Defeated? Defeated? No, no, the Cartel does not think so. The Cartel think we keep fighting. Defeat? Defeat only come when we all dead, fool.
—Orto Talki, a security officer of the Markran Cartel
The Cartel Republic of Markra, also known as the Markran Cartel State, was the official Markran government and representative of the Markran Cartel in the Diet of the Ethereal Demesnes. As an Oligarchic Demesne, Markra's politics were heavily focused on its economic priorities rather than social or diplomatic prospects. It was, however, regarded as one of the less-trustworthy of the Demesnes, and its public reputation regularly became muddled by allegations of misconduct and corruption.
Originally, Markra was settled as an early attempt at a colony by the Diet, however, unlike some of their other colonial ventures, it was rapidly plagued by economic difficulties. Its early industries never truly gained much strength, and its agricultural support came primarily from offworld for over a millennium. Thus, by the time of about 22,000 BBY, the Markran Cartel had arose, and rapidly unified all the domestic Markran economic sectors. With some brief support from the Diet and the Ethereal Houses, the Cartel rapidly managed to build Markra's first self-sustainable economy.
By about 21,000 BBY, the Cartel was granted a charter to officially take over governance of the Markra System from the Diet's governors. To the dismay of some in the Ethereal public, within a few generations of this change, the Cartel's government had gained a reputation for corruption and both governmental and corporate misconduct. As a result, a pattern was established for several millennia of Markran history; the Cartel would commit crimes too great to be ignored, the Diet would sanction them and send in observers to ensure they purged corruption and rules violations, the Cartel would eventually satisfy them enough to persuade a majority of the Diet to vote to remove the sanctions and observers, and, within a few generations, the Cartel would be caught committing crimes once again, restarting the cycle.
Eventually, the Cartel's reputation finally became just that; merely reputation. However, this change to self-regulation and active, constant anti-corruption activities was still considered recent by the time of the Great Galactic War, and, by the time of the Galactic Civil War, it still remained. The Cartel managed to turn this reputation to their advantage eventually, though; they were among the few Demesnes which could easily deal directly with elements of the galactic underworld, and so, on certain occasions, either on their own initiative or by secret order of the Diet, Markra would negotiate agreements with criminal elements of the Demesnes and the galaxy at large.