While the banks get fat
and the poor stay poor
and the rich get rich
and the cops get paid to look away
as the one percent rules America
-Queensryche, "Spreading the Disease"
Michaels, Janniver, and Bryce was actually formed in Boston, during the early 1800s. They were responsible for chartering and insuring many of the companies that engaged in trade with the West. Soon, instead of direct insurance, they were underwriting the insurance companies themselves, and ended up in a position to control what shipments were insured against attakc, and therefore what shipments were trusted by companies. This gave them an early lock on the entire market of the United States.
In 1840, after hearing small rumors of gold strikes in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the entire company up and moved its headquarters to the West Coast. Their competitors were glad for this, though none understood their motivation.
THey began investing heavilly in prospecting and mining claims, supporting most of the ventures that went into the Sierras. Once gold was finally found in large quantities, the rush began.
The reasons behind this masterstroke impressed the higher positions within the Syndicate. Here was the golden opportunity (pardon the pun) to turn the immense quintessence contained within gold and convert it into the more fluid Tass of money. This also gave them the strength necessary to begin massively undermining the gold standard for currency, untethering money from any sort of tangible, physical existence.
These assets were then channelled into underwritnig shipping and industrial ventures in the area, redistributing the massive Quint from the Sierras into the operations in the Bay Area.
Through it all, MJ&B has remained a quiet partner in many of the investment firms and banks of the Bay Area of California. They try to keep their name out of the papers and off the lips of the public, though their lawyers are known on sight by most of the investors, bankers, and corporate lawyers in the region.
Currently, they are one of the major "behind the scenes" players in the increasing frenzy for companies of all sizes to merge into more powerful, yet more easilly controlled conglomerates. It has been a vehicle to et many Syndicate plants into the upper management of some previously resistant companies.
The main offices of MJ&B are on the 34th and 35th floors of one of the taller buildings along the Embarcadero, a stretch of real-estate along the north end of Mission Blvd. Not on the top floor, nor near the bottom, they have a very low profile for a firm so influential in the San Francisco monetary markets.
The offices themselves are done in the typical pattern for the corporate-financial elite, somewhat large spaces with tropical plants in the corners, thick russet or burgundy carpet, mahogany desks, with a very crisp, businesslike feel. The secretaries are the most the average person sees, and their demeanor tends to be as crisp and businesslike as their environment. ANd normally includes a curt denial of a request to see anyone else in the office.
There are four main departments in MJ&B, each one of them almost autonomous from the other, though they share resources much as allied companies would. This has enabled the company to look as though they are paying attention to everything in the financial markets at once, though this is a myth.
This department is the equivalent of the "hired gun" in the financial world. This corps of well-trained lawyers (law 4+) is loaned out to client companies (for a fee, of course), who then use their legal talent to acquire other companies. Quintessential corporate raiders, this group could be considered to be almost shock troops on the corporate battlefield. There are at current two Glass Walkers working for this department alone, though upper management does not realize this. (Author's note: One of these is a PC in the Chronicle I am currently running)
MJ&B has a very exclusive clientelle for this deparment, consisting almsot entirely of large banks, insurance and investment firms that refuse to use the protections provided by the government. None of the companies that they insure has gone under, though they often call their insurance advisor for advice on particularly troublesome cases.
This is the powerhouse of MJ&B, where they have done their best work and amassed the most influence. This group has two functions: Analyze the market for favorable investment opportunities and conditions, and manage billions of dollars in assets through various member corporations.
This group is most concerned with information gathering and prognostication, in the market sense. As such, they have amassed an impressive array of researchers and coordinators, who make some surprisingly accurate predictions on the nature and motion of the Market.
This group, unlike Acquisitions, above, is concerned with the protection of MJ&B and the nullification of direct threats. Through the resources gathered in the Investment group, they can mount an effective legal attack on anyone, inidividual or collective, they so wish. They rarely lose in their legal challenges, and are often capable of ruining their target financially long before they win a court case.
Janniver is of Belgian extraction, born in 1763 outside of Brussels. His father, a somewhat well-to-do banker, had taken something of an interest in the New World, so when Morgan was only 5 years old they emmigrated west, settling in the bustling port city of Boston, where the younger Janniver grew up.
When he turned 18, he was sent back to Europe to study the art and trade of banking, under some of the most influential bankers of the time. It was here that Morgan Janniver was discovered to be advanced, and Awakenable, and therefore an asset to the Syndicate. By the time he was done with his schooling, he was a full-fledge and trained member of the Syndicate, and fully Awakened.
Upon his return to Boston he proved to be a financial wizard, taking his fathers modest holdings and turning them into a somewhat large financial empire.
Unfortunately, the Revolutionary War changed all that. Sections of Boston were burned, including his father's bank, leaving them both penniless. While Morgan had his contacts in the Syndicate, it was ot enough for his father, who died despondent only 6 months later.
Janniver now began to ssemble a bank together again, working what little capital he could and acting as an accountant and a financial advisor to many individuals. One of these people was a doctor, who in turn repaid him by giving him an elixir that would, when taken annually, reverse the effects of aging on the body.
At this point, he was given a long-term task, that involved focussing and directing the Sleeper efforts to colonize the West against the natives. As he began to do this, he came up with the idea of using insurance underwriting to influence what went where, and he began a smal company that eventually was folded into MJ&B.
Janniver appears to be in his mid 30s, though he is actually much, much older than this. He has a thoughtful gaze and deep, piercing eyes. His demeanor is steady, and patient, though he is quick of wit and mind. He has an incredible aptitude for the financial markets, and it is mostly his tutelage that has allowed MJ&B to rise to its current position.
Morgan Janniver is also an oddity amongst Syndicate magi: He is a fully Awakened willworker, and has a touch of knowledge in most all of the spheres. When cornered, he can work combat magics, traditionally the weakness of Syndicate magi in general, who tend to work more with abstractions. Janniver is not a mage to be trifled with.
One of the younger clerks in Investments, she was hired right from college a an economist to help manage the flow of financial information within the company. SHe is also a very ell hidden NWO operative, here to gather intelligence on the "rogue" Janniver and his financial empire.
Her work is incredibly effective, and efficient. She has been brought up through the ranks since childhood, having gone to school at the West Hills Academy for the Gifted and Talented (qv, coming soon), and then to a private university in Pennsylvania.
She is trained in martial arts, and has spent much time learning surveillance techniques and intelligence gathering. Within her head is a pretty clear map of the entire operations of MJ&B on any given day, and she knows most of the details of the lives of her co-workers.
Unlike Janniver, Farralon is not an active, Vulgar willworker. She knows several coincidental effects from her martial arts training, but otherwise she knowis very little about magic, though she does know why she is keeping an eye on Janniver.
A hotshot young lawyer, Alexander is driven by a passion for his work that some of his coworkers liken to obsession. He is cold, cruel, and effective, often striking so fast and so hard in legal challenges it leaves his opponents cold, standing there stammering in court.
He is also a Glass Walker Philodox, affiliated with the Mercy's Fist Sept on Alcatraz Island (qv, to be written up soon). He works very hard to keep hiscoworkers from knowing his true identity, though he suspects at least one of them knows or at least suspects, and fears there is Kinfolk in the office as well.
He is here because of a warning that this group was furthering the cause of the Weaver, and might become corrupted by forces of the Wyrm. One of his recent acquisitions assignments was for a company that was taking over a Pentex subsidiary, and this has made him begin to wonder what is actually driving MJ&B. He has spent many sleepless nights wondering if he is too involved in assisting this force. He knows nothing of Janniver's nature, however.