Verdot

Verdot, also known as Veld, is the leader of the Turks in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-. His official Shinra Electric Power Company title is "Head of the Department of Administrative Research". He is particular on matters relating to succeeding in missions and unforgiving when it comes to failure. Though many of his subordinates are intimidated by Verdot's severity, they deeply respect him. After a disaster in Kalm caused by his commands, Verdot's family was killed and he lost his arm. He replaced it with a prosthetic with a Materia inside it, so that he could continue to fight alongside his Turks.
He is called Verdot in the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania and Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile, but called Veld in "Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Compilation".
== Profile ==
=== Appearance ===
Verdot is a middle-aged man with brunette hair. He has a scar on his left cheek and one of his arms is a prosthetic. Like every other member of the Turks, he wears a black formal suit with a black necktie.
=== Personality ===
Verdot prides that the Turks always finish their mission objective, putting all other matters aside until the goal is reached. However, his ultimate loyalty is proven to be to the organization of Turks rather than to the Shinra Company itself, as Verdot comes to rethink what he values in life when learning of the true fate of his daughter. Having lost his family, Verdot has adopted something of a fatherly role in the Turks organization over the myriad young recruits. 
== Story ==
=== Turk operations ===
A rookie Turk, Tseng, is assigned to investigate the kidnapping of a Shinra soldier from one of Shinra's mako reactors. Under Verdot's command he is sent to search an unregistered vessel that has appeared in the Costa del Sol harbor. Finding the tortured soldier in the ship's confinement room, Tseng discovers the enemy has been buying stolen Shinra weapons from a black market weapons dealer, and has been stocking them aboard the ship. Torn between his duty as a Turk to investigate the stolen weapons further, and his determination to complete his mission to rescue the soldier, Tseng opts for the latter, and escapes the ship with the man.
Reprimanding Tseng on choosing the guard's life over the security of company secrets, Verdot returns with Tseng to the vessel to destroy the weapons, their data, and to locate the information leak which allowed the weapons to be sold on the black market. As Verdot heads to the hangar to destroy the weapons, Tseng is ordered to the control room to delete all files regarding the weapons. As he erases the files from the computer system, the anti-Shinra operatives escape with a hard copy of the data.
Seeing his mentor being assailed by the weapons in the hangar, Tseng attempts to go to his assistance, but Verdot reprimands him again, reminding him a Turk's first priority is the completion of the mission. Locating the operatives carrying the hard data and dispatching them, Tseng, his initial mission completed, is now free to aid Verdot in the hangar.
While destroying the weapons, a surviving anti-Shinra operative attempts to sink the vessel with the Turks still in it. As the ship sinks the ceiling collapses and Tseng is trapped beneath a steel girder. Urging his mentor to leave him, Verdot instead risks his life to free his subordinate receiving a facial injury from falling debris in the process.
While recovering in a Shinra medical facility, Verdot explains why he stayed to help Tseng: as his mission had been completed, he, like Tseng, was free, and chose to help as that was what he wanted the Turks to be: loyal to the mission, but still good people at heart.
Following military efforts of the Shinra Army and their elite force, SOLDIER, the Wutai War draws to a close with Emperor Godo Kisaragi surrendering to Shinra. In the aftermath, remnant forces of opposition gather to continue the fight. Verdot, wary the company's fight is far from over, recruits new members to the organization in anticipation of a coming conflict.
=== Combating Avalanche ===
Avalanche is an eco-terrorist organization that seeks to stop Shinra from using mako energy. During Avalanche's attack on Junon Verdot informs Shinra's leaders the Mako Cannon has been hijacked. President Shinra sends Reno to liberate it, leaving him open for Avalanche leader Fuhito to enter the room and shoot him. Still alive, the President orders Verdot to send in Sephiroth, Shinra's premier SOLDIER First Class, and the Mako Cannon is recaptured by Shinra.
Some time later, massing a search and destroy task force to attack the Avalanche base, SOLDIER member Zack Fair is sent to bolster the Shinra forces. While embarking to their destination, a breaking bridge leads to Zack and the Player Turk being separated from the main force that is led into an Avalanche ambush. As Zack moves to free his captured comrades, the Player Turk is instructed by Verdot, who is by now noting Avalanche has been receiving information from within Shinra, to assist in rescuing the SOLDIERs.
President Shinra, having become irate over his inability to uncover how Avalanche is receiving information from within the company, removes Verdot from his post and replaces him with Heidegger, a Shinra executive. Hearing that Avalanche is targeting Junon, Heidegger sends the Turks as scouts who are to call him on anything suspicious so that he can send in his military.
