Built on the remnants of The Federative Republic of San Marcos, this new nation-state is still trying to find itself, but threatens its belligerent neighbors with “… a state of never-ending war…”. Largely tribal in nature, it is based off the ancient original seven colonies of its former regime, and is led by militant warlords who are forging their own destiny behind a new flag.

Two former districts, The Province of Cabinda and The Province of Central Marcos, have risen to become important provinces of the Mandate. While there are still smaller regions controlled by independent warlords who sit on the national council, these two forces have substantial military and commercial backing to support their positions, giving them a reasonably more legitimate position in Mandate politics. Both were annexed and occupied following the Unification Wars, and remain puppet regimes of Petrópolis and * Iron Dingoes Autonomous District (IDAD) respectively at this time.

Originally, in early national records, San Marcos was the “Land of the Holy Cross” ( Portuguese : “Terra da Santa Cruz” ), but the region was closely identified by its export of the Marcosia Tree, and was often simply referred to by merchants and explorers as “The Land of the Marcosia”. The name became popular enough, that it remained. Early explorers sometimes also called it the “Land of Parrots” (Terra di Papaga).

Officially the Federative Republic of San Marcos ( Portuguese : “República Federativa do San Marcos” ), until the 3024 “Small War” broke the nation, it was the largest geographical nation on Terramatrix, and second-largest by population. It was also the only Portuguese-speaking nation in System – Dumassas. Today, the nation is a splintered collection of corporate factions and warlords clinging to their production centers and has no central government, beyond the fastness of Fedrale and its military.

Nationally, the people of San Marcos still retain a regional pride in their past, and while they may skirmish over resources, they still see other nations (primarily The Republic of Buntar ) as the enemy. Constant skirmishing occurs along the borders over important resource sites, but the initial Buntar advances into San Marcos territory in late-3025 were halted by Petrópolis furious and liberal use of nuclear tactical devices. Today, the border remains somewhat fluid, with Buntar slowly pushing in against the divided warlord’s various military cantonments, until the fall of Petrópolis in late-3028. About one-third of San Marcos former territory and resources are under Buntar’s direct control.

Geography

Bounded by the Atlantis Ocean on the west, and the Sea of Tragnar on the east, San Marcos has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It borders the nations of The Republic of Buntar and The Republic of Carbina, and occupies a massive part of the local land area. Its central river basin includes a vast tropical forest that is home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous important habitats. This unique environmental heritage made San Marcos the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection, until its collapse.

The shattered remnants of The Federative Republic of San Marcos and its people struggle to make a comeback. The coastal highlands have been devastated and cratered by the skirmishes marking the end of the 3024-5 Small War. With the exception of the fairly modern city of Federale, and a handful of inland towns, the remnants of that once powerful nation are generally composed of peasant farmers, livestock ranchers, fishermen, and common laborers. Most live in small villages, on farms, or in family clan holdings. Other than Federale and a few towns, communication and transportation have been severely curtailed across the nation. The typical person travels by foot, and news is carried through motorcycle couriers. Modern automobiles and hovercraft are rare outside the central authorities, and usually the property of the wealthy industrials, foreign powers, the military, or bandits.

The single largest force of military remaining in the unorganized and largely independent regions of Eastern San Marcos, is the Marcosian Mandate, which has largely occupied the position as heir to the former government and military of San Marcos. Its forces are largely local civilians and security forces conscripted to fill-out its formations, patrolling the borders of the Federal City “Hot Zone”, largely to tax looters, but also ranges into the highlands north of the city’s farmlands and along the coast to limit piracy and bandits.

The only force that recognizes the local civilian government, the Mandate’s primary concern is the protection of its local people and resources, and espouses itself the remnants of the former military power of the fallen realm of San Marcos. Although reasonably reliable in defending its proclaimed territories, it is not dependable outside its range of influence, and has no designs on expansion at this time.

Federale City

(Pop : 24,000 in central city; 30,000+ living in the shanty towns) : With the nuclear devastation that wiped the former national capital from the map, this distant suburb has become a shelter for survivors and the new capital of the former nation if name, if not in actual. Known as the city of Federale, it remains reasonably modern, with running water, electricity, paved streets, street lights and a fairly simple pubic transportation system (less than 20% of the population can afford to maintain their own vehicles). It is, however, a poor community that suffers from over-crowding and a lack of sufficient resources, but remains a bastion of technology among the chaos and poverty of the rest of the nation. The result is a city of slums and shanty towns surrounding the handful of important high rises that remain from its days of peace.

