Consortium

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The Consortium is a secret and seemingly massive global organization mentioned in the Dead Island series, serving as the unseen main antagonists, having put into motion the events of the entire series. While only briefly mentioned by several characters, various collectible files throughout the series paint the Consortium as a massive and secretive organization with countless agents in high places, including government agencies, the military and even the political spectrum, allowing them massive resources and capital to fulfill their objectives.

Dead Island

While the exact nature of the organization still remains a mystery, they are more than willing to resort to highly amoral and unethical research and criminal acts to obtain their goals. Specifically, the organization seeks to weaponize a highly mutated form of the Kuru disease, born from the cannibalistic tendencies of the native tribes that occupy the islands, that began to plague the the Banoi Archipelago and sell it as a biological weapon to various military organizations across the globe, projecting the profits that could be secured to be in the billions.

Seeing the archipelago as a highly lucrative opportunity, the Consortium constructed several labs to be be used by GeoPharm, a scientific research corporation under their control, to conduct inhumane experiments, including human testing, to discover the full potential of the virus, eventually leading to the discovery of Pathogen HK, a much stronger and faster variant on the Kuru disease that also contained elements of HIV. The disease quickly contaminates the individual and kills them, leaving only their basic body functions active, the host highly aggressive and prone to attack anything that moves, and could easily be spread from infected individuals via blood and salvia. Thus, one victim could easily start a chain reaction that could infect an entire population in mere minutes.

The potential of adapting this new disease into a biological weapon was seen as world-changing and highly lucrative by the Consortium. Unable to pass up such a viable opportunity, the organization assembled an international team to carry out further experiments and isolate a stable specimen of the pathogen to be weaponized, which became the top priority of the Consortium. However, in order for the virus to be a viable biological weapon for military organizations and applications, a vaccine would also need to be developed. To this end, the organization eventually learned that a small portion of individuals, all with type O negative blood, seem to be immune to the virus and that their blood could be the instrumental key to developing a vaccine.

The Consortium then made plans to lure such individuals to the Banoi island by first initiating a nationwide blood drive to locate viable individuals and then invite them to the resort on the island via various communications. Employing their covert operative, Kevin "Charon" Barrister, a notorious terrorist hacker for hire who was transported to the maximum security prison near the island, and GeoPharm scientist Dr. Robert West, located in a laboratory in Banoi's dense jungles and away from prying eyes, the organization ordered these two to work together to create an initial prototype of the weaponized virus mutagen and lure the immune to the lab to use their blood to create a viable vaccine.

However, unknown to the Consortium, Charon had his own plans to create only the weaponized virus, not caring about developing a corresponding vaccine, and spread it on a global level as a twisted form of revenge over the organization for the role they played in his father's death, previously the cofounder of GeoPharm before it fell under the control of the Consortium and their inhumane experiments claimed his life as well. Charon's notorious career as a hacker for hire working with various terrorist organizations was simply a means to get noticed by the Consortium and hired in their employ. Having effectively infiltrated the Consortium, Charon planned to create the weaponized virus and use it to destroy the organization, along with most of the world, from within.

However, around the same time as the selected and lured 9 immune stayed at the resort, the virus plague on the island of Banoi went violently out of control, infecting the entire island in an outbreak and killing and reanimating thousands of tourists, resort employees, and island residents alike. The resulting social chaos added to the carnage, with the authorities being wiped out while bandits and criminals took advantage of the destruction to further their own desires to steal and murder without restriction. It is unknown if the outbreak was a deliberate action of the Consortium, who would later be directly responsible for a second outbreak just days later, to further test the potential of the virus and lure the immune into their labs or it was simply the virus accelerating beyond their expectations.

Regardless, with the outbreak gaining global attention and causing worldwide panic, the Banoi Island Defense Force quarantined the archipelago and would eventually call for a nuclear strike on Banoi if the situation continued to worsen. Not wanting to let all their research go to waste, the Consortium pulled strings within the government to ensure Colonel Ryder White, previously observed by two agents of the organization to be a viable pawn in their plans, would be selected as the officer to be deployed to the island, knowing that he would hesitate to order a nuclear strike as his wife Emily worked within the maximum security prison as a doctor, allowing the organization's operatives time to develop both a virus mutagen and vaccine.

To further ensure this, Charon pretended to help Emily during a prison riot by saving her from various inmates and infected and then "forgetting" to lock the security door behind them, which allowed an infected to get in and bite Emily. With his wife infected and Charon guiding him, White would do everything in his power to create a vaccine.

