Of course, much like John, Richard wasn't the one who created the concept of a Mage Guild or Mage Tower. These institutions had existed long before he was born, and many before him had tried to scale them up to the universal level, just as he eventually did.
However, all of them ran into countless roadblocks, from factional conflicts to political struggles and power plays, and even those who managed to achieve a degree of success never reached the scale Richard attained.
But Richard had all the time in the universe.
He played by the rules when it suited him, and broke them when it didn't. He could be nice or ruthless as the situation demanded. And assassination attempts from rivals or competitors were meaningless since he couldn't die, no matter what they tried.
Using that to his advantage, he steadily gathered, partnered with, and eventually absorbed countless similar organisations, ranging from interplanetary to intergalactic scale.