The shanty towns in particular, are filthy, squalid places. The houses are little more than crude huts and tents made from scavenged materials from the ruins of the nearby capital, mixed with mud, wood, and rusted metal. Some live in abandoned and gutted vehicles, and many of the young have no homes at all, wandering the streets in somewhat brutal packs. These slums have no electricity or running water, except for those few workshops that either pay well for the privilege, or have their own sources of water and electrical generators. Disease, malnutrition and poor sanitation accompanies all the other problems of over-crowding, and although most people work together, crime can be a problem. Nevertheless, people continue to come to Federale, as it is the only place remaining in the former nation, where there is a promise of better things under the guns of the Marcosian Mandate.

At the heart of the city is the headquarters of the former army barracks, St. Laurence Citadel. The strong military presence in the city has bound the people together, and allows the government, such as it is, to influence many nearby independent villages. The political splintering of the rest of the nation does not exist here, where its militia and civil government have provided a basis for further unity.

Economy

The country’s economy was the world’s largest by both nominal GDP and purchasing power parity, as of 3020. San Marcos, until 3018, had one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition and influence. San Marcos’ national development bank (BNDES) played an important role for the country’s internal economic growth. San Marcos was a regional power in the central “heartlands” of the planet, and a middle power in international affairs, with some analysts identifying it once as the emerging global power. San Marcos has been the world’s largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years.

Overall, San Marcos has had a mixed economy with abundant mineral resources, active in agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, with a labor force of over 2 million (ranking it the most in the world). The country had an ever-expanding presence in international finance and commodities markets, with the largest automotive market in the world. Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned beef.

San Marcos pegged its currency, the Real, to the C-Bill in 3002. However, after the Capellan financial crisis, the Kurita default in 3002 and the series of adverse financial events that followed it, the central bank of BNDES temporarily changed its monetary policy to a managed-float scheme while undergoing a currency crisis, and has yet to fully recover. San Marcos received an International monetary fund rescue package from ComStar in mid-3010, and though BNDES paid-back the loan in 3013, it still suffers from internal financial support issues. The central bank has an excess of speculative short-term capital inflows to the country, which may have contributed to a fall in the value of the C-Bill against the Cordoba during that period. Nonetheless, foreign direct investment remains vital, and Inflation monitoring and control currently plays a major part in the central bank’s role of setting out short-term interest rates as a monetary policy measure. Between 3001 and 3018, hundreds of mergers & acquisitions with a known value of billions with the involvement of San Marcos firms occurred, and its scars remain in the corporate structure of its numerous large corporations today.

Corruption remains an important part of national corporate failure to develop, which means that national companies have found it difficult to compete on the global markets. Local government corruption is so prevalent, that voters only perceive it a problem if its surpasses numbers in the millions, and only if local media sources are present to divulge the activity. The purchasing power of San Marcos common citizens is now eroded by the so-called “San Marcos Cost”.

The economy of the resource-rich nation had been booming until 3018 but stagnation followed and a recession was underway, along with inflation and charges of corruption and the bankruptcy of a many major businesses. Angry demonstrators in 3022 complained beforehand at the high costs of supporting the national military, but San Marcos took pride in its smooth functioning. San Marcos President Dilma Rousseff faced a conservative challenger for her re-election bid in the October 26th, 3022 election but managed to secure a re-election with just over 51% of votes. She has regularly been charged with corruption, graft and out-right theft of national funds.

The failure of the Small War, and the national investments in the military over that conflict in late-3024 took huge portions of the economy to counter. In early-3025, the appearance of the Outworld Flu hit the nation hard, and its second more virulent wave later that year, which began targeting military and refugee camps, only exacerbated an already difficult civil disorder. In the riots that followed, along with the crack-down of new military warlords, much of the industrial development of the past generation vanished, starting with the national bank and real estate organizations.

Though the most important industries, such as its timber and mineral production were well-protected, important military and industrial complexes faltered and were looted by various forces for their own gains. When the smoke cleared, the heartland of Dumassas has become a different place than it was a generation ago.

Today, the nation is a series of cantonments supported by various military leaders who either back local governors or have made themselves the governors (or Warlords) of San Marcos districts. Most corporate entities that remain, are backed by the guns of the local warlord they support, and otherwise conduct trade with whomever they can and are allowed, funneling much of their profits back into their local cantonments and regional corporate efforts.

Copper and steel ore (as well as some precious metals) are almost the only thing still being manufactured and exported in any great amount, though some consumer goods, generators and other industrial support equipment targets national consumption. Luxury goods are scarce, while fuel and electricity shortages are common, and typically favor the military and whatever industrial efforts are locally protected. Other nations are taking advantage of the opportunity for cheap resources to fuel their own economic development.

