The Nations of Carbon

The Empire of the Rising Sun
With the essential collapse of the United States in 2021, Japan was pretty much plunged into complete and utter chaos. It took 6 years for Japan to revert back to the last time they were stable without the support of the rest of the world - Imperial Japan.

The Emperor was suddenly once more in charge of almost all aspects of the goverment, and the cabinet was dismantled overnight. With Emperor Naruhito having very little in the way of knowledge on how to run a country, the chaos continued for a short while, until the ex-cabinet was secretly requested back by special order of the Emperor. Officially, all decisions are Naruhito's, and Naruhito's alone, and yet behind the scenes, it is very much the same as before - with the Cabinet running things - albeit in a vastly different way.

With the guidance of the Cabinet, and the social pressure to "go back to the good old days" Japan began to do two things. Firstly, begin trading with Greater India for their nuclear technology, and the second was to claim regions of both Russia, the entirety of Korea (which were still reeling from the collapse of the United States) and certain low population regions of the Philippines. The only real resistance that they faces was from the regions of Russia that they claimed, although with the superior nuclear technology gained from Greater India, they manages to hit a stalemate, despite the fact that Russia had a substantially greater population.

The Empire of the Rising Sun was mostly unaffected by The Great War of 2041, except for two nuclear bombs that were detonated by an unknown attacker in regions that would be hilariously ironic if not for the tremendous loss of life.

They recovered from the aftermath after a matter of months, and wasted no time in claiming yet more regions of National Socialist and Communist Union, and in the present day, they are easily cutting their way through great swathes of still-recovering communities.

Greater India
Greater India was formed on the 29th November 2027, shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party achieved a majority in Parliament.

Ever since the founding of The Western Federation, and the subsequent leaps and bounds in technology owing to the sudden abundance of fossil fuels, Greater India desired access to the fuels as well. The main ideology behind the Bharatiya Janata Party was substantially different to that of the Western Federation, and thus any attempts at trade were refused.

If trade was impossible, thought Greater India, then they would take the fossil fuels by force. Initially, they took to raiding the other trading partners of the Western Federation, such as the newly formed New Persia in 2030, which after a short war became allied with Greater India. Due to this, trade between the Western Federation and New Persia stopped. To complete with The Western Federation proper, they began to develop their nuclear program, not only stockpiling nuclear weaponry, but also perfecting nuclear fusion, developing robots, plasma weaponry and all sorts of technology to make life easier. By 2038, they no longer needed the fossil fuels - their nuclear technology had surpassed it, and yet now it was about the principle. They were going to have it all.

They made very little progress with their advance through Europe. While they had superior technology, they did not expect people to make such a committed defense of their homes. In 2041, the Bharatiya Janata Party approved the go-ahead for nuclear weaponry to be used 50 kilometers East of Kiev, where a particularly difficult resistance had led to a stalemate that had lasted 8 months. They did not expect other countries to reciprocate.

What was supposed to be a limited and singular nuclear strike on one difficult target became the single deadliest conflict in Human history. In a little over 4 hours, 6.8 of the 12 billion people on the Earth were dead - the vast majority of the survivors in Northern Europe and Southern America.

Post War, entirely unprepared for such an aggressive response, Greater India was plunged into chaos. With few people to work the nuclear power plants that provided power for the nation, almost all of them, except for a few in the North went into meltdown, compounding their issues and rendering almost the entire country and irradiated wasteland. In the present day, 2064, Greater India is yet to recover.

The Islamic Caliphate
In 2029, the Islamic Caliphate was formed. A single, unified state under Caliph Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi. Despite the stability that this temporarily provided to the region, this did not last. With the Caliph retreating into Riyadh after first rising to power - and appointing various local scholars to manage the different regions. It was not long before corruption became rife - and any social progress made in the country was undone.

Sharia law continued to be implemented, in a way comparable to The Islamic State of the mid 2010's. Burkas were mandatory for women, stoning continued for many crimes, and homosexuality was punished by being thrown from roofs.

The only ally of The Islamic Caliphate, and one of circumstance more than anything, was The Neo-Ottoman Empire. Due to this, the vast majority of The Islamic Caliphate was run on limited fossil fuels, and light solar power. The solar power as remnants from before the meteorite, and the fossil fuels from the swiftly-drying-up Saudi Arabian oil fields.

In the wake of the Great War of 2041, The Islamic Caliphate actually faced expansion, as the vast majority of the conflict from 2041 was focused to the North of them - In Europe, India and Asia. While losing some territory from the North (As nuclear winds rendered much of the North an infertile wasteland), they managed to expand towards the South West, claiming much of Egypt and Sudan.

The National Socialist and Communist Union
Founded on the 2nd of February 2024, The National Socialist and Communist Union (Or in Russian, Natsional-sotsialisticheskiy i kommunisticheskiy soyuz, or the NSKS) was founded primarily to rival the superpowering forming in the West - The Western Federation. Composed of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, The NSKS also has various vassals and protectorates, Kingdom of Serbs, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Poland being vassals, and what remains of China becoming a protectorate.