With more than half of the lured immune on the island claimed by the social chaos, Charon posed as Ryder White on the island's communication channels to make contact and gain the trust of the remaining four immune (Logan Carter, rapper Sam B, Xian Mei, and Purna) and lure them to the GeoPharm lab where Dr. West would work with them to develop a vaccine and, unknown to the immune, a prototype of the mutagen. While the immune unknowingly helped to create the mutagen with the use of patient zero of the Kuru disease, Yerema, Charon remotely disabled the locks of the infected cages in the lab to kill Dr. West and the other scientists after the former stated his intention to develop a vaccine per his orders from the Consortium. Charon, who only lusted to unleash the virus across the world, did not want the scientists to create a vaccine and thus had them killed in his first visible act of betrayal against his employers.

Charon continued to manipulate White and had him gas the immune at the prison to knock them out and steal what White thought was the vaccine. White hoped to use the vaccine on his wife, but Charon, wanting to preserve the mutagen, informed the colonel that Emily was too far gone. White refused to believe this and planned to leave the island with the now zombified Emily to work on a full vaccine. Improvising, Charon then met with the immune and turned them against White, lying to them that the colonel was planning to nuke the entire island after leaving with his wife and the vaccine.

The resulting confrontation led to White being forced to kill the reanimated Emily after she bit him and use the mutagen on himself, still thinking it was the vaccine. With the mutagen turning White into a superhuman infected, the immune killed the colonel and left the island with Charon in White's chopper. While the mutagen was used and destroyed with White's death, Charon now had Yerema, the source of the initial outbreak, with him and planned to use her to spread the virus on a global level.

Dead Island: Riptide

While the mutagen was destroyed with White, the Consortium saw massive potential in the resulting mutation and were eager to research the virus even further. Charon piloted the chopper to the HMAS Avenger, a military patrol ship, where another Consortium operative, civilian VIP Frank Serpo, was stationed. While the ship was under the command of Lt. Colonel Samuel Hardy, Serpo's affiliation with the Consortium enabled him to control the colonel and his military forces for their own ends. Taking the immune to the lower decks for further experiments and research, Serpo sent Yerema to another facility for specialized testing and had Charon relocated to the Consortium's headquarters, per their orders, where the hacker would be debriefed on the next steps of their plans. At this point in time, the organization was also beginning to suspect Charon had his own agenda, one that did not fully align with their plans, but were still intent on working with him given his invaluable skills towards their objectives.

Before further concrete findings could be found on the immune and they could be transported to a secure facility for vaccine development, another outbreak, born from Yerema biting a solider restraining her and thus infecting him, and a monsoon caused the ship to lose control and crash near the island of Palanai. Serpo was able to evacuate from the ship in time and began to oversee the research being conducted by Dr. Kessler on Palanai, which was believed to be the original birthplace of the Kuru disease before raiders brought it over to Banoi, where it heavily mutated into the deadly Pathogen HK, centuries ago. Specifically, the organization was eager to test the effects of the infected with chemical weapons, left behind in bunkers from when Japan occupied the island during World War II, to create an more stronger variation of mutagen developed on Banoi, using Japanese research conducted during the war as the basis of these experiments.

To serve as a viable test, the Consortium ordered Serpo to cause an outbreak on the island to observe the progression of this new mutation, effectively sacrificing the island's entire population as guinea pigs, while also instructing him to win the trust of the immune to complete the original plan of using their blood to create a vaccine. With Palanai being an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, unlike Banoi, which was independent, the political and military contacts of the organization were also able to ensure that the military would largely stand down during this outbreak, preventing nuclear action, in order to ensure the full results of the outbreak, now combined with chemical weapon exposure, could be fully observed and tested. However, some military personnel, including Lt. Colonel Hardy, went against these orders out of morals and conscience, resulting in Hardy's death at Serpo's hands and the destruction of the military base in Henderson, all under the orders of the Consortium.

While another mutagen was created and partially tested on WHO research Harlow, these plans failed when Harlow went into a crazed rage, killed the research staff, and was ultimately killed herself by the immune after they took the mutagen themselves to defend themselves against her. Serpo was left by the immune, realizing his true nature, to be killed by the infected while they escaped the island on a boat. While the immune's ultimate fate is not known, the Consortium is most likely far from finished in their unethical research despite these failed attempts. With Charon, who was seemingly continuing with his own plans for global panic and destruction, still in their employ and new findings into the world-changing and immensely lucrative potential of the virus, the Consortium still saw massive promise in a weaponized virus and would likely continue to remain a massive, unseen threat to the world as they continued in their attempts and lust to develop the biological weapon.