Verne Company (ヴェルヌ社) is a massive company headquartered in Calvard and its biggest manufacturer.
Background[]
Like its industrial rival, the Reinford Company, the Verne Company was a storied arms manufacturer that expanded into orbal research and development after the Orbal Revolution. The Verne Company is the Republic's largest private company with its partnerships bringing more than 20 companies under its umbrella. The company's vertical integration strategy has allowed it to remain productive despite its massive size with their being 300 projects actively in development by the time of Trails through Daybreak. It is noted middle eastern scholars have been contributing to Calvard's technology and science for a long time, and have a massive influence over institutions such as Verne. Latoya Hamilton is one such individual, who sat on Verne's board of directors for a long time before departing her position to head east. Elsaim is one of the primary shareholders and have a large sway, but are not the largest.
The Basel Institute of Science and Basel Artisans Guild co-founded the Verne Company following the arrival of orbal technology brought by Hamilton to the city of Basel, where the company is based. Large regions of the city, known as New Town, have sprung up in response, 45 years prior to the start of Trails through Daybreak. Their influence is such that Verne can use their emergency administrative authority to enact traffic restrictions in the area. The Verne Company maintains a close partnership with the Basel Institute of Science in the present day, a relationship rooted in one of Verne's founding principles: collaboration with the academic community. Though the two entities are independent and largely let each other operate freely within Basel, their education-industry partnership remains vital to Verne’s success. Many graduates from the Basel Institute are directly recruited by Verne, creating a strong alumni network that bridges the two organizations. Verne also provides grants to the Basel Institute for research and development, allowing the company to incorporate cutting-edge academic expertise into its products. This collaboration has earned Verne a reputation for producing durable, high-quality goods that are "built to last," as their close ties with the institute ensure access to leading experts across various fields.
Internationally, Verne is renowned for its innovative contributions to the development of orbal vehicles, including orbal cars and buses. Calvard's "Big Four" automakers - Leno, Ingert, Red Star and ETWS - all operate under the Verne umbrella. While Verne supplies these companies with their engines, each manufacturer is responsible for their own tuning and enhancements, allowing them to maintain their unique specialties. Despite being part of the same group, the companies foster a competitive environment, continuously pushing one another to innovate and improve.
Trails of Cold Steel IV[]
In July S.1206, the Republic Army of Calvard's special force Hercules infiltrates Heimdallr. They carry Verne-made weaponry and RAMDA, the tactical orbment featuring cutting-edge technology. One of the weapons they dropped was picked up by Ash Carbide, which he used for the attempted assassination of Emperor Eugent Reise Arnor III. The weapon was found and the imperial government interpreted the attack as a declaration of war, leading them to respond with Operation Jormungand.
Trails into Reverie[]
After the peace and independence were restored in Crossbell, Erika Rusell paid visit to the company as a representative of Zeiss Central Factory and asked if Verne would join the West Zemuria Technology Alliance. It was expected that the proposal was rejected. However, the company made an announcement that they would develop the next generation of tactile orbment, excluding the Epstein Foundation in the development team. This was a controversial decision as the Epstein Foundation, which had jointly developed each previous iteration of combat orbment, had been viewed as having exclusive rights. After numerous failures to negotiate, and seeing a threat to its monopoly, the Epstein Foundation decided to file a lawsuit against Verne. Verne had the upper hand in the court.
Trails through Daybreak[]
In the two years leading up to event of the game, Verne's technological line-up would increase drastically, in part due to their trade deals with the Reinford Group in Erebonia. Verne would also initiated production of their independently developed sixth-generation public-use combat orbment, Xipha, after a successful trial period demonstrated its superior capabilities in communication and information processing over the orbal network, far surpassing the current generation of orbal terminals. Confident in their ability to produce combat orbments without outside assistance, Verne filed for an exclusivity agreement and launched a patent litigation against the Epstein Foundation, officially ending their long-standing partnership. As part of this move, Verne demanded the Foundation scale back their operations in Basel and vacate their offices in the New Town district. While this enabled Verne to move forward with Xipha’s production without interference, the decision sparked significant backlash from the academic community. The foundation's collaboration had been a cornerstone of Verne's success, and it was this partnership—particularly through the research Professor Hamilton’s brought to the city from her time at the Epstein Foundation—that originally helped put both Verne and the city of Basel as a whole on the technological map in the first place.
Speculation of this patent lawsuit with the Epstein Foundation along with publicized infighting amongst Verne affiliates in the Tyrell Times would lead to Verne's stocks fluctuating during this time period despite massive cash injections from both the Valis Investment Bank and royal family of Elsaim. Many attribute this turmoil to the departure of Professor Hamilton from her role as honorary consultant to the company. The Patriot Party, head by president Roy Gramheart is said to have a contract with Verne. The funding is stable but they are behind schedule on a number of projects, including the latest generation of Calvard's military technology- a secret project. Their other major project is rolling out the Xipha technology to the public.