The first leader of the NSKS was Andrei Bobrov, who despite some slightly concerning religious beliefs was the leader that the newly formed NSKS needed at the time.

The National Socialist and Communist Union generated, and indeed, continued to generate their power into the modern day - through the combined use of fossil fuels and crude nuclear energy. They succeeded in arranging a trade deal with the Western Federation to get a set amount of annual fossil fuels in exchange for certain migration treaties and non-aggression pacts. It is due to this that a large portion of the NSKS's technology appears to be a strange fusion of Western Federation and Greater Indian technology - large and bulky, spewing smoke into the air, but with glowing nuclear generators strapped to the back. Their attitude towards technology could be summed up in three words - "Bigger is better".

Unfortunately, in the year of 2032, Vozhd Bobrov was assassinated in an event that during later years would be compared to that of the assassinations that Russia had allegedly carried out earlier in the 21st century. Bobrov was poisoned through the use Tritium, a highly radioactive hydrogen isotope. While no nation came forward to claim the responsibility of the attack, the vast majority of fingers pointed towards Greater India - being one of the few locations where Tritium was created through the process of Nuclear Fission.

The next leader was less popular than Andrei, although calling him unpopular wouldn't really be accurate. He was a man from Georgia, by the name of Yefim Meskhi, and arose to power through democratic means - one of the first leaders in Russia to do so in a long time. He ran the country until the Great War of 2041, after which he seemingly disappeared.

Many people have put forward what they personally believe happened to Yefim Meskhi, ranging from hiding for the rest of his life in a bunker, being killed in the chaos following the bombs, and even being abducted by aliens. As it stands, what happened to him doesn't really matter - as he was succeeded almost immediately by his brother, Vadim Meskhi.

At the bare minimum - he does the job. For the last 23 years, stretching to present day, Vadim Meskhi has ran the country with an iron fist. While some respect his no-nonsense attitude, others are concerned that he has done nothing to rebuild the country. Next year, in 2065, the next general election will be held - which is is essentially guaranteed to win, considering that other political parties are not allowed to run.

The Neo-Ottoman Empire
The 4th of July 2028 marked the founding of the Neo-Ottoman Empire. Starting as a mere alliance between Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Syria, they swiftly united together into The Neo-Ottoman Empire, and expanded forward through Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and part of Egypt.

The newly crowned Sultan Ismet Okyar, leading Turkish politician since 2024 outlined his intentions for the newly formed Empire, and was famously quoted stating that they shall "Retake the Saudi oil fields, relight the forges of Jordan, and reclaim The Holy Land." While two of these were achieved by 2035, the foremost goal - retaking the Saudi oil fields was made impossible by the rise of another faction in 2029 - The Islamic Caliphate.

The founding of The Islamic Caliphate threw a major spanner in the works for The Neo-Ottoman Empire. Where originally, their plan involved simply using their superior technology and greater numbers to steamroll the fragmented nation states, suddenly there were dealing with a united a competent faction.

After a few tense weeks of negotiations, the newly formed Caliphate was happy to form a non-aggression pact with The New-Ottoman Empire, in exchange for a yearly supply of two and a half billion gallons of oil from the Saudi oil fields. Despite the technical success of Sultan Ismet Okyar, he was unpopular with the population - primarily because many felt cheated that he had "gone soft" and sought peace as opposed to violently taking the fields by force.

In truth, Sultan Ismet Okyar felt embarrassed that he was now being associated with The Islamic Caliphate, which unfortunately devolved into anarchy shortly after the signing of the non-aggression pact, which by now had become a fully fledged alliance. Many believed that the Sultan was waiting for the right time to strike and flatten the weaker Caliphate. While it's likely that he would have been victorious had he attacked at any time, he did not want to further weaken the infrastructure of the nation at a time that it was already weak.

The Neo-Ottoman Empire was further damaged by the reformation of the New Persian Empire in 2031. In that year, several groups and political parties of Iran - unhappy with joining The Neo-Ottoman Empire - managed to stage a coup, and break away from The Ottomans - Forming into The New Persian Empire. This damaged The Neo-Ottoman Empire quite severely, causing them to lose about 20% of their territory, and while even in the present day the two nations continue to fight, The New Persian Empire is simply too well entrenched to be removed by the Ottomans.

The Neo-Ottoman Empire was not particularly damaged in the Great War of 2041. While several nuclear weapons were detonated on and around territory owned by the empire, the vast majority of their populated cities were unharmed. They were, however, indirectly damaged when a tactical nuclear strike from the Western Federation set the Saudi oil fields ablaze. The Ottomans suddenly had an energy crisis on their hands.

Making a one-time deal with the preciously hostile and newly-crippled Greater India, and one that was only done due to mutual desperation, small amounts of Indian nuclear technology was given to the Ottomans to supplement their rapidly-dwindling fossil fuels. In exchange, India was given something ominously referred to as "The Artifact" - and beyond that both nations have kept quiet.

In the present day, plans to attack the Islamic Caliphate have unfortunately been put on hold. The Caliphate actually faced expansion after the Great War, and thus now occupies a larger space - and controls more resources - than The Neo-Ottomans.