Vijayanagar Empire (The Great Calamity)

Government
The Vijayanagar Empire remains a strong monarchy to this day. However, in order to cope with the decline of conquest and the beginning of a new era of international trade, a constitution has been in place for just over 2 decades, ceding away some of the Emperor's powers to ensure stability and continuity. Day-to-day administration of the Empire is conducted by a complex yet efficient web of highly disciplined civil servants, commanded by a Council of Ministers appointed by the Emperor. This is the Emperor's primary responsibility - administration. The Emperor also presides over the Parliament of the Empire, a tricameral assembly of noblemen, merchants, industrialists, and elected representatives. The Parliament makes laws for the Empire, though the Emperor has the power to veto any and all bills. Additionally, the Emperor retains the right to propose his own legislation to be debated and voted upon by the Parliament. In recent years the Public Assembly, the lowest house of the Parliament, has been increasingly asserting its role in lawmaking, with many international observers speculating about the possibility of a true democracy on the horizon. The Empire's courts are organised under the leadership of the Supreme Court, a body of 15 judges formerly appointed by the Emperor, but since 2379 appointed by the Council of Elders.

The Empire is nominally a unitary state, though in practice the various provinces and provincial governments of the Empire (first created to aid in administration) have been asserting increasing autonomy in recent years. Some see this as necessary for the health of the Empire, others see it as a symptom of the continuing erosion of the authority of the Emperor and Imperial court.

Imperial Government

 * Executive: The executive government is headed by the Emperor who appoints and presides over a Council of Ministers who command the civil service.
 * Legislative: The Parliament of the Empire is composed of 3 houses which are, in descending order of precedence: the Council of Elders, the National Assembly, and the Public Assembly. The Council of Elders does not take part in general law-making, but may be called on to advise the lower houses.
 * Council of Elders: The Council of Elders was the first of the houses to be constituted, and originally served as an advisory body of religious, political, and military leaders to the Emperor in the early days of the Empire during the conquest of South India. To this day the Council has the final say over who becomes the next Emperor, though in practice the Council almost always chooses a child of the previous Emperor. The Council of Elders also appoints the judges of the High Court. The Council is divided into religious, political and military seats. The religious seats compose half of all the seats, with the political and military seats afforded a quarter each, generally staffed by leaders in the other two Assemblies and high-ranking military officers respectively.
 * National Assembly: The 700-seat National Assembly was created following the conquest of all of India, as a means to afford local and regional nobles and wealthy individuals a say in law-making. Noble seats are quasi-hereditary, with each family retaining their seats but able to appoint their next representative upon the death of a previous one. Meanwhile, a large number of seats are afforded to representatives of regional Merchant and Industrial Guilds.
 * Public Assembly: The youngest and lowest of all the houses of Parliament, the Public Assembly contains 800 members, elected to represent the common people of the Empire. The Assembly was created in 2350 after widespread rioting against a deeply unpopular dissent bill resulted in over a thousand deaths, including that of a member of the National Assembly after his home was burned down - with his family inside. Though without the power to initiate legislation, the Public Assembly must assent to all bills before they become law, and has increasingly asserted its authority by engaging in weeks-long debates scrutinising the legislation of the National Assembly. As a result, an increasingly large number of Merchant and Industrial Guild members, especially those who were born outside of wealth, have taken to providing for the common people and championing their causes in the National Assembly, creating an unexpected alliance between the two. Calls for the Public Assembly to have the power to initiate legislation have been gaining ground in the country.
 * Judicial: The High Court consists of 15 judges appointed by the Council of Elders.

Military

 * Imperial Army: The Imperial Army is the Empire's primary ground warfare force, composed of 300,000 professional soldiers. It operates a wide array of military equipment including over 5,000 APCs and 15,000 infantry fighting vehicles.
 * Army Air Corps: Originally created to support the Imperial Army, the Air Corps now operates a fleet of over 1000 aircraft including over 100 attack aircraft, 200 multirole aircraft and hundreds of other aircraft.


 * Imperial Navy: WIP

History
Following global nuclear war in the 21st century, a dark age descended upon the globe. The entire Indian nation fell apart within weeks of the nuclear exchange with most of the Northwest completely irradiated by Pakistan. Largely spared from the nuclear exchange (though major cities were hit), the states of Southern India were suddenly faced with a surge of radioactive immigrants. In a fit of panicked and xenophobic fervour, ethnic lines returned to the forefront of the Indian imagination and the states went their separate ways, forming independent nations based on their traditional cultural and linguistic history. Even as the streets descended into daily violence and technological prowess rapidly degenerated (much like the rest of the world), the various skeleton governments in the South were setting up border control systems to stem the influx of immigrants, with the nations of Maharashtra and Telangana going so far as to shoot on fleeing refugees, quickly turning them back to the nuclear wastelands of the North. The worst of humanity emerged.

Kingdoms and Republics
After nearly a century of constant violence and the de-evolution of technology and society (though governments largely retained their technological mastery, even as the general populace struggled to maintain a constant supply of electricity to their homes), 3 kingdoms had formed (Maharashtra Kingdom, Kingdom of Andhra Pradesh, and the Kingdom of Tamil Nadu; the latter of which had absorbed Kerala through a marriage union) based off the strictly hierarchical traditional Indian caste system, with the return of noble rule, though the annals of history are vague as to their records of how the first nobles returned to power amidst turbulent circumstances. Either way, the newly formed kingdoms had established themselves as the dominant powers of South India following the post-war dark age.

During this time, a handful of other states formed in the region as well. The former states of Karnataka and Telangana briefly fell apart into multiple self-governing city states, some ruled by noble families, some by despots, and others by more progressive councils and parliaments. Much of former Karnataka then united under the Confederation of Karnataka, a confederation ruled by a Presidency that served a single 2-year term. The President was the head of state of one of the member city-states with the position rotating between city-states every term. Telangana remained largely poverty and strife-stricken as a landlocked region of warring city-states. Newly returning jungle diseases exacerbated the situation.

The states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh fought a brief but serious conflict with both sides attempting to unify their nations. The war ended with peace treaty and the agreement to form two new nations, one in the North (Republic of Raipur Pradesh) and one in the South (Kingdom of Odisha) with a traditionalist Hindu majority. The new nations each had access to the ocean, one of the main aims that Chhattisgarh had in starting the war in the first place. The remainder of the Northwest and Central North was (and still is) nuclear wasteland and/or inhabited by warring chieftains and warlords. India's largely Muslim Northeast became, for the most part, nomadic, launching regular raids on the Southern nations.

An exception, West Bengal became an independent republic ruled by a small council of merchant families and is famous for its yellow-flagged merchant fleet, one of the most technologically advanced fleets in the world functioning largely on imported oil - a rare commodity in the post-globalist world. The former state of Gujarat, one of the few Northern states to be spared from the nuclear exchange, became a renowned banking and trade centre frequented by merchants across the Indian Ocean.

As of that point in time, not much was known outside of the Indian Ocean with few explorers returning from journeys West of the Horn of Africa and even fewer from Pakistan and the apparently pirate-infested waters of Southeast Asia.

Currency & Central Bank
The national currency of the Empire is the Rupak, which is divided into 12 Taal which are in turn divided into 10 Metaa per Taal. Coins are issued equal to 1 Taal and 1 Metaa respectively. The central bank of the Empire is the Imperial Bank of Puducherry.