Verdant Wind

Core Mandate - Logistics

The Verdant Wind Mercantile Company does not simply trade goods. It resolves failures in the supply chain. Where roads are broken, where ports are frozen, where trade embargoes choke the flow of resources, VWMC establishes a route. The company's historical expertise lies in expeditionary logistics - the acquisition, transport, and delivery of critical materials through hostile or damaged environments where conventional merchants have failed or withdrawn. VWMC's main speciality is in short-term, high-risk contracts that larger trading companies refuse.

Current Status - Recovery

Following the diversion of the majority of the company's airship fleet and liquid assets to provide humanitarian aid to Thavnair and Garlemald during the Final Days, the company's logistics network is severely strained. Several vessels are unaccounted for, liquid capital is low, and established trade routes have been encroached upon by competitors during the company's absence.

VWMC is actively seeking specialists to recover lost assets, re-establish trade routes, and manage increased debt obligations. The company offers competitive contracts, access to company facilities, and a writ of operation that provides legal cover for activities conducted in the company's name.

The writ generously covers attentions of healers and chirurgeons, should the workers require aid.

Structure

VWMC operates on a decentralized Leve and Contract system. Employees are not uniform retainers; they are specialized contractors operating under the company's writ. The company is divided into four primary departments.

Rivals & Risks

• House of Splendors:
  Direct competition for rare provisions and tome acquisition. Rowena's network is larger and more established, but VWMC offers better terms for high-risk, high-reward jobs.
  Relationship is professionally hostile but not overtly violent.
  
  
• The Sahjattra Concern:
  A Thavnairian collective with interests in alchemical supply control. Their methods are cutthroat and known to involve illegal substances.
  Current relationship between them is avoidant. VWMC does not engage in the drug trade and has no desire to become a target of the Concern's "business practices."
  
  
• The Brume:
  VWMC has an uneasy, unspoken arrangement with certain elements in Ishgard's underbelly. Information flows both ways. This relationship is not acknowledged in official company records.

Ventures & Key Personnel

The Verdant Wind Mercantile Company's operational network is supported by several affiliated businesses and the expertise of long-standing members.

• The Green Breeze Café (Ul'Dah) & The Viridescent Zephyr Café (Ishgard):
  Owned and operated by Kaia Honshonin, these establishments serve as the company's public-facing retail spaces, neutral meeting grounds, and primary bookshops. Kaia's extensive knowledge of literature, rare tomes, and Thanalan social connections is a critical asset to the company's Information department.
• Retainers & Bodyguards: 
  Personal retainers and bodyguards, accompanying key personnel on business and assisting with physical security and translation. Kurai of the Kha serves as Kaia Honshonin's bodyguard in Ul'Dah.
• Botanical & Alchemical Expertise:
  The company draws on the knowledge of disparate specialists it scouts out for specialized contracts and product development. Their skills are available to the company on a contract basis.
• Gaspard Assets:
  The restoration and agricultural development of Gaspard Territories is overseen by A'leigh Duran and supported by the company's engineers. The greenhouses and airship dock are critical company assets.

These contracts are posted in the company headquarters in the Jeweled Crozier and at the Green Breeze Café in Ul'dah. Payment terms are negotiated upon acceptance of the contract. Interested parties should inquire with the Secretary's office.

Leve №1 "Zephyr's Wreck"

Department: Freight & Recovery
Location: Mor Dhona, Silvertear Lake vicinity
Risk Level: High

During the Calamity, VWMC lost three supply caches and a light freighter in the Mor Dhona region. The area is now less volatile, but still dangerous due to monster activity and lingering aetheric instability. The company will pay* a recovery bonus of 15% of any salvaged cargo value, plus a flat fee for confirmed coordinates of the wreckage.

Report to: UNASSIGNED

Leve №2 "Gaspard Greenery"

Department: Acquisition & Gleaning
Location: Gaspard Territories, Coerthas
Risk Level: Moderate (Environmental)

The greenhouses in Gaspard produce a modest yield of frost-resistant grains and herbs. The company seeks a botanist or aetherologist to study the unique properties of soil and flora exposed to the local environment. Reports of "singing vegetables" and "luminous tubers" are unconfirmed. The job requires a minimum of one month's residence in Gaspard. Accommodation provided at the Rosewood Inn. Hazard pay for encounters with "strange" residents is negotiable.

Report to: UNASSIGNED

Leve №3 "A Copper Of Audit"

Department: Information & Negotiation
Location: Thanalan (Copperbell Mines to Vesper Bay)
Risk Level: Low to Moderate (Social)

A shipment of Thanalan copper ore bound for the Skysteel Manufactory in Ishgard was underweight by 12%. The Ul'dahn provisions claims it was a clerical error; the Ishgardian contract claims it was theft. The company requires a neutral third party to audit the supply chain from mine to port. Discretion required. Payment upon delivery of a verified audit report.

Report to: UNASSIGNED

Leve №4 "Frozen Glass at Saint Reymanaud"

Department: Acquisition & Gleaning (Phase 1), Information & Negotiation (Phase 2)
Location: Coerthas Western Highlands (The White Quarry)
Risk Level: Moderate (Environmental, Fauna)

Since the Calamity, the White Quarry—Ishgard's primary source of high-grade silica for stained glass production—has been buried under a deep layer of snow and permafrost. The quarry is now frequented by ice sprites and the occasional wyvern. The Holy See, specifically the restoration committee for Saint Reymanaud's Cathedral, requires a new source of material for stained glass windows restoration. This contract is politically sensitive; the Church wishes to avoid public acknowledgment of supply chain failures.

