilistic skills as instructors in their army or sent them to Rome where they were much in demand as fighters in the Coliseum.

Bounded in the northwest by the River Rafter and the south-east by the Antinous, the Province of Olympia consists in the eastern half of a broad limestone plains and in the west and south of the Handlebar mountains. Its rich, mixed deciduous and pine forests provide an abundance of timber that provides raw material for the paper and construction industries of Oarhouse, capital of Spokane, at the confluence of the Oar and the Rafter. The Handlebar Mountains are also rich in gold, silver and other valuable metals, leading to an important specialised industries in Odessa, the capital city, including precision engineering and jewelry. Odessa, is situated at the edge of a beautiful lake, in a natural arena at the foot of the Handlebar range. The city is also the site of a number of spas which were developed from Roman times on the basis of mineral springs that rose from the foothills of the Handlebar mountains.

The province’s eastern plains are not only important for arable agriculture (wheat, barley, sugar-beat, potatoes) but also as a military training ground: a large area west of Boxcaster at Infantry Plain is designated for army training while the main air-force training base in the country is sited at Skybourne just south of Lower March. The Dynamoan airforce is primarily defensive in its role, with squadrons of interceptor aircraft stationed at strategic points in the country, the main base being near Boxcaster. There are also shipboard fighters flown by the Dynamoan Navy, whose operations are coordinated with other NATO forces. For ecological reasons, Dynamo has kept internal flying to a minimum, though the international airports at Veloxeter and Hubcaster are always busy and constitute the home bases of the national airline, Aero Dynamo.

Maurice Island (originally Moorish Island or Mauritius) was notorious in the 17^th and 18^th centuries as a base for Moorish and Dynamoan pirates who would launch attacks from southern Dynamo on British, French and Spanish shipping plying to and from the West Indies. The island, with its many hidden coves, plus the long estuary of the River Antinous stretching far into Pugilia leeward of the island, provided excellent cover. This banditry, often based also on capturing high-speed cutters used by the East India Company to deliver tea from China and India to London, eventually came to an end at the time of the Napoleonic Wars as the British Navy asserted its dominance in policing the Atlantic routes between Europe, America and the South Atlantic. The chief of the pirate bands, coincidentally named Maurice, was captured and hung from a gibbet in Quinnport Harbour in 1799. Since then, the Island’s strategic position meant that it became an important naval centre for Dynamo, the home of the island’s fleet, and an important docking and re-fueling station.

An area of outstanding natural beauty, Maurice Island’s tall chalk cliffs are the home of a remarkable varied maritime flora. The Thrift or Sea Pink, that is the island’s symbol, along with the Sea Lavender and Burnet rose that cover the cliff-tops, swathe the island in a scented haze of pink and purple. The Island’s position in the mid Atlantic means that it is the breeding ground of seabirds, with Albatross, Booby, Tropic Birds, Bo’s’un Birds and Tern making a regular appearance as well as the ubiquitous and round-season gulls, gannets, cormorants and dippers. The island forms part of the annual Tour of Dynamo cycling event, the steep coastal gradients making it a particularly spectacular stage in the competition.

To the east of Maurice Island, is the smaller islet of Greer, home to an exclusively female community. Any woman seeking to escape male society is guaranteed a haven there, either permanently or temporarily, depending on individual circumstances. Greer Island has its own school and college and is home to women of all ages. It is not populated exclusively by lesbians but by any women who for whatever reason prefer to live without male society. The community thus constitutes an interesting sociological experiment, not least in its commitment to maximal protection of the environment. Indeed, the women of Greer are the guardians of one of Dynamo’s rarest indigenous plants, stachys muleris, commonly known as Germaine-flower, a beautiful purple-flowered member of the labiatae, particularly valued for of its healing properties in relation to female ailments.

The plains of Campana probably do not look very different from the time of the Roman occupation of Dynamo: broad arable plains covered in fields of wheat and barley bordered by shimmering avenues of poplars and plane trees and clumps of laurel (the symbol of the province). The straight Roman roads connect regularly spaced nucleated settlements, still very often rectilinear in plan. The two-lane cycle paths, standard throughout Dynamo Island, follow these main routes so that it is possible to cover many miles quickly and safely. Many of the farmsteads follow the Roman pattern (see History of Dynamo), being built round a central court or farmyard, three sides of which is occupied by cattle-sheds, grain-stores and plough-sheds, with the fourth constituting the farmhouse. Water towers and wind-pumps add a curiously Australian touch to the landscape. There are also many orchards and fields of hops, with town-dwellers traditionally spending part of their summer working as fruit- or hop-pickers in the countryside. The eastern parts of the province in particular are covered in market gardens that supply fresh fruit and vegetables for Louisville and the country’s capital, Veloxeter.

Cattle-ranching also contributes a major part of Campana’s economy, with leather and leather goods as well as beef being important products. Campana leather is used in all kinds of sports gear from cricket balls to saddlery. Horse-rearing indeed is also an important activity of the province. The race-course at Louisville is the most important in the country, the annual Louisville Cup being the Dynamoan equivalent of Cheltenham Races or the Derby. The fame of the honey-coloured horses of Campana from the 18th century is attested to not only by the many famous stables and stud farms scattered over the province but also by one of the greater painters of Dynamo, George Strobe, whose equestrian subjects are in high demand.

The white chalk cliffs of Campana that stretch in an almost unbroken line from Louisville to Anasi Point shelter popular holiday beaches and small fishing ports, though Louisville and Anasi, at either extremity are the main resort towns. Nestling at the foot of the dramatic promontory of Anasi Point, Anasi marks the end of the plains and the abrupt rise of the Ring Mountains that surge upwards to the west to a height of 3000 feet.