- 「若者よ、世の礎たれ」
Arise, O youth and become the foundation of the world. - —Driechels' words which later traditionalizes as the academy's motto[1][2]
Thors Military Academy (トールズ士官学院 Tōruzu Shikan Gakuin), otherwise known simply as Thors, is an elite military academy in the Erebonian Empire, and the main background of the first game of the Trails of Cold Steel trilogy. Thors Military Academy is—as its name implies—a full-fledged military academy for young adults.
With its primary campus located in Trista, the curriculum systemizes a two year institution that graduates all students with an officers commission in the various armed forces of the nation. Thors is the alma mater of many distinguished alumni, and more recently, serves as the home of the newly established Class VII.
Background
Thors Military Academy was established during the reign of Emperor Dreichels after the War of the Lions. The core objective of the Academy, as embodied by its mission statement, is to educate the best and brightest young men and women from across the Empire. Initially to educate the noble community, the academy began to enroll students with commoner backgrounds as time passed, but segregates the two social classes in accordance with tradition.
As a pilot project of Olivert Reise Arnor's design, Thors hosts the newly formed Class VII with the initial intention of testing the ARCUS.
Connecting Areas
Game Map of the accessible facilities
English Map of the Academy
- Auditorium: A facility used for assembly events like the entrance ceremonies and the Inauguration of Class VII.
- Field: The outdoor grounds for physical activities like the sports clubs and practical exams.
- Gymnasium: The general training facility with an indoor swimming pool and training hall. Normally used by the Swimming and Fencing Clubs.
- Library: The academy's resource collection of books snd newspapers. A quiet location for studying and research.
- Student Union Building: Where students go to congregate and relax on the first floor by its cafeteria and stores. There are more rooms and clubs on the second floor, where the student council room lies at the hallway's end.
- Engineering Building: The de-facto orbal factory where the player comes to upgrade Orbments, purchase new weapons, synthesize new Quartz, etc.. The facility was run by the Engineering Club's second-year student, George Nome until his graduation.
- Old Schoolhouse: A former school facility abandoned in the academy's courtyard with a mysterious battleground built not following the building's structure. Since its usage from orientation, Principal Vandyke sends Class VII to investigate the schoolhouse, as the building tends to constantly undergo transformations where each new floor presents new challenges.
- Reverie Corridor: An interdimensional area that somehow appears overlapping the dimensions inside the Old Schoolhouse. It is where Class VII are led once again for the last time to investigate the mysterious surroundings in the facility.
History
Trails of Cold Steel
Thors Military Academy serves as the home base of Class VII. In between Field Studies, the members of Class VII will lead eventful lives as ordinary military students. The player can engage in Bonding Events with Class VII in order to strengthen combat links and develop relationships between characters. The player also has the option of assisting the Student Council with various tasks.
School Festival
Rean helps out Class VII and the other students as a temp for the Student Committee, preparing for the annual school festival near the end of October.
Mysterious glow at the Old Schoolhouse
On the evening of the first day of the festival, Rean and gang are having a meeting until the clock on the schoolhouse strikes 1:00AM, and a mysterious bell starts ringing throughout the campus. Class VII goes to investigate the mysterious, ominous glow, realizing it's the same glow that covered Lohengrin Castle.
Choosing a party of seven, Rean enter the schoolhouse reaching the final floor, while noticing 3 sub floors within that ultimately ends in a fight with Loa Erebonius, the most powerful boss in the game (not counting C, V or S). After successfully defeating the Erebonius, an enormous illusion appears before unveiling at the floor's end, a giant silver archaism lying dormant.
Calm Before the Storm
As the final day of the festival concludes, Class VII and the Thors students share the traditional bonfire dance along, with Rean dancing with his "partner-of-choice". As the night shuns quietly, everybody becomes unrestful as Principal Vandyke announces the shocking news, Garrelia Fortress has been destroyed.
Attack on Trista
The morning before the upcoming "storm", Rean notices Millium is missing and goes searching for her. He finds her on the floor 7 of the Schoolhouse, gazing at the mysterious silver giant. They head back to their classroom so the whole school can listen to Giliath Osbourne's live speech via. radio.
Osbourne was then suddenly assassinated by C from a far, blind angle, which Claire arriving too late, but unmasks C's identity, Crow Armbrust. As the whole student body becomes disturbed by the shocking events, the academy and Trista is suddenly assaulted by the Imperial Liberation Front with V and S in their new Panzer Soldat units. Class VII (minus Crow) head outside the rear gate engaging Scarlet in combat, but were overpowered, defeated and cornered due to a large-scale difference between height and vitality. Suddenly, Rean awakens and summons the giant, by its name Valimar from the schoolhouse. As the tides turned, Rean defeats Scarlet in a Divine Knight battle.
Then Crow arrives piloting Ordine, revealing his true motives and engages in a mecha duel against Rean's Valimar. Despite Rean gaining the upperhand, Crow's bests Rean in terms of more piloting experience. As things started to go bleak, Celine commands Valimar to retreat while the rest of Class VII fend off Ordine, despite Rean's protest and suspending the story to the next game.
Trails of Cold Steel II
Epilogue: Winter's End
March 13; After the Civil War ends, life resumes back to normal back at the Academy. After Rean arrives back from Crossbell (annexed from the epilogue of Ao no Kiseki, he adjusts back to school life before the Civil War began while considering about his future after graduation.
The gameplay temporarily resumes back as the first game, until Valimar and Rean notice that something has cropped up in the Old Schoolhouse.
March 25; Class VII disbands after all its members graduate and go their separate ways.
Gallery