His insistence on using the military instead of the Turks' specialized skills leaves the members, when Avalanche does attack Junon, reluctant to inform Heidegger. Tseng discovers Avalanche is after the airships docked in the city, but Heidegger attempts to let the situation escalate until it is viable to send in his army, and is using the Turks as expendable distractions and ignores their requests for coordinated information.
Verdot approaches the President in Midgar and threatens to reveal all classified information he was privy to the media unless he is reinstated as head of the Turks. His request granted, Verdot co-ordinates the Turks into retaking the Junon airport, sending in additional troops and Martial Arts (Male) to assist. While the operation is a success, the Turks are no closer to discovering the leak within the Shinra executive offices.
=== Nibelheim Incident ===
When the Shinra clean-up crew arrives at Nibelheim and the Nibel Reactor, the Turks check on the laboratory equipment in the basement of the Nibelheim Mansion for Professor Hojo, the head of Shinra's science department. Verdot leads the way into the laboratory where he and the Player Turk get trapped in an illusion of the Player Turk's first encounter with Avalanche in Sector 8 during their first day on the job, caused by Lost Number. When that proves ineffectual, the monster changes the illusion to that of when Kalm was destroyed and Verdot's wife and daughter were thought to have been killed and Verdot was responsible for the incident's cover-up.
Lost Number paralyzes Verdot with guilt, but it is defeated by the Player Turk and the illusion vanishes freeing Verdot. As the survivors of Nibelheim are gathered up they are to be shipped into Hojo's laboratory, but the Turks are indecisive over the immorality of it and are allowed to leave while Verdot handles the operation.
=== Verdot's resignation ===
Reno and Tseng discover Avalanche has infiltrated and taken over the construction site of the Corel Reactor. Infiltrating the construction site through the Corel Mines thanks to a local named Barret Wallace, the Player Turk enters the reactor to find Rufus Shinra there, the company's vice president. Verdot, having followed after Rufus, informs the Turks Rufus is the informant and supplier for Avalanche in a bid to remove his father from presidency. As Verdot instructs his subordinates to place Rufus under arrest, Fuhito appears in an ambush to kill not just the Turks, but Rufus too, reasoning Avalanche no longer needs him. Elfe, a mysterious girl who works for Fuhito and Avalanche, appears, and her voice is recognized by Verdot as that of his deceased daughter, Felicia.
Her memories revived as Verdot explains who she is, Elfe is taken by her mysterious illness and she is carried out of the reactor by Fuhito. Torn between his duty and his desire to chase after his rediscovered daughter, the Turks encourage Verdot to go after her. Before leaving Verdot resigns his position to Tseng, who leads Rufus out of the reactor before Fuhito destroys it.
With the Player Turk rendered comatose due to injuries and mako poisoning and Verdot having deserted to pursue his daughter, Tseng is instructed to link with the Turks' secondary division to bolster numbers. Three years after Corel Reactor's destruction the Player Turk awakens from coma and three months afterwards, the Player Turk and Reno are tasked with the capture of an endangered species known as "Guardians of the Planet" in Cosmo Canyon for Professor Hojo.
While searching the canyon the pair visits Geisel Bugenhagen on Tseng's instruction and discovers more about the monster Fuhito hopes to summon through Elfe's Materia they learn is sapping Elfe's life force to exist; as a result Verdot, having not been sighted since Corel, is searching for a way to remove it without harming his daughter.
=== Searching for the Support Materia ===
After Zack Fair and Cloud Strife have escaped the Nibelheim Mansion, Verdot returns in the town and pores through the mansion's archives. Learning that he needs a certain Materia to remove the Materia from Elfe's body and stop it draining her life, Verdot has been searching for these Support Materia, learning the Turks already possess one given to them by Shears, Fuhito's subordinate, during the Corel Reactor incident.
Verdot and the Player Turk search through the mansion and come across clues to another of Hojo's "research subjects", Vincent Valentine, Verdot's old Turk partner, who informs them of the location of such a Materia elsewhere in the mansion. As Avalanche appears also looking for the Support Materia, the Player Turk and Verdot lose the orb to Fuhito while Shinra executive Scarlet informs the President in Midgar the Turks are assisting Verdot in spite of their orders to "shoot on sight".
Hidden within their headquarters within the Shinra Building as Scarlet embarks on a hunt for them, the Turks meet with Reeve Tuesti, a Shinra executive sympathetic to their cause, to locate the next Materia. Learning it is in the remains of the Gongaga mako reactor they, along with Cait Sith, steal a submarine from Junon to travel and evade the Shinra military.