The Verne Company is one of three major powers governing the city of Basel where their headquarters is based. Alongside the Basel Artisans' Guild and the Basel Institute of Science, CEO Bill Tausend is one of the key people who can grant access to the different tiers of the city by authorising security clearance. With the lawsuit being a prominent issue, and frequent power fluctuations in the city, Tausend attempts to cover up any irregularities, arousing the suspicion and concern of some of the companies major stakeholders, resulting in the Arkride Solutions Office being dispatched to investigate. Tausend is not very cooperative.
Under approval by by the president, Verne conduct technological exchange with the Marduk Company to develop technology such as a super low orbit comms satellite, travelling about 900 selge above ground, but not in outer space.
With his recent failures taken into account, president Gramheart wonders if it is time for Tausend to step down as the CEO.
Trails through Daybreak II[]
Following the incident with Almata, Bill Tausend is no longer the CEO of Verne due to his constant failures.
Notable Developments[]
The Verne Company is known to have developed, or contributed to the development of:
- Orbal firearms, including those impervious to metal detectors such as the one used by Ash Carbide or Quatre's pulse gun.
- RAMDA- The fifth generation combat orbment, developed jointly with the Epstein Foundation and its integrated stealth technology.
- Xipha- The sixth generation combat orbment, developed independently following funding from Valis Investment Bank. Designed to work with AI such as the hollow cores.
- Would later partner with the Calvard Intelligence Department in developing the Xipha standard model. This version is aimed towards the general public both in the Republic and abroad, thus lacks the combat capabilities of the normal Xipha.
- Artificial Intelligence such as that found in drones like FIO or XEROS
- Glare series camera- a state of the art camera
- Orbal bike - following their widespread usage in the Empire.
- Orbal cars, with four major licensees created to manufacturer them: Leno, ETWS, Ingert and Red Star. Verne directly run the Basel Motor Pavilion in the city.
- Orbal appliances such as vacuum cleaners and light stands that take advantage of Verne's patented low-load crystal circuit and high conversion efficiency technology.
- Verne use their considerable manufacturing power to create medicines and drugs developed by Remiferia, which are then sold by pharmaceutical companies.
- Aurora - the central computer terminal in Basel co-developed with the Basel Institute of Science, Epstein Foundation, and Zeiss Central Factory.
- Synthetic fiber clothing - stated Verne has revolutionized the clothing industry for their research into chemical fiber technology which rather than producing clothing containing natural fibers, have created materials that combine the benefits of several types of fibers.
- Low orbit communication satellites co-developed with Marduk. Allows Marduk to privately communicate by not utilizing the traditional orbal network.
- New water management system in Tharbad developed alongside Professor Latoya Hamilton. This waterworks project is stated to be directly responsible for Tharbad's prosperity and the rise of its entertainment district.
- Partnership with President Roy Gramheart and the Calvardian government to help in his plans to modernize Calvard. This would include commissioning Verne for the installation of the orbal network across the Republic as well as for the development of the latest generation of weaponry for the Republican Army. Designed by Professor Yang Cronkite of the Basel Institute of Science, many of these weapons would be co-developed with and tested by Marduk. They include:
- Ix-Alba Airship - high speed air cruiser serving as the successor to the Baten Kaitos series. Co-developed with Aldra.
- Assault Frame Xycres - a humanoid weapon system that implements Xipha into its functioning. Serves as the spiritual successor to the Panzer Soldat. Construction was outsourced to the Basel Artisans' Guild and took place within Giscard's Workshop.
- Schedar series tank - successor to the Wezel series tank.
Notable Individuals[]
The following people are key figures associated with the Verne Company:
- Bill Tausend- CEO (formerly)
- Latoya Hamilton - Special Advisor from the Institute of Science
- David Callaghan - Special Advisor from the Institute of Science
- Quatre Salision - Assistant to CEO (formerly)
- Suzanne - Executive Director of Verne's Infrastructure Division
- Barnaby - works in Verne's Procurement Division, where research funds are allocated to research and develop new products through the Institute and Artisans' Guild. His role is to mediate between Verne's factories and artisans.
- Radard - Manager of Verne Plaza
- Harrison - works in Verne's Weapons Development Division as well as in Verne Arms
- Carter - Engineer at Verne Arms
- Coolidge - Communications Engineer working with Researcher Athena from the Institute of Science to develop new communication software that makes international calls easier
- Rooster
- Valeria
- Transcent