Corporations

Omni Corporation
One of the most prominent conglomerates of the modern day, Omni Corporation was the first to get a handle on the war with the Others. It was a major arms supplier for the Allied Powers just before the Great Conflagration. When humanity turned backed towards magic, Omni paved the way in its martial applications. Guns and tanks could only go so far against the armies of every kind of Other. They needed a heavy hitter.

In the words of Sun Tzu, know your enemy. Omni went so far as to become its enemy. Funds and resources were reallocated to the Paranormal Division. Once the laughing stock of the company, the PD researched all the monsters of legend and developed means in which to duplicate them. Dr. Liam Cos, the lead researcher, fell in love with the werewolf. Chances were he wasn’t going to just recruit some. He was going to have to create them.

In time, Cos’ research team discovered the latent genetic trait that the magic required in order to bind to a new host and empower them. Not satisfied to simply create new werewolves, Omni sought to increase their effectiveness by creating new species of werecreatures that emphasized different traits of other predatory animals like strength, speed, or stealth. The major weretypes are wolf, bear, and large cat. After many failures, they finally managed to accomplish this by introducing a retrovirus that recombined the subjects DNA while the magic bonded to the body. Alone the retrovirus would have killed the subject because its purpose was to completely rewrite their DNA, turning them into another creature, but the magic of the curse fused with the changes being made. It treated them as if they were a sacrifice and bound the essence of the new creature to the host instead of that of the wolf.

Once Omni had perfected its methods, the company proposed their idea for enhanced soldiers to the government. Out of desperation the government agreed, and began screening their best soldiers for the required genetic markers. These soldiers became the first generation of the New Breed, trained soldiers empowered by the magical curse, able to become not only wolves but: lions, cheetahs, bears, and many others. The addition of the New Breed to the human forces was a boon humanity, but the rarity of the genetic trait made them a valuable commodity. With no end to the war in sight, the Omni Corporation began to breed their soldiers to one another in order to spawn the next generation of soldiers. Driven by war, mankind now bred, and trained children to be soldiers in an unending war.

When the war ended the peace treaty that was signed stipulated the immediate cessation of all creation of augmented individuals, as well as the discharge of any such individual in military service. The New Breed that were both created and bred by Omni Corp. for military service were removed from active duty and set free to follow their own destinies. Since werecreatures are now a viable sentient species and existed before the creation of the New Breed, no regulations on their breeding was written into the wording of the treaty. The futures of their various species are entirely in their own hands.

President and CEO: David Ebanks
Vice President: Kristen O’Loughlin
Director of Military Research: Col. Robert Prendergast
Director of the Paranormal Division: Dr. Jonas Hill


Paladin
The goody too shoes of the human corporations, Paladin sided with the newly reformed Church. They prefer to stay away from arcane weapons and use solely technological ones. Entire research teams captured Others (usually alive) to learn everything about their biology. Their take on “Know your enemy” was to refine their knowledge of what made their enemy tick. Paladin was the beacon of cold efficiency during the Conflagration. They saw themselves as part of a divine crusade but wished to end the conflict as soon as possible. History has proven that no crusade is ever short, however.

Paladin’s headquarters is located in Bastion very close to the Temple of the Divine Collective. This way, goods can almost literally come off the production line and into the hands of the Clerics who will be utilizing them. It was founded by Carmine Valenzano. The CEO position has been handed down through the generations. Alessa Valenzano is the current head of Paladin. Her brother Gregorio is the corporation’s liaison to the Collective and proposes and turns their needs into provisions.


New Dawn
While most of the companies result to war machines, New Dawn is a strictly commercial company. They saw combining magic with technology as the next step for consumerism. The nuclear ordinance dropped over Japan led humanity to wonder what other energy sources were out there. Did anything produce more energy than a nuclear reaction? It turned out that magic was more sustainable then the radioactive substances or even conventional methods. New Dawn even came out with an automobile prototype that worked off manna instead of the internal combustion engine. This breakthrough caught a lot of attention and customers wanted whatever the next big product was going to be.

New Dawn came out with all new sorts of gadgets that made homelife easier. That was a welcome sight considering the Children of Terra could attack whenever and wherever. The civilians needed distractions while their families fought or otherwise assisted in the Great Conflagration. Magic allowed once bulky devices to become much smaller, which meant that the humans could buy more New Dawn products.

Of course, companies like Paladin tried to sabotage New Dawn’s rising fame. They spread propaganda showing what would happen if the manna power sources ever failed (most of which were later disproven as hoaxes, but a significant amount of the earlier claims were true enough to warrant suspicion). These other companies also tried to persecute New Dawn as attempting to flood homes with magic so that the Other armies could file through like Trojan Horses on every street. It became apparent down the line that New Dawn dishwashers with cleaning enchantments to eliminate even the most caked on residues would not spawn an army of water elementals. Sales soared through the roof after the Cataclysm now that the war was over and citizens no longer had to worry about saving money anymore.

New Dawn was founded by Hikaru Tanaka, a Japanese immigrant that had once been interred in America. He was given a new chance at life, a new dawn if you will, after V-J Day (Victory in Japan) and started up this corporate empire to make post war life enjoyable again. Currently, it is one of the few major companies to employ Others. However, New Dawn will more than likely always be run by a human. Like Paladin, New Dawn has also stayed in its founder’s family. Unlike Paladin, New Dawn does not have the same empirical dynasty. It’s just that no one else has dreamed of steering it away from the vision which Hikaru laid down. New Dawn is currently headed by River Tanaka-Smith. Her husband Julian oversees all the financials of the corporation. Her brothers serve as the regional directors for the office branches dotted around the globe.


Umbra
Hidden in the shadows of each society, Umbra delights in the jobs that civilized people would never do. But someone has to do it. Most of what they do is not strictly legal. The current peace treaties restrict Omni Corporation from producing new lycanthropes, but Umbra has continued the research. They sell this information to Omni but send Paladin the weapons with which to kill the new creations. Umbra reveled in working on both sides of the fence without the other learning what was going on.

Information is their primary goods. Corporate spies are dispatched around the world. Whatever data is collected gets reviewed by analysts. The juicy bits get sent back as blackmail. If the company refuses to pay, Umbra opens up an underground auction house to sell the trade secrets. They even carried out contracts with the Children of Terra just to collect more power. The Court of Shadow loaned out several of their best spies to train their new human counterparts on how to infiltrate the Other governments. Nothing Umbra did would be traced back to the Court of Shadow, and a beautiful friendship was formed.

It is still business as usual for Umbra, even after ten years of peace. There are always secrets to discover and someone willing to pay even more for them. Umbra has neither headquarters nor any one entity running the show. As such, there has never been a power struggle. Everyone works together for the same cut. It’s almost like the perfect utopia of thieves and assassins. Many members do still have ‘day’ jobs. Contacts come in out like mailmen (many of which actually are) with new assignments. The job gets done, they get paid, and then they wait for the next job. Someone has to be delegating these tasks, but no one cares who that person is.

The money is just too good to ask questions.