RWBY Wiki
Register
Advertisement
RWBY Wiki
For the World of Remnant episode of the same name, see Schnee Dust Company (WoR episode).
The finest of them all.
—Advertisement

The Schnee Dust Company or SDC was a corporation owned by the Schnee family, and was one of the largest producers and exporters of Dust in the world of Remnant. It was founded by Nicholas Schnee and its heir was his grandson, Whitley Schnee, prior to its dissolvement and eventual destruction.

The Dust was transported by railway lines, as well as by sea, after being mined and refined at quarries. According to Blake Belladonna, the company was known for its "controversial labor forces and questionable business partners", which garnered it a bad reputation. The company had a history of bloodshed with the White Fang due to it's mistreatment of Faunus workers.

It was headquartered in the former Kingdom of Atlas and collaborated with the military on weapons such as the Atlesian Paladin-290, but eventually cut ties following the decision by James Ironwood to place a Dust embargo on Atlas. The company also had operations in Vacuo, which contributed to the environmental deterioration of that Kingdom.

The company was destroyed alongside Atlas when it crashed into Mantle in "The Final Word".

History[]

The Schnee Dust Company was founded by Nicholas Schnee following the Great War, in the Kingdom of Mantle. Nicholas personally led numerous expeditions around the world to find Dust veins, earning him praise and respect throughout the Kingdoms, while also greatly expanding his company. However, due to him not being the best businessman, the company was constantly in debt.

In one instance, both the Schnee Dust Company and the Mistral Trading Company mined the Dust deposits in Vacuo and depleted the Kingdom of it's once bountiful natural resource. Because of this, many people in the Kingdom's capital city still resent the other Kingdoms. After the Dust deposits were all depleted, they eventually abandoned many of their Dust refineries in Vacuo, one of them later being used by The Crown as a base of operations.

Eventually, as time passed Nicholas began to grow weary. His family missed him and his health was failing. He was convinced by his son-in-law, Jacques Schnee, to let him inherit the company. Under his leadership, the Schnee Dust Company's profits grew exponentially, albeit through less-than-ethical practices, such as the use of cheap labor, allowing dangerous working conditions, possible monopolies and having shady business partners.

During the 10th birthday of his daughter Weiss Schnee, Jacques failed to show up and was confronted by his wife Willow Schnee about it and the two got into an argument. As the conversation went on, Jacques snapped and finally admitted that the only reason he married her was to gain control of the Schnee name and the company for himself. After revealing this to her, Willow started to become alcoholic and stopped being an active part of her children's lives.

The Schnee Dust Company and the Schnee family were at war with the White Fang. One instance of this was when they attacked one of the company's facilities and it's employees. In "The Stray", Weiss Schnee mentioned that some of her family members and friends had disappeared, while several company board members may have been executed. Another instance is mentioned wherein a train car full of Dust was stolen. Due to this conflict and the temper her father had in regard to it, Weiss experienced a difficult childhood. This caused her original hostility toward the White Fang and her distrust of Faunus in general.

The Schnee Dust Company's controversial labor forces, mentioned by Blake in "The Shining Beacon", are evidently Faunus. In "Black and White", Blake mentions that the White Fang hijack cargo from companies that use Faunus labor, which is the exact event that took place in the "Black" Trailer. Weiss confirms this in "Mountain Glenn", saying that her father's business practices are no longer progressive in terms of labor rights and Faunus treatment. One such instance of Faunus workers being mistreated would be Adam Taurus, who was branded with the SDC logo on his face, resulting in him joining the White Fang.

Another instance would be when Ilia Amitola lost her parents in an accident when one of the company's mines collapsed. After hearing her human friends laugh at their deaths just because they were Faunus, Ilia revealed her Faunus trait to them before punching out their teeth and later joined the White Fang to avenge the death of her parents. Jacques himself was furious about losing the mine and it's profit, but didn't care about the workers lost in the accident. Upon inheriting the company, she wished to find a way to change that.

Some of the company's rivals in the past are said to have shut down like Flynt Coal's father who was said to have his closed because of it. Because of this, the company was believed to have monopolized other businesses that tried to sell dust in the past. Because of these events, Flynt originally resented the Schnee family as a whole.

