Classification
Group: Group VI (Reverse Transcribing)
Family: Retroviridae
Genus: Unknown
Title
Progenitor Virus
The Progenitor virus was the foundation retrovirus on which all of the molecular engineering research of the Umbrella Corporation was built upon, later leading to the company's research and development of Bio Organic Weapons. The unique quality of the virus to dramatically modify a host cell without also killing the host led to many additional viral discoveries and creations including the t-virus and t-Veronica virus. It is also referred to as the Mother, Founder, Clay and Primogenitor virus across various reports.
Table of Contents [hide]
History
Origins
Human Testing
Umbrella Corporation
Attributes
Further Research
Viral Variants
TYPE-A
TYPE-B
Prototype Virus
Uroboros Virus
Ancillary Chemicals
P30
PG67A/W
History
The Progenitor virus was discovered by Sir Ozwell E. Spencer, Sir Edward Ashford, and Dr. James Marcus. Details on how the virus was discovered were previously not available although it was theorized that it must have previously existed in an isolated system since its zoonotic attributes would have otherwise allowed it to become a trans-species pandemic. It is now confirmed to have been discovered in Africa, in an isolated underground cave system.
Origins
Originally, the search for the virus was commenced by Sir Ashford who along with fellow aristocrat Sir Spencer and the latter's alumnus Dr. Marcus conducted research on an existing virus, from which they deduced that a viral strain with the ability to manufacture and induce evolution must exist. The origin of the virus lay in a plant named "Stairway to the Sun" found in a region of West Africa. What led to its discovery was a multi-volume series of books penned by Henry Travis, who happened to detail within his writings the Ndipaya tribe and their unique selection process for their kings; through the ingestion of a flower. The legend was was that a few individuals would be immune to the toxic nature the plant and would gain several physical enhancements following ingestion. Without natural immunity, the plant would be fatal. 1 Sir Spencer, who took an interest in the books for the folklore contained within, was immediately intrigued and hypothesized that the plant held significance. An expedition was held in September 1966. Joining them was one of Dr. Marcus' students, Brandon Bailey, who was chief researcher of the research team the three had brought along to the site. The plant's habitat was an underground garden known as the "Sun Garden".
After three months of searching, the team's efforts were rewarded on December 4, 1966. Upon examination of the Sun flower, a new viral strain was discovered inhabiting the plant. Early experiments with the virus quickly showed that it had the natural ability to modify the DNA of a host without also killing it. The virus was officially named the "Progenitor Virus", while the plant which contained it was simply renamed "Progenitor flower". During the early months of 1967, difficulties arose with cultivating the Progenitor virus outside of its natural environment. While the flowers would grow exceptionally well, the virus would not be present. 2
Human Testing
During construction of the Arklay Mansion owned by Sir Spencer in the Arklay Mountains, the Arklay Laboratory was secretly constructed beneath the mansion following the discovery of the Progenitor virus. The laboratory became fully operational in late 1967 allowing Sir Spencer to conduct his research on the virus while having a team of researchers develop it further. On November 10, Sir Spencer secretly conducted the first human experiments with the Progenitor virus on the abducted Jessica and Lisa Trevor utilizing two mutant strains of the virus. Jessica was administered the mutant "TYPE-A" strain while Lisa was injected with the "TYPE-B" strain and then detained for observation. Five days later, on November 15, Jessica Trevor died from the viral infection while her daughter slowly degenerated physically and mentally, but importantly remained alive. 3
Lisa's persistent state between life and death became a breakthrough in the Arklay research team’s viral research and she was kept for many decades to come as both a premiere test subject and perpetual enigma, undergoing continuous injections of the Progenitor virus and its many mutant strains. Sir Spencer safely guarded her existence from anyone who was not directly working inside the Arklay Laboratory, including his peers Dr. Marcus and Sir Ashford. The architect of the Arklay facility himself, George Trevor, was also originally meant to become a test subject for Progenitor, but he was disposed of by Sir Spencer instead.
Umbrella Corporation
Soon after the initial discovery the three doctors began researching the virus, but progress slowed as their laboratory necessities began to supersede their resources. In order to covertly grant their growing budgetary needs and hire additional researchers to aid in the progress, as well as mask their research into the virus' potential use with biological weapons, Spencer suggested forming a pharmaceutical company as a front for their operations in March 1968. In response, Meanwhile, Sir Ashford left the research team with the virus to conduct his own studies along with his son Alexander Ashford. Deeming the excavation a resounding success, Sir Spencer, Dr. Marcus and Bailey returned to the United States with samples of the virus, as well as the Sun flower.
In March 1968, the "Umbrella Corporation" was founded and the Progenitor research's focus became primarily military, although Sir Spencer had an ulterior plan for the virus; as an evolutionary tool to give birth to a superior breed of human beings, with him as the "God" of this new humanity. The third usage of the virus was to utilize it as a tool to help develop pharmaceutical products which would then generate additional funding from the pharmaceutical company, which would then be utilized for weapons development while Sir Spencer was able to use the Umbrella Corporation's growing influence in these markets to advance his own plan.
