The desire to improve the human race has, perhaps ironically, repeatedly led to some
of the greatest tragedies in mankind’s history.
When combined with the worst aspects of corporate greed, the seeds of human extinction, rather
than its ascendance, were planted.
And they were planted gleefully, without consideration or restraint, by an organization fully aware
of the danger they posed and that nevertheless raced towards it.
Under the Umbrella Corporation, life and death became commodities, to be bought, sold and
traded.
The organization that would grow to become the Umbrella Corporation has its origins in
the personal association of Dr. Oswell E. Spencer, Dr. James Marcus and Dr. Edward Ashford,
5th Earl of Ashford.
Originally university classmates, they shared a mutual interest in eugenics with Dr. Spencer
in particular, inspired by the unique mutagenic biology of a black mold he discovered within
a Village in Eastern Europe.
After graduating, each would become a prominent figure within the eugenics movements of the
early 20th century, either personally or more indirectly.
Eager to find other substances that shared the properties of the Black Mold, the group
became enamored with the Stairway of the Sun, a mythical flower said to bestow powers on
those who consume it.
The trio suspected this was the result of a mutagenic viral infection, and traveled
to the Ndipaya Tribal Lands in West Africa to find the flower.
The discovery of the Stairway to the Sun within an underground garden confirmed the presence
of a virus within it, later named the Progenitor-Virus.
While not entirely similar to the Black Mold, it appeared much better suited to furthering
the doctor's eugenics research.
Flowers later cultivated in the United States however, failed to replicate the virus, requiring
the doctors to maintain a permanent presence on Ndipaya land.
Previously reliant on the personal wealth and aristocratic connections of Dr. Ashford
and now faced with an opportunity well beyond his ability to fund, the group founded Umbrella
Pharmaceuticals in 1968 and began seeking investors.
The company’s name and emblem were inspired by the heraldry of the “Four Houses”,
an alliance of noble families that controlled the village Dr. Spencer visited in his youth.
The United States Military was an early investor in the company, with government funding covering
much of Umbrella’s research and development.
A company facility was established near the Ndipaya Garden, and samples of the flower
were regularly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.
Through experimentation with the Progenitor Virus, Umbrella developed the means to repair
and revitalize dead cells.
Though exposing humans and animals directly to the unaltered virus remained fatal.
Nevertheless, this discovery enabled the company to generate vast revenue through conventional
pharmaceutical products, while also conducting more experimental and dangerous research in
secret.
Notably, research on the Progenitor Virus was decentralized, with Spencer, Ashford,
and Macus each conducting their own experiments independently from one another.
Dr. Marcus would achieve a notable breakthrough in 1978, with a test subject infected with
a modified Progenitor Virus surviving what had before been a universally deadly process.
Those infected however were universally aggressive, cannibalistic, suffered a loss of intelligence
and significant necrosis.
This strain of the Progenitor Virus would be coined the “T-Virus”.
With the T-Virus, Umbrella was able to develop a new generation of bioweapons for the United
States Military.
A major success in this field was the creation of “Bio Organic Weapons”, artificially-altered
organisms well suited for military applications.
This however, was purely to fund the trio’s true goal: forcing the evolution of humanity
into a superior form of life.
The decentralized nature of their research and the uneven success of Umbrella’s founders,
lead to increased friction, jealousy and disputes between them.
After Dr. Ashford’s death a decade earlier in 1968, this evolved into an intense rivalry
between Doctors Spencer and Marcus.
Despite this, Umbrella expanded enormously in the 1980s, with new subsidiaries and divisions
established as part of a larger restructure, culminating in a new name to reflect its more
considerable holdings: the Umbrella Corporation.
With their unethical and commonly fatal research into the T-Virus proceeding at an exponential
rate, the company began devoting more and more resources to concealing these experiments.
Company executives became especially concerned with the work of Dr. Marcus, who was considered
careless and excessive in his use of company trainees as subjects for experimentation.
Dr. Marcus was executed in 1988 by corporate security, and the nature of his experiments
was covered up.
Though family members of Dr. Marcus and Dr. Ashford would remain involved in the Umbrella
Corporation; they were limited to mainly secondary or administrative roles.
With his co-founders gone, Dr. Spencer’s influence over the Umbrella Corporation was
unchallenged.
For the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s, Umbrella was especially concerned with a subset
of the human population with a natural immunity to the T-Virus.
Numerous variations were developed to circumvent this, and improve upon the original effects.
The G-Virus especially was seen as a promising candidate, affecting much more dramatic mutations
in human beings and theoretically capable of creating the superhumans that Spencer desired.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was enormously beneficial to the Umbrella Corporation,
with reduced government oversight enabling the expansion of corporate facilities and
laboratories throughout Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
It also encouraged Umbrella to greatly expand its private military companies and paramilitary
subsidiaries.
The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service, the Umbrella Security Service, and Umbrella
Intelligence Division aggressively hired former warsaw pact soldiers, mercenaries and terrorists
that had grown dissilisioned with the socialist movement.
