Any family that has been in existence  long enough has its bizarre pecadilloes, its unseemly habits and its nasty little secrets to conceal.  Our family, our clan, the Renfield clan, can claim no exception.  

Our lineage traces back  to the Revenants; travelers who entered this universe from a dark, wonderful and  heavily-populated universe called the Omnisverse.  The Revenants were inhabitants of the oldest homeworld of the celestial group that  comprised the Sovereign Territories of Abyssia.  Their zeal for science and sociology was known throughout the Omnisverse and when the first Abyssians punched through the barrier that separated the Universes the discovery was hailed  as the greatest scientific achievement of its time. 

However, the celebration was short-lived.   The environment in the new Universe was a clear contradiction to the measured and never-ending twilit worlds of Abyssia.  The extreme temperatures of heat and cold, the blazing light and obscure dark were as foreign to the natures of the Revenants as they could have ever conceived.  It changed them.  Even within the scientific communities of Abyssia the new Universe was referred to by it's colloquial designation... "the Paradox."   When the first several groups of Revenant explorers returned home it was determined that they had undergone radical changes in temperment and physiology as a result of their contact with the place they wandered into.  After unsuccessful attempts to reintegrate and mainstream those who had suffered prolonged exposure to the Paradoxan environment and fearing possible contagion and contamination of the homeworld, legislation was passed that banished and confined to the Paradox, all those stricken with the exposure.

That unfortunte group of Abyssian travelers and their heirs  whose venerable lineage stretches back millennia, but who have been confined to this desolate plain became the monsters  the Paradoxans  glibly and incorrectly refer to as “vampires.”  It is our connection to this ancestry which is key to our prominence, unearthly powers, and near immortality in the world our ancestors and their progeny call “the Paradox.”

For millenia our family, the Renfield family lived in relative wealth and security until the late 1890’s when an ambitious member of our clan grew increasingly dissatisfied with the family’s nearly 9000 year legacy as what he termed “mere custodians” to the powerful and  increasingly ruthless Revenants. Driven mad by "the appetite" an insatiable lust for blood,  and a desire for power he broke our ancient code of silence and betrayed a Strigan Revenant, a Transylvanian Count surnamed Dracul by his Paradoxan enemies.

When an Irish–born writer, Bram Stoker chronicled the kinsman’s perversions and insanity referring to him by the family name, the entire clan was affected by the taint.  Wherever we made our homes on the six habitable continents one after another we were toppled from positions of power and influence. We were forced to hide in little-known hamlets and out of the way places in the Paradox. Some of us were even able to take refuge in Abyssia, the ancestral home world of the Revenants until sufficient time had passed whereby we could safely return.

Upon our return we sought to reestablish standing with our Revenant cousins.  However, unlike their erudite and civil counterparts in the Abyss, the Paradoxan Revenants who had become even more violent, ruthless and indolent met our request to begin anew with the imposition of cruel and near humiliating conditions.  Left with few options, in order to regain what had been lost I was required to make a decision.  Under extreme pressure and counter to the counsel of my husbands, Aaron and Sebastian, on behalf of  our people  in the Paradoxan 1915  I entered into THE HUNDRED YEARS' COMPACT  a draconian agreement whereby we bartered our collective minds, bodies and wills to the uses of our  Revenant cousins in return for protection, patronage and the opportunity to regain our foothold in the Paradox. The position was extremely unpopular with as many Revenants as it was with Renfields but in my view such an action could not be avoided without significant bloodshed on either side.

Moving ahead nearly one hundred years, assisted by Revenant wealth and resources, we've built our Empire, but this time with a mind to insulating ourselves from the vagaries and and whims of the Paradoxan world around us. We have evolved into Renfield International, a multi-trillion dollar corporate entity wielding more material resources and power than many nations.

With vast material wealth and variety of hereditary advantages at our disposal, it would appear that we would be gods in the Paradox… except for the fact that we are virtually slaves to the whims of the Paradoxan Revenants who despite our nearly identical abilities and our superior immunities, continue to regard us as less than equal.

Honor and the law of the Corvus Corax dictate that we fulfill our obligation. However, as the close of the Hundred Years' Contract approaches, the Revenants have become arrogant and have been aggressively seeking to extend the obligation.  Though there is arguably some merit to a few of their arguments, an extension does not sit well within the Renfield rank and file who have, for too many years, felt the sting of Revenant insult and oppression.  It has become apparent that Sebastian is more than prepared to use force if necessary to insure that the contract is terminated and there are whispers that the Revenants, though small in number have done the unthinkable to improve their odds.

2015 approaches swiftly on Raven's wings and no one knows which way the wind will turn.

~ Y.S. Renfield, Praefect Consanguinei

 

THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE CORPORATION     
ADDRESS

There is simply no finer journey to be undertaken by a family than one which elevates the work of its collective minds and hands to a common purpose.  Our work, the embodiment of which  is this worthy institution,  Renfield International is a crucible of our noble blood, perseverance, skill and sacrifice.

We the architects and builders, the mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles of Renfield have, true to our heritage, raised this Empire to  a level of prosperity, unequalled and unparalleled by any in history.  What many thought could not be done has been achieved and has surpassed even our greatest expectations.

In the past the Paradoxans by sheer numbers alone posed a continuing potential threat to our security.  This potential has been virtually eliminated through advances in technology and training spearheaded by our Director of Corporate Security. 

In less than one hundred years through the focused work of our financial and manufacturing divisions we have become nearly self-sufficient and self-sustaining economically. We have not accepted any form of support from the Paradoxan Revenants since 1967 and actually began supporting the majority of the Revenants with subsidies in 1973.  From the beginning of the year 1990 all Paradoxan Revenants have been receiving some form of subsidy from Renfield International, subsidies that are generated from your hard work and dedication to our great cause.

2015 promises to be the beginning of a new, open and unfettered era for Renfield International.  Our goal in the coming years will be to extend our present success moving beyond the Paradox and into the Abyssian Homeworld for the benefit of our progeny who should rightfully inherit what we have earned with the price of our blood. 

~Marcello Sebstian Forza, VI
  President, CEO
  Renfield International


QUARTERLY REPORT FROM THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS AND ENFORCEMENT

With the commencement of the Abyssian New Year, there has been a marked rise in tensions between the in-house Renfield agents and their Revenant charges.  We have received several complaints of abuse by our Renfield operatives and as many complaints from their Revenants charges of insubordination and presumed retaliations.


For decades we focused on the Paradoxan threat and threats from outsiders. I as much as anyone else was admittedly unprepared for the rise in violence between those of us who share the same Abyssian bloodlines.

Both the Board of Directors and Executive Committees based upon rumors, both substantiated and unsubstantiated reveal that a number of those we refer to as Rebels (our Renfield brothers and sisters who have for reasons unknown, broken ties with the family) are in league with a cadre of Paradoxan Revenants who intend to do all they deem necessary to upset the smooth transition from the contractual obligation period to a post-contractual Renfield/Revenant society.

For the first time in our history, Investigations and Enforcement is constrained to look inward, at our own siblings, parents and cousins as the perpetrators of crimes against our society.  As a people we are all being asked to practice vigilance in our personal and professional relationships to minimize destruction to the fabric of our empire and to weather the storm that is brewing in our midst.

~Ramona Stone Forza Renfield
  Director, Investigation and Enforcement
  Renfield International Corporation