Braskem : Braskem was a San Marcos petrochemical company headquartered in Paulo, San Marcos. The company is the largest petrochemical company in Terramatrix, and has become a major player in international arena, virtually controlling the international petrochemical market. The company was the world’s largest thermoplastic resins producer, with three (3) industrial plants spread across San Marcos. Braskem was also the world’s leading bio-polymers producer with its 40,000 ton Green PE plant that produces polyethylene from sugarcane-based ethanol.

With the destruction of the HQ along with the capital of Paulo in the nuclear fires of early-3026, the company has survived, only because of the support of various warlords to protect their own interests. They lost one refining complex, but the others remain and are still operational, though raw resources are increasingly difficult to acquire, and they are largely concentrating on producing bio-fuels for their local warlords. The company is presently headquartered in Federale City.

Companhia de Concessões Rodoviárias : CCR is a transportation company with interests in private interstate highway concessions, airport operations, metro systems in San Marcos and other countries. The company also works under six (formerly nine before the riots of 3025) independent service companies as a public-private business model for the operation of toll-roads across the globe, aiming to centralize the management of a portfolio of toll concessions and service companies across San Marcos. It was considered the largest highway maintenance company in the world.

The riots were hard on the company, and it operated under a much reduced capability, but the need for rail and road service makes its personnel and equipment under the protection of whichever local warlord has them under their control. This remains today, with the company’s logo acting as one of the few unifying factors from the old regime, and they support the resource trade across the nation, and north into Carbina.

Consolidated Foods Limited (CFL) : An increasingly global company that specializes in the processing of food products, it is owned by off-world interests from the Federated Suns, and has become a leading source of agricultural products for domestic consumption and off-world export.

In late-3026, it began consolidated control over the former JBS company in The Marcosan Mandate, once the largest meat processor on the planet, and began financial support of the local government of The Province of Central Marcos in its bid to improve its political position in that nation. The effort took three (3) years, but by 3029, had rebuilt much of the local infrastructure and resumed processing of the nation’s beef, chicken and pork, and their assorted by-products. This included three separate plants in each of the remaining districts of that nation-state.

Grupo EBX : Grupo EBX is a conglomerate in System – Dumassas of several resource and service companies, all operating under their own direction and mandates. Primarily a resource extraction company, the group has survived the recent troubles on Terramatrix, and is now in a position of strength, exerting its influence on a global scale with an obvious intention of dominating the global market. it is known for an increasingly militant aspect to its operations, supported by a well-armed security force. It is based from Federale City, and supports the present central government directly.

Embratel : A major San Marcos telecommunications company headquartered in Rio, the company was the long distance arm of Telebras until it broke from that company in a buy-out, in 3018. Embratel was a major player in both voice and data communication in San Marcos, owning both fully digitized microwave communications and fibre-optic networks as well as five domestic communications satellites. The company also owns two fiber optics submarine cable systems; Unisur and Atlantis-2, the former east to Tragnar, and the latter west connecting to San Isabel.

Throughout 3025-6, the company remained fairly intact despite recent losses in the riots and stayed viable. In late-3027, the company was largely taken over by ComStar in a fairly quiet buy-out, though it retains its Embratel name and logo for San Marcos domestic services.

Forjas Taurus : Taurus is a manufacturing conglomerate based in Porto Alegre, San Marcos. Founded originally from an ancient tool and die manufacturer, the company now consists of divisions focusing on firearms, metals manufacturing, plastics, body armor, helmets, and civil construction.

Taurus supplies its arms to the national military, and exports many of its older style arms to other national military forces across the globe. Despite developing a new line of munitions for their own national military in 3019, their subsequent loss in the fallout of the 3025 Small War, has led them to continue producing the HG-762 “Holy Grail” Assault Rifle for their own military. The company still manufactures the standard Dumassas Militia Field Kit and its line of Light Support Equipment for the various militias supporting the nation’s warlords.

Taurus has remained an important company in the San Marcos economy, and its arms closely supplied the numerous warlords of the nation, greatly improving its value and income. In early-3026, the company’s production sites were raided by Buntar military forces, and their new production lines for the Taurus GTA Carbine and its associated weapons systems and personnel were pillaged and taken under Buntar’s control. its sole remaining production plant north-east of the capital are now under the protection of Federale City.