The contract is divided into phases:

• Phase 1 (Active): A survey team is required to travel to the White Quarry, assess the depth and extent of the permafrost, and collect core samples of the buried silica. A geologist or experienced miner is preferred. Report findings and samples to UNASSIGNED for analysis.
• Phase 2 (Pending): Based on Phase 1 findings, the company will either contract a mining and excavation operation or seek alternative silica sources.

Payment for Phase 1 is a flat fee upon delivery of samples and a verified survey report. Phase 2 contracts will be negotiated separately.

Additional contracts may be available for specialists. Inquire directly with department heads.

*All payment mentioned is IC only.

To the mountains and green valleys of Ishgard came C'laude Rahna, a Hannish diplomat with a merchant’s eye and something to prove to the world. He had been sent to represent Radz-At-Han a year prior to the Calamity, but the embassy outlived its usefulness too soon. When the 7th Umbral Calamity froze Coerthas and sealed Ishgard behind its ancient wards, trade routes withered and the city‑state’s hunger grew. Rather than return east, C'laude stayed.

In the wreckage of the Calamity’s first year, a chance encounter saved C'laude's life. A'leigh Duran, a man with covered eyes and a voice that could coax warmth from frozen bones. C'laude left when he was healed, but he returned with enterprise.

The two men saw what Ishgard’s archbishop refused to see: that isolation was a slow death, and that even a frozen city needed goods from beyond its walls. With C'laude’s connections to the Near East and A'leigh’s intimate knowledge of Ishgard’s back alleys and black‑mail worthy secrets, they founded the Verdant Wind Mercantile Company in the fourth year of the 7th Umbral Era.

The company’s first warehouse was a rented cellar in the Brume. Its first cargo was dried fish and wool. But within two years, Verdant Wind had become the preferred supplier of spices, silks, and alchemical reagents for half a dozen minor houses. When the embargo finally lifted, the company was already there – airships ready, contracts signed, debts owed and collected.

Today, Verdant Wind operates from a headquarters in the Jeweled Crozier of Ishgard, with a branch in Ul'Dah (The Green Breeze Café) and a growing network of gleaners, freighters, and discreet fixers. It is said that if a good cannot be found in Eorzea, Verdant Wind can find it – or make it.

Year 1 of the 7th Umbral Era

C’laude Rahna, acting as Thavnair’s envoy, works to maintain trade routes to Ishgard despite the Calamity’s chaos.

Year 4 of the 7th Umbral Era

Verdant Wind Mercantile Company is formally founded by C’laude Rahna and A’leigh Duran. Initial operations focus on freight and barter within Ishgard’s lower classes.

Year 2 of the 7th Astral Era

With the Dragonsong War ended and Ishgard’s embargo lifted, Verdant Wind expands into full Eorzean trade. The company’s first airships enter service, built in collaboration with the Skysteel Manufactory.

Year 3 of the 7th Astral Era

The Green Breeze Café opens in Ul’dah, managed by Kaia Honshonin, serving as both a bookshop and a front for Verdant Wind’s Thanalan operations.

Year 5 of the 7th Astral Era

House Gaspard is restored, with A’leigh Duran recognized as its lord. Verdant Wind leases land in the Gaspard territories, establishing greenhouses and a permanent airship dock.

Year 6 of the 7th Astral Era

The company begins direct mining and botanical acquisition, reducing reliance on external suppliers. A rivalry with Rowena’s House of Splendors becomes pronounced due to shared rare provisions niche.

Final Days of the 7th Astral Era

Verdant Wind diverts a significant portion of its airship fleet to provide aid to Thavnair and Garlemald. The company suffers severe logistical delays and revenue losses.

Present

The company continues to operate across Eorzea and the Near East.

[REWORK IN PROCESS]

(Please add your own related rumors at leisure.)

Past Rumors

1. The company is said to have had multiple falling-outs with The House Of Splendors. They have overlapping market interests.
2. There are various branches of the company across Erozea. The one in Ul'Dah is The Green Breeze Café and is notorious as a neutral ground for business negotiations. Kaia Honshonin leads it with subtle, but steel hand.
3. C'laude Rahna maintains his position as a Hannish diplomat and relies on it to maintain many of his business connections in Ishgard and beyond it.
4. It is easy to find out that the mysterious masked secretary is A'leigh Duran, if one has connections to House of Lords or Inquisition. 
5. Verdant Wind Mercantile Company is rumored to have been allowed to exist as the embassy besides an enterprise, due to their substantial donations to food storages of Ishgard. Some say, the Church's coffers as well. A word amongst nobles maintains that it was not bribery, but blackmail and threats from the blackened Lord of Gaspard.

Recent Rumors (Post-Final Days)

1. Since the Final Days, the company's airship fleet is noticeably thinner. Some say they lost three vessels over Garlemald. Others whisper they were sold off to cover debts.
2. The Gaspard greenhouses are producing more than just vegetables in that cursed land. There is a rumor that The Fog still takes its bloody toll from the steady dribble of new hands venturing there. The low whispers echo that those who go are never seen again in the outside world.