In the past, Jacques eldest daughter, Winter Schnee, decided to join the Military and had her privileges as the SDC heiress taken away from her as an attempt to bring her back under Jacques control. When this failed to stop her as she joined the Military, Jacques revoked her status as the heiress altogether. After her sister Weiss started to follow a similar path when she wanted to attend Beacon Academy instead of Atlas Academy like her father wanted, he made her fight an Arma Gigas to see if she could win her freedom. Weiss managed to beat it, but her eye was scared in the process and was given a recital performance before she left.

When Roman Torchwick began stealing Dust shipments all over the Kingdom of Vale, the Schnee Dust Company was having an economic crisis and were forced to increase the prices of Dust that wasn't stolen as a result.

After some time at Beacon however, Jacques attempted to call Weiss every chance he got in an attempt to bring her back to Atlas while cutting off her privileges and funds. After the Fall of Beacon, Jacques came to pick Weiss up himself and forced her to return to Atlas. He did since he was worried about how the incident would affect the Schnee family name and the company's image.

In "Remembrance", it is revealed that James Ironwood had previously placed an embargo on Dust trade until the threat of war passes. Jacques took great exception to this and its consequences for his company, though he tried to pass it off as being concerned for the Kingdom. In order to promote PR for the company to make up for the losses from the Dust embargo, Jacques holds a charity for the Fall of beacon in "Tipping Point" using Weiss and her singing. During the charity, Weiss realized how apathetic the people of Atlas really were and was angered when one of the guests stated that Beacon deserved to Fall.

After her father tried to control her outburst, Weiss accidentally used her Glyphs and summoned a Boarbatusk to attack the guest. However, it was destroyed by Ironwood before it reaches the guest, who demands Weiss to be arrested before he tells everyone at the charity that she is the only one there making sense before leaving. Following this, Jacques decides to revoke Weiss' status as heiress to the company in favor of her younger brother, Whitley Schnee and has her confined to Schnee Manor due to going against him. When she learns this and Whitley insults her for getting revoked, Weiss plans to leave Atlas with the helping her family butler Klein Sieben. When Jacques learned that Klein helped Weiss escape he had him fired.

Sometime prior to the events of "RWBY: Arrowfell a deal between the Schnee Dust Company and the Atlesian Military to find a new Dust Mine site was made. During the events of the game, Winter acts as the liaison for the deal between both factions and ask Team RWBY to go to the potential mine site and obtain a Dust sample. When they return with the sample however, the Dust inside of it is revealed to have inert specks and imperfections in it. Because roof this, the mine site is deemed unusable and the deal between both factions is completed.[1]

V7 09 00101

Jacques Schnee is arrested by the Atlas Military

In "Pomp and Circumstance" Jacques confronts Ironwood over taking control of one of his old mines and after learning that Weiss returned to Atlas with her friends, tries to guilt her by telling her that her mother was devastated when she left and didn't leave her room for days. After Ironwood tells him that he overruled the council and Weiss and her friends stand up to him, he returns to his Manor. Jacques is later visited by Arthur Watts and convinces him to shut down all non-essential SDC facilities in Mantle before the upcoming election for the newest council member and rigs the election in Jacques' favor. He then invites Ironwood to his mansion to defend his council seat with the other members and Robyn Hill involved. Before Jacques convinces them to remove Ironwood from the council, Weiss discovers evidence of her father getting assistance with winning the election from Watts and presents it to the council while arresting him in the process. They later learn that Watts helped Jacques in order to use his privileges as a councilman to shut down the heat in Mantle.

After Jacques is arrested in "As Above, So Below" thanks to security footage recorded by Willow Schnee, all of the staff at the Schnee Manor quit and abandoned the Manor. Willow also locked herself in her room to drink, leaving Whitley by himself until Ruby's Group return to seek asylum after Nora Valkyrie is critically wounded. While he is reluctant to help them at first, he genuinely begins to help them after hearing Ruby's message to all of Remnant and overhearing May Marigold describe her reasons for leaving her cousin and the rest of her family in Atlas behind. After he hears this, he calls Klein to help Nora while stating that she needs to see a doctor. After Weiss learns why he did it, the two reconcile and go help Nora before Penny Polendina crashes in front of the manor.

