John Pitchardson Rex

John Pitchardson Rex, also known as John P. Rex Jr., was a palaeontologist and geologist from Lhûmar. He was most well known for his former role as the CEO of the Gen II Corporation, and his role in the Macmar Island Incident as key to the escape of the survivors.

Early Life (898-937 ACA)
John Pitchardson Rex was born in Lhûmar in 898 ACA. He was raised among the upper class Rex family and from early on pursued a life outside of the political empire that the Rex family had become. Instead he looked to pursue his passion of palaeontology, something that ultimately left him cast out from the family. After the Rex family was put in jeopardy during the War in Ryzan, Rex decided that he must part ways with the rest of the family for the sake of chasing his own goals and continuing his own safety. He instead decided to move back to Lhûmar, where he would pick up what remained of the Rex's legacy and use it to move forward. He would raise his brother Bjorn Rex in Aurlunoren culture, hoping to move him away from the politics of his predecessors and settle down to live a private life. However, once Bjorn Rex moved to Qamiya to reunite with his true family, the Khamen Clan, John moved to new projects. With recent funds from his promotion in the Rathnir Paleontological Society, he hoped to start his own genetics company to bring a childhood dream to life.

Gen II and Macmar Island Incident (937-949 ACA)
With new investors backing John's promise of a fully functional prehistoric island resort by 947 ACA, the Gen II Corporation was founded, with the purpose of bringing the prehistoric attractions to life. With the assistance of Logistics Manager Garend Blue & Chief Geneticist Vitruvius Dil, Rex gathered the equivalent of $278,000 in raw dinosaur specimens for DNA extraction. This heavily increased their chances of success, and with yet another successful business venture, the Voyage Of The West, uncovering multiple islands for their new resort, work began on Macmar Island, codenamed 'Site A'. However, the sheer size of the production facilities meant that a second island had to be bought to accommodate the new laboratory facilities. An island of the Malkkengarun Archipelago was bought from the leftover Zashit for a hefty sum of money, despite their ancestors having left the islands 6,000 years earlier. This island was later conned 'Site B'. Despite this, however, things would go horribly wrong during the early access guest showcase, where a group of elite paleontologists & businessmen were put in jeopardy, as a storm caused an island-wide power shutdown. This left the group of untrained guests to survive until an emergency boat safely extracted them from Macmar Island 34 hours later. This would become known as the Macmar Island Incident. Shortly afterwards, the same storm would sweep southwards and hit the Malkkengarun Archipelago 2 days after the Macmar Island Incident, creating a similar effect which resulted in the deaths of 27 Site B workers before a rescue boat evacuated the remaining staff 945 ACA. This catastrophic chain of events caused a 34% loss of shares in the company, as they had to cover for over $16,000,000 in damages, liabilities and settlements. Finally, in 947 ACA, John resigned as CEO of the Gen II Corporation after successfully making Site A a restricted area. He handed off the company to Logistics Manager Garend Blue after the untimely death of Vitruvius Dil during the Macmar Incident. The wounds he had suffered during the Macmar Island Incident did not heal for a long time, and as a result the now-Minister of Demographics Bjorn Rex Shan Khamen al-Qamiya took care of him in Shui Manor until his wounds healed in 949 ACA.

Conflict with Gen II (949-959 ACA)
John would ultimately make a full recovery by 949 ACA, however it was advised that he walk on a cane nonetheless. Shortly after this, he would return to the world of palaeontology and continue his role as Chief Palaeontologist of the Rathnir Palaeontological Society. He would use spare money to construct an official headquarters for the Society in Lhumar, where fossils will be gathered from across the world to be examined and potentially put on display in the Lhumar Museum next door. He would continue working with Tara Sauranis and Mal Kordonus despite the Macmar Incident.

Mal's associates at the Fislankif Institute of Natural Sciences (F.I.N.S.) would later enter a legal battle alongside Rex over actions committed by Gen II on Macmar Island after the Restricted Zone was put over the island, which included them as it specifically stated that "all parties involved with Macmar Island or not are now prohibited from going within 10 nautical miles of the island's shoreline." Despite this, Gen II would have the case dismissed. Legal battles would continue over the course of the year over many subjects, with Gen II either dismissing or winning the case the majority of the time.

In 956 ACA, a large group of confidential files from Gen II's library were leaked to the public. One of the Rex Family's affiliates, Carthya Djennik, reported on the matter, as well as the family-run TV networks RNBC. This led to suspicion on Rex's involvement in the leak, however he has since published a statement saying that he was not involved in the initial leak, he simply relayed the information to local news outlets.

