Maharlikan Federation

*"Our nation is a constellation, where every star shines."*

The Maharlikan Federation, formerly the Republic of the Philippines, is one of the lordships that emerged following the Millennium Coup. Created from the previously mentioned nation's territories, the Federation is a rapidly advancing society, labeled along with several of its neighbours as the Rising Tigers of Asia. It is ruled by Asturias Cervantes, a wraith within a Darkstone Construct with nearly unparalleled control over water. His Dynasty, the Cervantes, have been a leading factor in the metahuman community in South East Asia since long before the Coup, and they have been the heads of the newly christened Maharlika ever since.

## Government

The Maharlikan Federation is divided into the three main island subdivisions: Luzon, the largest island in the north; Visayas, the collection of islands in the center; and Mindanao in the south. Each of the three is ruled by one of the three siblings of Lord Asturias.

Luzon is by far the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan of the three subdivisions, owing to it being the former center of government and commerce during and before the first years of the Cervantes Dynasty. Manila and Lucena houses the busiest ports in the nation, while other cities, such as Makati, hold a high concentration of corporations and businesses that give millions of jobs for the population. Though it is no longer the national capital, Manila is still the most densely populated city in Maharlika, and it is from here that Alfonso Cervantes, the Ashen Drake, rules over Luzon. He is the most business minded of the three federal Lords in Maharlika, and is through his guidance that Luzon has remained the most economically powerful section of the country.

Visayas is ruled by the Teresa Cervantes the Hurricane, and is rapidly catching up to its northern neighbor in terms of economic strength. It benefits from its status as the site of the new capital, Cebu City, and by the day, increasing numbers of investors and businesses come to the Visayan islands in search of new fields at the stead of the comparatively overcrowded Luzon, or the embattled southern island of Mindanao.

Mindanao is the second largest and second most populated of the three geographical divisions of the Maharlikan Federation, though it is the least developed in general. Though settlements such as Davao and Zamboanga have been increasingly urbanized under the rule of Carroman Cervantes, vast areas of it remain as undeveloped hinterland. Some of these lands are controlled by Resistance aligned groups that still refuse the control of the central government to this day, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Communist New People's Army, and Aby Sayaff.

Cebu City and the surrounding metropolis is an autonomous region by itself ruled directly by Asturias Cervantes. It is here that the Cervantes Dynasty holds court and receives international envoys.

## Society

Though Maharlika might seem to be a homogenous society to outsiders, but this is very far from the truth. There is substantial ethnic diversity with the Federation, a product of the seas and mountain ranges dividing the archipelago along with significant foreign influences. 24.4% of the population are Tagalog, 11.4% Visayans/Bisaya (excluding Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray), 9.9% Cebuano, 8.8% Ilocano, 8.4% Hiligaynon, 6.8% Bikol, 4% Waray, and 26.2% are "others", which can be broken down further to yield more distinct non-tribal groups like the Moro, the Kapampangan, the Pangasinense, the Ibanag, and the Ivatan. There are also indigenous peoples like the Igorot, the Lumad, the Mangyan, the Bajau, and the tribes of Palawan.

There are around 2 million Chinese, mostly descendants of immigrants from Fujian in China, though around 20% of the population have partial Chinese ancestry due to centuries of intermingling. Other small groups include Japanese people descended from escaped Christians during the 16th century, White Russians from the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution, American citizens, Latin-Americans with roots to the Spanish era, and Koreans that were sent to the country in order to study.

## Economy

The Maharlikan Federation is a rising power in South East Asia that has experienced unprecedented growth. With the debts incurred during the Marcos Era rendered null and void by the Millennium Coup, the nation has been free to economically soar as one of the Rising Tigers of Asia, along with the likes of Indonesia and Malaysia. The people of Maharlika are wealthier and more secure than their ancestors, though Mindanao's development has been stunted by intense battles between government forces and various groups, especially the New People's Army. Towns and villages are constantly evacuated, resettled, and rebuilt in between these battles.

## Military

The Maharlikan Federation has developed into a naval power of its own right within South East Asia, possessing a sizable fleet suitable for patrolling and protecting its territorial waters from trespassers. It is its ground forces, however, that are the most experienced and battle hardened. The nation has a history of internal insurgencies dating to the times before the Metahuman Coup, leading to the Army constantly fighting in the jungles and mountains of the southern islands as well as the Cordillera Mountain Range in Luzon. Combat continues to this very day, as the nature of the nation's geography lends many hiding places.

The military is heavily augmented by metahumans, especially the Navy, which has an abundance of water elementals.

## Geography

The Maharlikan archipelago lies in Southeast Asia, and numbers some 7,641 islands. Maharlika occupies an area that stretches for 1,850 kilometers (1,150 mi) from about the fifth to the twentieth parallels north latitude. The total land area is 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), with cadastral survey data suggesting it may be larger. This makes it the fifth largest island country in the world. Only approximately 1,000 of its islands are populated, and fewer than one-half of these are larger than 2.5 square kilometers (1 sq mi). Eleven islands make up 95 percent of the Maharlikan landmass, and two of these — Luzon and Mindanao — measure 105,000 square kilometers (40,541 sq mi) and 95,000 square kilometers (36,680 sq mi), respectively. They, together with the cluster of islands in Visayas in between them, represent the three principal regions of the archipelago. Maharlika is broken up in many islands by the sea. This gives it the fifth longest coastline of 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi) in the world. The Exclusive economic zone of the Maharlikan Federation covers 2,263,816 km2 (874,064 sq mi), 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its shores.

A third of the island of Jolo in the far southern edge of the country has been submerged during the civil war that directly followed the Millennial Coup. It had served as a base of operations for the various groups that opposed the metahuman hegemony, and in response to this, metahuman forces, led by the powerful waterbender Asturias Cervantes, proceeded to ravage the low lying regions of Jolo. Members of the Resistance in Jolo that survived the war would then flee to Australia.