Later in "Dark", Whitley realized that he could use the company and it's resources to help evacuate the people of Mantle. He manages to get access before The Hound finds him and sends multiple drones to help the evacuation process. In "Ultimatum" however, the Atlas Military shoot down the drones before they reach the people as Ironwood delivers an ultimatum, either Penny gives herself up to him within an hour, or Mantle will be destroyed using a bomb.

After Ruby's Group argues on how to handle the situation, they realize that they haven't considered using the Relic of Creation to evacuate the people of both Atlas and Mantle away from Salem. Whitley provides them with the blueprints of the Dust pipes that connect Atlas and Mantle, which are used in the creation of an evacuation route.

After Ironwood regains consciousness in "Worthy", he learns that Winter put him in a cell next to Jacques and that they are using the Relic. When his cell goes down and Ironwood regains his weapons, Jacques asks him if he is also going to open his cell. When Ironwood replies that he would, Jacques is horrified as Ironwood aims his weapon at him and vaporizes him in the process before heading to the Vault.

When the Kingdom of Atlas was destroyed, the company's headquarters along with many of it's facilities and Schnee Manor were all destroyed with it.

Operations[]

As one of the biggest and most influential Dust trade companies in Remnant, the SDC had various businesses, sub-branches, connections and projects all over the world ranging from simple small-time Dust distribution shops to major mining operations to paramilitary operation in all of the continents of the world.

When searching for new potential Dust mine sites, the company usually has someone go into the site and obtain a sample of the Dust inside to check for inert specks and imperfections in the Dust. If it lacks any of these, the mine site becomes an official mine.[2]

Atlas[]

Atlas was the Kingdom where the SDC first began as it was where its founder and first CEO, Nicholas was born and raised in. It was also within the continent of Solitas were he found his first major Dust depository and where he eventually founded the first early incarnation of the SDC. As such the company's home office and main headquarters were also confirmed to be located within the Kingdom's capital city.

Nicholas' daughter and grandchildren formerly lived within the Kingdom along with his son-in-law, the former CEO, Jacques within the Schnee Mansion in the Capital. With the family being one of the Kingdom's most prominent figures in both the Kingdom's elite and lower classes.

It was said by Flynt Coal that his father's own Dust business was shut down because of the Schnee Dust Company, showing that the company monopolized other Dust businesses in the process of becoming as big as it was.

The SDC's immense influence was seen in the fact that a majority of the kingdom's citizens were heavily reliant on the company for their livelihood, as a majority of its citizens had jobs working in the companies operations and subsidiaries, as seen during the events of "Sparks" where due to Jacques attempts to win the election by promptly shutting down the "non-essential" SDC operation in Mantle in order to "preserve" his business due to the Dust embargo employed by Ironwood. This caused nearly all of the citizens to lose their jobs while the rest found themselves unable to access the company's Dust supplies that was essential for their survival, which caused severe civil unrest and mass rioting all over the city.

One of the SDC's major operations and main source of income within Atlas seemed to be within the Mining industry, with the company having several large scale mining operations and owning several Dust mines used in order to dig out and processing Dust for both selling and providing the Kingdom with a steady supply of the mineral for the general public's everyday usage. The SDC also worked closely in partnership with the Atlesian Military by providing them with Dust for technological development in weapons such as the Atlesian Paladin-290. The SDC also utilized their mined Dust in exportation to the other kingdom's of Remnant as their main source of industry in the kingdom. The SDC also possessed an abandoned mine that was shut down and later destroyed due to a disastrous incident where Faunus miners had accidentally tripped while handling agitated Dust crystals and causing a explosion which then triggered a chain reaction, effectively rendering the Mine to unstable and leading to it being closed down and abandoned due to the explosions and subsequent cave-in, several Faunus laborers lost their lives in the disaster.

