Hatter Co.

There are many important roles in Hatter Co., each predominantly of a suited demographic:

• Dryads: Mainly responsible for working directly with tea trees and leaves. Their affinity for plants makes them uniquely qualified not just to maintain the living trees in the fields, but to assess the value of leaves and even heal them from environmental damage to a certain extent.
• Nekomata: Maintain the tools used for harvesting and processing the tea. Their powers of animation and considerable technological skill make them ideal engineers and mechanics. They are responsible for both building and repairing the many machines used in processing.
• Gremlins: While they are not always affiliated with Hatter Co. itself, gremlin merchants are invaluable means of distributing tea across the world. Their nomadic nature encourages them to forge reliable supply chains across continents and seas, expanding Hatter Co.'s potential customer base.

These are not the only races that work with Hatter Co., but they are the most represented.

Hatter Co. has, at this moment in time, a near-monopoly on the tea industry in Silverneedle Town and a good foothold on it in Cha Town. Despite this, it does not own the tea farms themselves. Rather, it purchases tea from small farmers, which make up the majority of tea growers in the Cha Plains.

Instead, it owns quite a few facilities in the two towns that are responsible for processing the tea for sale. The factories that they produce it in double as museums which the company opened for public viewing. Here, visitors can get a close-up look at the entire process that is undertaken to process tea for distribution.

The company is actually subject to quite a bit of controversy due to its near monopoly on tea production and distribution. There are many who are wary of Hatter Co. and feel that it doesn't have enough incentives to keep it on the straight and narrow when it comes to things like sustainability and maintaining workers' rights. Its current leader, Charlie Hatter, claims to have these concerns in mind, but some are still skeptical.

Hatter Co. was first established by Charles Hatter I in Fatanißan 1886. In fact, Charles Hatter was one of the founders of Silverneedle Town. He was a Puca who had migrated all the way from Cliff Town in search of a new venture after numerous failures. In this strange new land, he soon recognized the unusual properties of the trees growing wild, and he began to study the Altairian Tea Tree.

Not long after, he began a new venture focused on processing and utilizing the leaves of this unique plant. It was a slow start for Hatter Co., but as the Altairian Tea Tree became more recognized and coveted throughout the Cirkea-Tamora-Domeria continent, it really took off.

The company has certainly had its ups and downs over the years. In the late Golden Era, its ability to survive came into question when its founder succumbed to the madness that had been threatening to consume his mind for decades. However, Hatter Co. has managed to survive even that. Today, his grandson, Charles Hatter III, leads the company.