To reach his goal, Sir Spencer secretly commenced the "Wesker Project". According to him, the people who live in an ideal world should themselves be ideal. The people who have obtained super strength and intellect through evolution caused by the Progenitor virus should not turn their backs on their God. Thus Spencer turned his attention to training the ideal skilled beings for this ideal world and executed a project for this. This was the 'Wesker Project.' This project, named after the chief researcher at the time named Wesker, involved gathering up several hundred children born to the most intellectually gifted people around the world, raising them until they have perfect bodies and minds, and then releasing them back into the world after giving these gifted children special educations. All of the subjects were given the name Wesker and were known as the "Wesker Children".
Meanwhile, Dr. Marcus and Brandon Bailey returned to Africa in order to retrieve more samples of the Progenitor virus due to the inability to cultivate the virus outside of its natural habitat. The life of Sir Ashford was suddenly taken upon being infected with the Progenitor virus following an accident during an experiment in July 1968; poisoned by its toxic nature. It is believed that this "accident" was orchestrated by Spencer. In August, the Umbrella Research Center finished construction, and Marcus was subsequently transferred there as the first director by Sir Spencer, leaving Bailey alone in Africa to operate the facility there. Unconcerned by his colleague's death, Dr. Marcus agreed to Sir Spencer's request under the condition that he be allowed to continue his research with the Progenitor virus. At his request, Dr. Marcus continued conducting his research on the virus at the research center laboratory.
In 1969, the Umbrella Africa Laboratory finished construction. Brandon Bailey became the director and chief researcher of this new facility and from here, samples of the virus were shipped to other Umbrella facilities throughout the world due to the inability to artificially cultivate the virus from the Sun flower outside of its natural habitat. During his experiments with the Progenitor virus in the 1970s, Marcus attempted to use the virus for the development of Bio Organic Weapons by utilizing amphibian, mammalian and arthropod test subjects. 4 In the end, all subjects were deemed unsuitable for use as weapons and Dr. Marcus concluded that the most viable base for a B.O.W. using the Progenitor virus would be a human. Lacking in human test subjects, Dr. Marcus began kidnapping junior executive candidates at the research center and injecting them with the virus. The virus' toxic nature to humans however prevented him from making any worthwhile developments, and the casualties amounted to about 20 people. In pursuit of developing a viral strain better suited for developing B.O.W., Dr. Marcus began conducting research on leeches.
On September 19, 1977, Marcus finally made his breakthrough and created a radical new mutant strain of the Progenitor virus that he called the "Tyrant Virus", or "t-virus", by injecting the Progenitor virus into leeches and using the resulting changed DNA of the leeches as the foundation. The discovery was kept a secret fearing that his peers, especially Sir Spencer, would extort his research and claim it as their own. Despite the secrecy, the t-virus was stolen by Albert Wesker (subject no. 13 in the Wesker Project) and William Birkin sometime after its discovery and given to Sir Spencer in exchange for becoming chief researchers at the Arklay Laboratory. In 1978, Sir Spencer ordered for the research center to be shut down and all t-virus related research was transferred to the Arklay Laboratory. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcus continued his own t-virus research in the abandoned research center, now fueled by the desire to develop his own B.O.W. and out-do Sir Spencer.
Although the initial strain of the t-virus was similar to Progenitor and unsuitable for the development of bioweapons, subsequent improvements separately by Dr. Marcus and the Arklay research team finally stabilized the virus and gave Umbrella a weaponised variant of Progenitor, allowing them to produce viable B.O.W. at last, with Dr. Marcus' early research producing the weapons known as the Lurker, Eliminator and Plague Crawler which were based on his earlier experiments conducted with the Progenitor virus on animals.
In 1981, a member of the Ashford family and chief researcher at the Antarctic Laboratory named Alexia Ashford was responsible for utilizing the Progenitor virus to develop another new viral strain. By adding the DNA of a queen ant which contained an ancient virus and plant DNA to the Progenitor virus, Alexia managed to develop the new "t-Veronica Virus". In 1983, she injected the virus into her own body and entered a 15 year cryogenic stasis in order to allow the virus to adapt and merge with her DNA.
In the late 80s the Africa Laboratory succeeded in the artificial culture of the Progenitor virus. Afterwards, management of the laboratory was very strict in order to ensure the secrecy of the virus’ location. In 1988, Dr. Marcus was assassinated and his research on the Progenitor virus and its derivative t-virus was stolen by Dr. Birkin, who used it for his own research in order to advance the efforts of the Arklay research team. Soon after, the concept for the Ultimate Biological Weapon was announced under the guidance of Dr. Birkin; the Tyrant. In that same year, another new viral strain was discovered by Dr. Birkin after injecting Lisa Trevor with the NE-α parasite. The parasite disappeared within her body, evidently having been absorbed and merging with her DNA. This modified DNA having already been changed by the injections of Progenitor and its mutant strains became the basis for the "G-Virus".