Another facet to the SDC's power in Atlas was the fact that the SDC was formerly running a partnership with the kingdom by providing both Atlas and Mantle with heating, with the company and the Kingdom working together in maintaining the major cities heating grids to protect its people from the lethal cold of Solitas. However, it was also shown that the SDC also possessed the authority to actively shut off the heating grid should they choose to as seen where Arthur Watts took advantage of Jacques' high authority clearance over the company and kingdom to shut off the heating in Mantle while leaving Atlas' own grid untouched in order to foster further anger and hatred towards the high class of the Kingdom and incite further chaos.

In Mantle, the Schnee Dust Company owned Snow Shoe Shipping[3], a subsidiary used to refine Dust and provide it to Atlas city through the use of pneumatic tubes. Snow Shoe had since bought AK-200 drones to report to the company, which as such do not report to the military.

During it's operations in the Kingdom, the Schnee Dust Company also mined from the underground tunnels underneath the crater in Mantle known as the "Crater Caverns" until it ran out of Dust to mine and was eventually abandoned by the company.[4]

After the destruction of Atlas, many of the company's operations there were all destroyed with the Kingdom along with the death of it's CEO Jacques Schnee.

Mistral[]

While the authority of the Company in Mistral is mostly unknown, the Schnee Dust Company does have some facilities in the Kingdom such as one in Anima's eastern region.[5]

Vacuo[]

Although not exactly shown or seen, it's been implied that one of the major contributions to the kingdom of Vacuo's ecological degradation and destruction of the once bountiful oasis and jungles was due to the SDC's heavy presence in the continent. The company itself seemed to have several excessively large and ecologically harmful Dust mines and factories that have uncontrollably exploited and mined the kingdom's immense Dust reserves which eventually lead to the kingdom's current barren desert-like terrain in stark contrast to its previous oasis of resources.

Due to this, the people in the capital city of Vacuo resent people from outside the Kingdom.

Vale[]

The SDC seemed to be one of the Kingdom of Vale's main source of Dust exportation, as seen when the majority of Dust shops and crates shipped to the kingdom possessed the Schnee family/company logo on it.

During the events of Volume 1, the criminal mastermind Roman Torchwick initiated several Dust robberies on the entirety of the Dust Shops all over the kingdom's capital city of Vale and has even gone as far as robbing the main source of Dust shipments within the cities main docks, where he successfully took a gigantic amount of Dust shipments from the Kingdom of Vale, which eventually lead to the kingdom entering an economical crisis within its local Dust industry. As stated by Roman himself that due to his large scale operation, the prices of Dust had been severely inflated and increased to nearly unaffordable levels and due to him taking the majority of Dust supplies, the local military of the kingdom had barely enough Dust for their own usage, effectively weakening the kingdom's defenses.

Due to the fact that the SDC was the main source of Dust exportation to Vale, it's likely the gigantic loss of their Dust shipments caused a severe loss of income and profit for their business and the company were likely the ones responsible for inflating the Dust markets prices in order to attempt to rectify the issue.

Menagerie[]

Although the exact official relationship the Faunus nation had with the SDC is unknown, the SDC's presence in the kingdom seems to be the smallest in the entire world. This was seen when it was shown that the company barely possess a presence in the City, likely due to the people of Menagerie's own unpopular opinion towards the SDC due to its controversial Faunus Labor employment and treatment and the likely chances that the people of Menagerie themselves originally came to live in the kingdom in order to avoid the Company itself.

However due to the White Fang's presence within the nation and the large amount of members found within the main city, it was likely the SDC was involved in the shadow conflict with the nation's underground forces, as seen during the events of the RWBY Comic, where a meeting was held about their recent attack on the SDC Faunus labor camps and the losses of their members and the militia's continued conflict with the company and their next attack on the companies operations across the world.

However despite the extremely bad relationship and reputation the SDC possessed with the White Fang and by extension Menagerie, the SDC had notably tried to better their relationship with the nation and by extension the Faunus race by hiring a few natives to work as guards in their high priority facilities in order to prove that they "don't believe they're all scum", eventually leading to mixed results between both sides.

Security[]

V6 adam short 00044

Schnee Dust Company Guards

The SDC employed armed security forces to protect their facilities from breaches. Their security included gas weapons and assault rifles. The Schnee Dust Company also utilized Atlesian Knight-130s as additional security. After the AK-130's were discontinued, they were instead replaced by Atlesian Knight-200s bought out by the company that didn't report to the Military.