Entering the reactor they find Avalanche troops already combing the facility for the Materia. Thanks to the timely arrival of Verdot and Shears, who was rescued by Verdot in Corel and had been working with him since, the next Support Materia is obtained.
Learning Avalanche is attempting to break into Corel Prison, the Turks presume a Materia piece must be there, and embark across the desert to obtain it. The Player Turk finds the final Support Materia, but is attacked by Avalanche's Ravens. Shears and Verdot arrive to support the Player Turk and Shears takes Shalua Rui, who had been with the Player Turk, to a safe location. Scarlet catches up to them and surrounds the Player Turk and Verdot. Attacking them into submission, Scarlet captures Verdot and takes him back to Midgar to be executed.
While Tseng, Rude and Reno attempt to discern the location where Verdot is being held, the other Turks and Shears meet in Wall Market in the slums below Midgar, and split the Materia orbs among themselves before dispatching to look for Elfe. Assisted by Rufus, Tseng locates Verdot and attempts to liberate him while ordering the Player Turk, who is being pursued by Shinra troops through Wall Market, to secure an escape out of Midgar. Elena of the Turks is kidnapped by the Ravens, and the Player Turk is forced to exchange the Support Materia to free her.
Elsewhere in the Sector 5 Slums, Shears is confronted by Fuhito. He opts to go with Fuhito to find Elfe, but is instead beaten down and the Support Materia stolen from him. While Reno, Rude and Tseng free Verdot, the Player Turk commandeers a helicopter to chase after Avalanche before they use the Support Materia to summon Zirconiade, the ultimate summon monster. While the Player Turk saves Elfe, the Materia inside her fuses with the Support Materia on its own and Fuhito ascends to give the newly formed Materia orb to Zirconiade.
As the Player Turks all chase after Fuhito along the construct created by Zirconiade's summoning, Tseng, Reno, Rude, Verdot and an awakened Elfe are captured by the Shinra military. Confronted with the offer that the Turks would be spared from capture and execution if Verdot and Elfe are killed, Tseng turns his gun on the pair and fires, shooting the pair down, but not actually killing them. As Tseng leaves with Verdot and Elfe who are secretly still alive, Reno and Rude wait for their remaining comrades still fighting Zirconiade, which they destroy.
=== Exile ===
Following Zirconiade's defeat, a Weapon roused by the Planet to combat Zirconiade begins to consider the Turks a threat due to their defeat of Zirconiade and how, technically, they had destroyed what was a part of the Planet's ecology.
A number of weeks afterwards, Verdot calls the Player Turks to inform the Weapon is now hunting them. After numerous hunts and battles across the Planet, the Turks finally destroy the Jade Weapon and return to their respective lives in exile.
During Meteorfall, Reno oversees the evacuation of Sector 4 while Rude clears Sector 2 and Elena clears Sector 3. Moving to clear Sector 5 together with Tseng, the four are met and assisted by the previous Turks and Verdot returning to assist in the evacuation of the citizens.
As revealed in On the Way to a Smile, following the Meteor's destruction, the Turks leave, returning to the lives they had obtained in their exile, but also work to gather intelligence on the current state of the Planet from their respective locations and sending the information to Verdot who in turn offers it to Tseng when required.
On one such offering, he informs Tseng about Mütten Kylegate, a former Shinra soldier who was noted for being sadistic, heading an enterprise to build a city near Midgar. After alluding to the possibility that Kylegate might be holding Rufus Shinra, who had been abducted while out of the Turks' protection, captive, Verdot leaves for Junon to meet with Reeve Tuesti, who was also forming an enterprise known as World Regenesis Organization in the wake of Shinra's destruction.
== Gameplay ==
Verdot is fought as a boss in the Training Mode.
== Other appearances ==
=== Final Fantasy Artniks ===
===Other media===
Verdot is mentioned in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-.
In a DMW scene in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Cissnei claims her supervisor is scary. Though the supervisor's name is not stated, she is likely referring to Verdot, as the time-frame of Crisis Core overlaps with that of Before Crisis.
== Gallery ==
BC Verdot 3.jpg|Younger Verdot.
BC Verdot 2.jpg|Older Verdot.
BeforeCrisisVeld.jpg|Verdot in Before Crisis.
ElfeVeld.jpg|Verdot's last day with Elfe before Kalm's bombing.
VIIBC Verdot Attack.png|Verdot attacking in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-.
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Category:Characters in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-