Though seemingly at its apex in the late 1990s, Umbrella’s growth and revenue began to decline
amidst systemic industrial espionage and internal destabilization.
Chinese State Enterprises were believed to have infiltrated Umbrella while several incidents
within company facilities heavily set back the output of research.
It was the Raccoon City tragedy in 1998 however, that would ultimately destroy the company.
In 1998, a series of outbreaks occurred within Umbrella facilities throughout the Arklay
Mountains.
Animals and humans infected with the T-Virus attacked local communities and tourists, drawing
the attention of neighboring Raccoon City officials.
Though the economy of Raccoon City was enormously dependant on the Umbrella Corporation, and
the the nature of these deaths could likely have been covered up by company influence,
Dr. William Birkin, one of the lead developers of the T and G viruses, made plans to betray
the company and turn his work over to the US Government.
Dr. Birkin’s haste to finish his work led to further outbreaks as lengthy safety procedures
were increasingly ignored.
Without a coordinated effort to limit its spread, the T-Virus entered Raccoon’s city
drinking water and tens of thousands became infected.
The infection of a metropolitan center by an Umbrella derived, artificial virus was
a disaster for the company, though attempts were made to capitalize on the unique opportunities
such an incident presented.
For the first time, Umbrella was able to see the effects of their virus on a large population,
as well as gauge the effectiveness of the Bio-Organic Weapons and paramilitary teams
deployed to respond to the outbreak.
During the crisis, Umbrella specifically targeted certain members of Raccoon City’s Special
Tactics and Rescue Service, whose own investigations into the company threatened to expose the
full nature of their involvement.
As the outbreak continued to spread throughout Raccoon City and the death toll approached
100,000, Umbrella anticipated the United States Army and National Guard would quickly supplement
its own attempts to both contain the T-Virus and bury evidence implicating Umbrella.
Instead, federal forces retreated from the city, and a contingency plan was implemented.
Raccoon City was instead destroyed by a Thermobaric weapon, an act too big for any kind of coverup.
With the unethical human experimentation and other immoral practices of Umbrella slowly
revealed to the public, the United States Government opened an investigation into the
company.
Though many of the worst aspects of Umbrella, including their use of bio-organic weapons
was never fully revealed, what details did leak were enough to see the company nationalized
and its operations suspended.
Though its international elements attempted to legally contest the decision, the expense
of doing so pushed the company into further decline.
Elements of the company increasingly went rogue, flooding the black market with bioweapons,
and even attempting to blackmail national governments to prevent their use.
Finally in 2003, detailed evidence of Umbrella’s crimes destroyed any chance of reversing the
American government’s decision.
The Umbrella Corporation was dissolved and Dr. Spencer, its last surviving founder, fled
the country.
At its peak, the Umbrella Corporation was a multinational conglomerate with hundreds
of subsidiaries operating in nearly every country on Earth.
Though its principal sector was the pharmaceutical industry, the corporation was involved in
everything from luxury cruise lines, to weapons development, and the production of consumer
goods.
Throughout its history, it was one of the largest employers in the United States and
leveraged its position to attain enormous influence across the world.
Due to both the decentralized, eclectic nature of its founders, and the immoral research
it pursued, the facilities operated by the Umbrella Corporation were unique for a company
of its size.
While a conventional administrative headquarters was established in Europe, most of the company’s
research and development was conducted in more unusual facilities.
These included the private residences of its founders, former military bases purchased
from the American government, and hidden laboratories.
The company's internal operations were likewise unusual, and at times contradictory.
The Umbrella Corporation was a mammoth institution, but one divided between its stated aim of
producing conventional pharmaceuticals, its secret experiments with mutagenic viruses,
and the more philosophical desires expressed by its founders for a superior human race.
The intermingling of these elements produced a labyrinthe of secret directives, clandestine
departments, internal factions, rivalries and competing developments.
These would all be further complicated by the unrestrained and irresponsible capitalism
displayed by the company, where destructive growth was always prioritized.
The corporate bloat within the Umbrella Corporation was exemplified in its Private Military Corporations.
These were originally cultivated to respond to outbreaks and provide security for Umbrella’s
operations, but over their lifespan were increasingly directed to repress and constrain Umnbrella’s
employees.
An internal investigation division known as the Monitors in particular quickly expanded
well beyond the conventional role of corporate security department, resembling instead a
kind of secret police.
By the time of its dissolution, the company had illegally acqquired vast amounts of military
equipment, and even operated a sizable air-arm with UH-60 blackhawk helicopters, AH-6 Little
Birds, CH-53 Sea Stallions, and even AV-8 Harrier fighter jets.
Though Umbrella itself has been dismantled, its immense size has prevented the totality
of its assets from ever being seized or even accounted for.
Instead, many of its branches, divisions, and satellite companies have either attempted
to continue their work under new names, or disappeared entirely to become illegal non-state
actors.
Whatever the company was or aspired to be, it is now instead a malevolent presence, one
whose influence will be felt for decades.
to come.