Transportation[]

As revealed in "Dark", The SDC possesses their own private fleet of large Cargo Air Ships used to transport their Dust products worldwide and were stated to have their own automated Drones running on their company's own independent system free from the Atlas Networks. Allowing it to automatically be activated and manned by the Company free from Atlas's interference.

As stated by Whitley, the Company itself possessed enough transport ships to easily evacuate large chunks of Mantle's population. However, they were all shot down by the Atlesian Military right before they reached Mantle.

Products[]

Shi-nee Toothpaste[]

Shi-nee1

Shi-Nee Toothpaste

Shi-nee Toothpaste is a toothpaste product produced by the SDC. This product was first seen in "The First Step", when Nora Valkyrie was seen holding a tube in one of the washrooms at Beacon Academy. The name of the product is a play on the word "shiny".

The style of the label on the toothpaste tube mimics that of real-world toothpaste brand Crest.

Company Board of Executives[]

The SDC was shown to primarily be run by a board of Executives that were charged with running the company and its various departments and operations across Remnant. The highest member of this board being the Company's CEO.

After Jacques was arrested, the majority of the board of Executives seemed to all quit. After Jacques was killed, the position of CEO became available.

Company Perks[]

As revealed by Weiss, Whitley and Willow Schnee, the Board Member Executives of the SDC were given numerous perks and advantages not given to the general public thanks to their positions. This was seen when each company executive was stated to have been provided with their own auxiliary power generators independent from the power supply's of the city of Atlas just in case a City-Wide blackout were to occur in the city installed in their own homes.

Former Members[]

  • Nicholas Schnee † - The founder of the Schnee Dust Company.
  • Jacques Schnee † - Former head of the company. Arrested by Weiss after he was exposed for election fraud and collaborating with Arthur Watts. Later killed by James Ironwood.
  • Winter Schnee - Weiss' elder sister. Revoked her claim as heiress upon joining the Atlesian Military.
  • Weiss Schnee - Former heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Disinherited for her outburst and actions at the SDC Charity Ball.
  • Whitley Schnee - Winter and Weiss' younger brother and former heir to the Schnee Dust Company.

SDC Workers[]

  • Klein Sieben - Former Schnee family butler. Fired by Jacques for helping Weiss escape the Manor.
  • SDC guards seen in the Volume 6 Adam Character Short. They seem to be the main security of the company.
  • Mantle miners are largely employed by the SDC and are said to be mostly comprised of Faunus and are placed in dangerous mining conditions.
  • Adam Taurus † - Originally a worker for the Schnee Dust Company until he was branded with the SDC logo on his face. Later joined the White Fang and was eventually killed by Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long in Argus.
  • Ilia Amitola's parents † - Faunus workers that lost their lives in an accident when one of the company's mines collapsed. This incident led to Ilia joining the White Fang.

Trivia[]

  • The company is seen advertising Dust on the back of the "Weapons Magazine" paperback that Ruby is reading during the Dust Shop Robbery in "Ruby Rose". The same ad is also on the back of an X-Ray and Vav comic book being read by Jaune in "Welcome to Beacon".
    • The advertisement says "The finest of them all.", possibly reflecting the fact that Weiss is based on Snow White. The saying "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" was always asked by the wicked queen to her magic mirror in the fairy tale.
      • It may also allude to the seven dwarves and their role as miners.
    • It also foreshadows the company's destruction at the end of Volume 8 after Jacques was killed by Ironwood. In the fairy tale, the wicked queen died at the end of the story.
  • Nora Valkyrie is holding a tube of toothpaste with the Schnee Dust Company's logo in "The First Step", implying that Dust is not the company's only product. The name of the toothpaste brand is revealed in "The Badge and The Burden" as "Shi-nee" when a tube falls from Blake's bag.
  • During the food fight of "Best Day Ever", a soda can with the Schnee Dust Company logo can be seen. This soda was labeled Ol' King Cold, a reference to the nursery rhyme Old King Cole.

Image Gallery[]

References[]

Setting
Advertisement