The Malkkengarun Incident (960 ACA)
In 960 ACA, Rex, alongside a small group comprised of Tara Sauranis, Mal Kordonus, Spyral Ulburnr, Pablito Elquagero & Eman Rowell would travel to the abandoned Gen II facility 'Site B' (located in the Malkkengarun) for the purpose of documenting the dinosaurs in a wild environment, after an absence of humanity for 15 years. The group, nicknamed 'Survivors' also served the purpose of preventing any form of Gen II operation from taking place on the island, in the event that the two were on the island at the same time. Sauranis arrived on the island around 3 days prior to the rest of the group, and operations formally began on the 12th Heicane, 960 ACA, with the group intending on staying on the island for 27-31 days for the purpose of maximum research, as well as potential investigation of the status of the old facility.

However, problems would arise, as on the same day, a group of Gen II-hired mercenaries arrived on the island and began capturing the dinosaurs, in order to ship them out to the new mainland facility in Aurlunor-Ryzan. This plan would fail, as the Survivors released the caged animals into their base camp under the cover of darkness, destroying most necessary equipment, including radios and vehicles. The Survivors would also have their equipment destroyed after an Andisaurus tracked a vial of it's blood back to their base camp, sending their vehicles over a cliff with the rest of their equipment inside. This forced the Gen II team and the Survivors to work together, embarking on a 1.5 day trek across the island to the abandoned Site B facility, from which they were rescued after a brief chase around the Worker's Camp and Embryonic Administration. During this disaster, Rex would suffer dangerous wounds, wounds that would ultimately come back to bite him.

Return to Gen II (960-977 ACA)
After the death of Garend Blue during the Malkkengarun Incident, Rex returned to the position of CEO of the Gen II Corporation in 960 ACA, and successfully set up the Joint Restriction Zone over the former Gen II facilities, shifting the company's focus towards naturalism and beginning closer ties to the Aurlunoren-Ryzani government, for the purpose of new forms of funding and moving on to more secretive projects. A lot of rumours circulated at this time, namely the rumours of experiments being carried out quietly on the dinosaurs on Site B, as well as the development of potentially dangerous hybridisation technologies. While these rumours have not been fully confirmed, it was clarified that during the Second Rex Administration, the Human Studies Project was began sometime around 972 ACA under the supervision of Dr. Robert Gilmore, Dr. Crockett Gideon & Commodore Bjorn Rex Shan Khamen, while Rex's health had began to fail. Doctors later diagnosed him with sepsis from multiple of his wounds, which eventually forced him to resign as CEO of Gen II in 977 ACA over health concerns, leaving the position to Dr. Robert Gilmore.

Death (978 ACA)
Rex's sepsis diagnosis would ultimately worsen shortly after his resignation, and by late Núlanawe, 978 ACA, doctors did not believe he would last more than 2 years. During his final months, he was not visited by anyone as per his request, with the exception of his half-brother Bjorn Rex, and his successor Dr. Gilmore. It was never disclosed what these conversations were about, however they were reported to last anywhere between 2 hours and 2 days. His last visitor was his half-brother, before he was due to appear in court in early Vinimas. Rex spent his final month in complete solitude, bedbound and slipping in and out of consciousness. Finally, on the 23rd Sanyacis, 978 ACA, John Pitchardson Rex passed away at the age of 80, an incredibly young age for a Celestial Elf, but a long life nonetheless.

Legacy (Post-Mortem)
The legacy of John Pitchardson Rex is a mixed one. He was the man either directly or indirectly responsible for some of the most world-changing events in recent history, such as Gen II and the Macmar/Malkkengarun Incidents, which were adapted into one of the most famous book series' in Rathnir history, with The Rex Project: Part I & The Rex Project: Part II being critically acclaimed novels. His work in the scientific field has been hugely beneficial to both medicine & biology.

On the other hand, Rex has left a trail of destruction in his wake. The Macmar Island Incident & the Malkkengarun Incident resulted in a total of 27 deaths, people who were killed indiscriminately by Rex's creations. Many people, including those part of the Tour Group and the Survivors have been personally affected because of what they have been put through over the years, and many are sure to be left feeling angry as, after all these years, Rex never did provide closure for those who were damaged or lost loved ones because of him. The Gen II Corporation as a result of these events has been riddled with corruption, greed and has a long history of violations of the law and seedy background transactions which have put thousands of lives at stake. The future of Gen II, and indeed the world, now rests in the hands of his successors, and whether or not they will uphold his values or return the company to it's previous form.