Magicorp
Magicorp Enterprises, Ltd. is a multinational corporate conglomerate headquartered in downtown Valysir known for their immense size, wide variety of services performed, and their CEO, Jimmy Richardson.
The corporation has direct ties and business activities in almost everything on earth, including including meat packing, mining and metal fabrication, public transit, and housing and urban development. They are also the owners and operators of the Valysirian Royal Penitentiary, a private prison regarded by many to be the most-secure prison in the world, as well as the Silver Cloak, a private army and constabulary force based in Valysir.
History
[edit | edit source]Early (Formation, rise to power)
[edit | edit source]Jimmy Richardson’s grandfather, James Richardson, Sr., established the company his grandson would eventually inherit about fifty years ago, and it began as a genuinely-honest business employing simple technology aided by magical techniques for consumer purposes. Richardson Sr. was a magical adept who studied at the world’s premier magic college at an advanced age (only thanks to his own father being acquaintances with the dean) and began his working life as a young teenager running a newspaper and mail route.
His two chief inventions in the very beginning of Magicorp Ltd. were two things: A magic-powered bicycle with wheels that turn by themselves, and a paper boy’s bag that, when the operator’s hand was inserted into it, would magically sort out each customer’s mail and newspapers.
The fledgling business was an astounding, almost-immediate success, and a novel endeavor for the time. Richardson drove most of his competitors out of business or on the verge of bankruptcy by the time he was twenty-five. It faced moderate pushback from some communities of people, mainly mages, sorcerers, and other scholars, who argued that the use of magic aiding in commercial purposes was a slippery slope that could get out of hand, but Richardson Sr. eventually built up a warm reputation among his former critics as the years went on due to his careful nature, great services and products, and generous treatment of employees and consumers.
The senior Richardson’s success paved the way for him to become the world’s industry leader in logistics, and he was already branching out into other ventures. His logistics operation was, for over two decades, acclaimed by virtually everyone as being a fair, honest service. The profits it brought in allowed him to compensate his employees with exceptional, handsome pay and benefits, and in many of the world’s most-developed areas, a baby boom began that saw countless new families begin, including his own.
Second Generation
[edit | edit source]Richardson Sr. met his wife, Nancy, through his business, and they married just six months later. With her, he had three children: James William Richardson, Jr., Martin Huxley Richardson, and Alice Fae Richardson. As his firstborn, James Richardson Jr., or “Jim” as he was known by peers, was carefully and selectively groomed to assume his father’s role as the emperor of their logistics conglomerate. Martin and Alice were supported to the best of their ability by their father to do whatever they set their minds to, though both were naturally drawn to the family business due to the power and prestige that came with it.
Jim junior garnered a company reputation as being a spoiled brat who had everything in his life figured out by the time he was eight years old. His father could not see anything wrong in anything his son ever did. Naturally, the two formed a very close bond. Jim eventually found himself in the role of his father’s second-in-command, and a bittersweet displacement of James Sr.’s former second-in-command ensued. Jim married his fiancé, Jenny, shortly thereafter, and they had only one child: James William Richardson III.
Jim junior garnered a company reputation as being a spoiled brat who had everything in his life figured out by the time he was eight years old. His father could not see anything wrong in anything his son ever did. Naturally, the two formed a very close bond. Jim eventually found himself in the role of his father’s second-in-command, and a bittersweet displacement of James Sr.’s former second-in-command ensued. Jim married his fiancé, Jenny, shortly thereafter, and they had only one child: James William Richardson III.
Not long after Richardson III’s birth, the senior Richardson and emperor of the logistics dynasty passed away. Following what could only be described as a pseudo-state funeral, Jim assumed his father’s role immediately and took over the company. Now juggling his training wheels being off, his newborn son, his wife’s needs, and the pressures of bringing profit for the whinging, greedy shareholders his father carefully selected, Jim slipped into alcoholism and drug abuse to cope with his new circumstances, having been hit especially hard by his father’s passing.
Present
[edit | edit source]Nearly twenty years before the events of the first campaign, Jimmy Richardson murdered his father, Jim junior, to usurp control over the corporation and begin his own rise to power. He was never prosecuted for this crime due Magicorp's immense might in the legal system and responsibility for Valysir's higher standard of living.
Under Jimmy's reign, Magicorp established the Silver Cloak initially only in Valysir roughly a decade before the events of the first campaign, citing the failure of the country’s regular militia to stop an attack from a rogue sorcerer that resulted in casualties and loss of resources. As time progressed, however, the private militia became known as CEO's personal army and muscle, using them to intimidate and force favors out of everyone. Countless conspiracy theories have mounted as to the real reason why the militia was established.