HISTORY

The Crayven Corporation began its life in the year 2162, as a small construction company; its original name was Crayven Construction, and it was based on the Australian continent, jointly owned by the partnership of Crayven, Schindler and Beck. The founder of the company, Reno Crayven, was a talented businessman and a gifted architect. The services that he provided were very much in demand by various Australian business concerns during the Heresy War. His company prospered and expanded, and the year before the armistice of 2177 was signed, Reno Crayven was able to buy out his partners. His new company, the Crayven Corporation, applied for membership in the GCC in 2178.

The Crayven Corporation grew throughout the Reconstruction era, and many of the structures that Reno Crayven built between 2178-2202 are still celebrated as wonders of post-war architecture. The Kenji Arcology on Okinawa, the Sunrise Cathedral in Monterrey, and the Domed Gardens of Mars are only a few of the many buildings still standing which bear the stamp of Reno Crayven's remarkable genius - and all are open to the public on a limited basis. In fact, the famous Open Mass of the Sunrise Cathedral, which is held every year on the morning of the summer solstice, is considered one of the most beautiful sights anywhere on Earth.

Reno Crayven was more just than a builder and an artist, however; he was also a visionary. It was the Founder's dream to not just to raise the best and most beautiful architecture to be seen on Earth, but to shape whole new worlds for the future. The discovery of FTL drive in 2207 interested him greatly, and for many years he battled other members of the GCC for their technological secrets. By the year 2231, when he was diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of bone cancer, he was already heavily invested in anti-grav and jump drive technologies. Given the limited time he had left among the living, he decided to risk everything that he had gained from a lifetime of hard work and sound investment to realize his dream.

Reno Crayven liquidated billions of dollars of corporate assets, as well as the totality of his personal wealth, to form a new subsidiary known as Crayven Enterprises. He personally took the helm of this new division and laid out a bold plan for building a large-scale terra-forming project on Mars. The result was the Domed Gardens, an indoor paradise containing over 50 square miles of ancient Earth-style forest. Filled with sparkling waterfalls and lakes, a self-sustaining weather system, and over 5,000,000 species of plant and animal life, this man-made Eden became to jewel in the Crayven corporate crown - as well as providing a test of Reno Crayven's terra-forming theories on an unprecedented scale. With the passing of the six-month milestone for viability of the Gardens, plans moved forward for the colonization of the planet known as Vesta 3 - better known to us today as the jewel world Ney Vesta.

Because Reno Crayven's own body was too frail to survive the rigors of FTL travel, he was never able to see his dream being realized by the planetary engineers, construction crews, and science teams of Crayven Enterprises. Our Founder died on Mars on 235-2237, in a small pavilion in the center of his beloved Domed Gardens. A modest granite obelisk stands in the same spot today, and bears a simple panel of stainless steel with his name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on it. This was the only interruption of the Gardens' natural beauty which he allowed in his will.

For nearly two hundred years since the landing of the first terra-forming crews on Ney Vesta, the Crayven Corporation has pursued its goal to be first and foremost among the stars. We have established seventeen colonies on fourteen separate worlds, as well as countless water- and ore-mining facilities on asteroids and nearby moons. Our authoritative expertise in both terra-forming and genetic engineering has made our consulting services the most valuable investment that any would-be colony can make in its own future. This is why the Crayven Corporation's motto hasn't changed for 182 years: We Bring New Worlds to Life!