Okay, so I'm just now starting to wake up.

I'd like to go ahead and ask what sort of technologies were present in the 22nd century (which is when the world went BOOM, right)? I'd also like to pass a few specifics by you for consideration.

So, my idea for the Malagasy Empire is that Madagascar was left virtually untouched by the nuclear war that gripped the world... because it's [i]freaking Madagascar.[/i] Almost nobody thought it was important enough to bomb. People were too busy slugging it out with other nations. So, while a few nukes fell on the island nation, it was the rest of the world which took the brunt of the worst.

This means that at the end of the nukes and its own recovery, Madagascar finds itself in a unique position: unlike the nations surrounding it, and unlike many nations, a lot of its infrastructure and such is still standing. Of course, Madagascar in our spacefuture of mankind was never, ever at the front of the pack technologically, but it nevertheless started off with enough leftover pre-war technology to have generally good civilian life and more quickly prepare for its future role as a regional / global power. This is sped along by the fact that the island of Madagascar is seen at the end of the war as a sort of "hidden utopia" that a ton of people along the eastern coast of Africa go on a quest to find.

Lo and behold, Madagascar becomes overpopulated. Like Great Britain in the colonial era, that overpopulation and some discrimination between social classes, religious groups, and clashing cultures leads to colonial efforts on behalf of Madagascar, and its people start to take over the coastlines and islands of the Indian Ocean.

Is this all acceptable? And if Madagascar has a larger-than-average amount of leftover tech, what am I looking at for story purposes? One thing I'd seriously love to roleplay having is some sort of laser rifle that [i]nobody knows how to rebuild[/i] because the metals involved were synthetically made in the 22nd century and nobody knows had to remake those materials. Or maybe, despite being generally outclassed by the Middle Kingdom, the Malagasy Empire stays in the game with a combination of advanced naval tactics (thanks to literature on the stuff still being around for them) and a few nuclear submarines looted from where-the-Hell ever they could be found? (Or would nuclear submarines armed with torpedoes and such be blown to bits by the Killsat?)

Oh, civilian technology would be Madagascar's real cookie, note. Skyscrapers and little lovely things in life (microwaves, air conditioners, etc) would still be around, probably with some solar paneling.