Gerdau : Gerdau, headquartered in Porto Alegre, the district capital and the largest city in the Rio Grande do Sul district, was the greatest producer of long steel in the world, with interests across the globe. It also held an important stake in the Taurian company Sidenor. Currently, Gerdau has an installed capacity of 52,000 metric tons of steel per year and offers steel for the civil construction, automobile, industrial, agricultural and various other corporate sectors. Gerdau remains a major steelmaker and producer of long steel in the Terramatrix markets. It historically employed nearly a thousand workers.

Despite hardship of the 3024 Small War and following international difficulties, the importance of this steel producer was sufficient to avoid most of the initial riots and civil conflicts. Today, the company still produces steel important for other industrial centers across the globe, and its logo is still seen all across the world. It remains based from Porto Alegre, but looks to Federale City for protection and support. Recent rumors place the Rio Tinto Group having taken an interest in the company.

Marcopolo “Paradiso 1200” Touring Coach

Marcopolo : A San Marcos bus and coach manufacturer founded on August 6th, 2957, in the southern San Marcos city of Caxias do Sul. The company manufactures the bodies for a whole range of coaches, ranging from a small passenger coach, to an average intercity variant, to its touring coach. Marcopolo produces all the modern coaches in the San Marcos territories, and exports its popular “Paradiso 1200” touring coaches world-wide. Currently Marcopolo has two manufacturing plants in San Marcos and assembly plants in both San Isabel, and Tragnar for their domestic markets. The company has been importing technology from the Capellan Confederation, and maintains its international importance, exporting its vehicles across the globe.

Rossi Residencial was the second largest San Marcos construction company, and operated in real estate and residential construction. Present in most communities across San Marcos from its headquarters in the capital and in regional offices located in major cities. In the wake of the 3025 riots and civil disorder, the company has risen to become the largest construction companies left in San Marcos. It has largely taken over salvage operations in the last few years, usually for local warlords who are always willing to sell access to their abandoned manufacturing plants for hard cash.

Rossi takes part in all phases of a real estate venture, from exploration of the land, to the planning of the project, through construction for sale, and delivery of property. Rossi Residencial is part of the Rossi Group, founded in 2921, the company is one of the leading groups of engineering, construction and incorporation in San Marcos. The company has for generations, generated a reputation of not just turning profits, but working closely with the government on national projects, and lending a hand in often overlooked aspects of any national works project. It has one of the most technological and innovative approaches to engineering on the planet.

Vivo : Legally known as Telefônica San Marcos, Vivo is the largest telecommunications company in San Marcos, formerly headquartered in Paulo. The company was originally formed as part of Telebrás, the state-owned telecom monopoly at the time, but in 3018, Telebrás was demerged and privatized, with Vivo consolidating its subsidiaries under the single Vivo brand.

The Vivo company remains viable and is one of the last visible remnants of the former united country, though it lacks any central cohesion and direction, despite having a new headquarters in Federale City.

Votorantim Group : Votorantim Group is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Terramatrix, operating in various sectors such as finance, energy, cement, steel, and pulp and paper among others. The group’s different holdings include; Atacocha (Mining), Banco Votorantim (Finance); Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio (Aluminium), Citrosuco (Agriculture), Fibria (Pulp and Paper), Milpo (Mining), Votorantim Cimentos (Cement), Votorantim Energia (Energy), Votorantim Metais (Mining), _Votorantim Siderurgia (Cement), VNN (Private Venture Capital). Founded in 2927 by the Ermírio Moraes family, an engineer, the company has grown steadily over time, until it was the largest privately-owned conglomerate in the world.

The company faced numerous set-backs during the 3025 riots, and has managed to remain afloat, due to its world-wide status and diversity. Today, its international holdings and companies remain the only reason this company still exists, as the company has largely moved its headquarters into The Republic of Carbina, following the nuclear destruction of Paulo in early-3026. Algoa is largely an extension of this company today, and the companies seem destined to merge with outside investment.

WEG Industries : WEG is an industry headquartered in Jaraguá do Sul, San Marcos, operating worldwide in the electric engineering, power and automation technology areas. The company produces electric motors, generators, transformers, drives and coatings, and is the largest electric motor manufacturer on Terramatrix. The need for its resources has kept the company afloat despite recent losses, and today, WEG Industries is attempting market its products world-wide, by offering great licensing deals. The New Republic of Sangria in particular, has been seen as a potential market for its goods. The company is based from Federale City today, though it has interests elsewhere.

Retail

Habib’s : Habib’s is a San Marcos fast food company that specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine. It has more than a three dozen outlets (many of them self-owned franchises) across the country and has recently begun expansion into foreign markets. It is known for very low prices and exotic dishes. Middle Eastern dishes are very popular in San Marcos as they represent a nice change in the traditional Spanish cuisine.

The company continues to remain popular across the nation.