Research and development into the Progenitor virus remained strong up to the day Umbrella was officially absolved, remaining the foundation for all new bioweapon research projects that ran simultaneous to the t-virus. 5
In the 90s, Sir Spencer agreed to start Dr. Birkin's G-Virus Project in 1991 and and himself developed a "Prototype Virus" based on the Progenitor virus which was to be used exclusively in the Wesker Project. The remaining 13 subjects were given doses of the Prototype virus to identify the most gifted individuals. Most of those who underwent this 'screening' succumbed to the virus and died, but a tiny few survived. These were Subject no. 12, Alex Wesker, and Subject no. 13, Albert. Alex became a member of Umbrella after the experiment and worked secretly for Sir Spencer, after gaining his trust. Furthermore, Sir Spencer greatly admired Alex's superior intellect and leadership skills, and in order to perform research and develop a virus based on Progenitor to release him from his ageing body, Sir Spencer named him chief researcher and continually provided him with money, equipment, supplies and experimentation subjects. The colloquially known as the "Immortality Virus" was developed successfully by Alex, who disappeared following its success in 2006. Another stain of Progenitor was developed by Sir Spencer in his own attempts to cure his ageing body and was administered to human test subjects confined within the Spencer Estate.
Later, the location of Progenitor was discovered by Tricell upon interrogating Carlos M., one of the only individuals with the information. Under the suggestion of Albert Wesker, the company was ordered to re-open the Africa Laboratory by Excella Gionne and its researchers began conducting their own research into the virus until 2009. Albert Wesker's own goal with the virus after murdering Sir Spencer in 2006 and desiring to take over his plan to become a God of a new advanced human race was to develop a new, perfect virus, which was named the "Uroboros Virus".
Attributes
The most noteworthy attribute of the Progenitor virus is its ability to reconstitute the DNA of a living organism, causing mutation upon injection rather than death. The virus takes up residence in the cells of the host, just like a normal virus, and self-propagates by using the synthesis properties and energy of proteins. In other words, the protein and nucleic acid synthesis program of cells that have been infected with the Progenitor virus is rewritten based on the nucleus of the virus, resulting in growing numbers of new Progenitor virus nuclei. The most significant attribute of the Progenitor virus is in how the infected cells themselves are subjected to mutated evolution. The Progenitor virus is also thought to play a role in enabling genetic combinations of different variant types that would be normally unstable, making it easier to perform complex genetic operations together with the Progenitor virus.
Early research with the Progenitor virus showed that when it is administered to living organisms, violent cellular changes cause a breakdown in the system. Furthermore, no satisfactory method could be found to control the organisms for use as weapons. In humans, the virus was also fatally toxic and would result in death in the vast majority of cases. However, some humans who possess a natural immunity to the virus (presumably due to a particular set of genetics) are known to gain superhuman qualities.
Some mutant strains of the Progenitor virus have one particularly noticeable physical trait. These are enlarged eyes located on the host's body, a trait most noticeable with 'G' creatures created with the G-virus, but also documented on Lisa Trevor, Nemesis-T Type and the 'Blob' creatures. The exact details behind this strange mutation are unknown.
Further Research
Viral Variants
TYPE-A
A mutant strain of Progenitor produced at the Arklay Laboratory and utilized for human experiments as part of an early attempt to develop a strain that would allow the host to survive post-infection. It was administered to Jessica Trevor, however the virus failed to adapt to her DNA and ended up killing her.
TYPE-B
Another mutant strain of Progenitor produced alongside TYPE-A. It was administered to Lisa Trevor and successfully managed to bond with her DNA, however it quickly reduced her intelligence.
Prototype Virus
An experimental viral variant based on Progenitor developed exclusively for Wesker Project.
Uroboros Virus
A Progenitor variant developed by Albert Wesker and Tricell for the purpose of artificial genetic selection and evolution.
Ancillary Chemicals
P30
With the abolishment of Umbrella, Progenitor research was taken up by Tricell, producing new results. One such result was the ancillary chemical "P30", which would temporarily give a subject superhuman abilities and make them highly susceptible to control. A recorded usage of this chemical was on Jill Valentine, who had a device implanted in her chest to ensure continuous administration of the chemical. The reason for this is that the chemical would quickly be metabolized and expelled from within the subject's system following injection, and would need continuous top-ups to ensure proper operation. It was sold by Tricell commercially and developed alongside Las Plagas in order to garner additional funding for the Uroboros virus.
PG67A/W
Developed by Tricell for use by Albert Wesker, "PG67A/W" was a medicine developed to correct the erratic nature produced in the later stages of Wesker's infection with the Prototype virus administered to him by Ozwell E. Spencer. When administered in precise amounts it would correct the unstable nature of the virus, too much however was detrimental to Wesker's condition, and considered highly poisonous. It is only assumed that it was extracted from the Progenitor virus, however details are unclear.