TRICELL

Tricell logo.

TRICELL Inc. (Otherwise known simply as Tricell) was a multi-industrial conglomerate, prominent in the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies. It was a conglomerate of three organizations descended from Travis Enterprises. Its name was derived from the triumvirate of "cells" that formed it. In 2009, TRICELL was involved deeply with the Plaga outbreak in Kijuju.

Structure

The three portions making up Tricell were the Pharmauceutical, Natural Resources and Shipping sectors.

Pharmaceutical

The pharmaceutical cell was founded after medicinal herbs were collected from Africa.

Shipping

The shipping cell had foundations in the Travis family's business trade with Asia.

Natural Resources

The natural resources cell was known for its extraction of fossil fuels, operating an extensive oil facility in West Africa.

The company was one of the more prominent members of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies, along with companies such as the Umbrella Corporation. Eventually, Umbrella would prove to be too troublesome to the Federation, heavily involved in the business of Bio Organic Weapons. This practice would eventually prove to be the undoing of the company.

History

Formation and early history

Tricell's foundation can be traced to Thomas Travis, an 18th Century merchant during the Age of Exploration, when he founded a trading company. With the firm entering the 19th Century, Thomas' wealthy descendant, Henry Travis, inspired by the likes of Sir David Livingstone, funded an expedition to the African continent. This would have a dramatic impact on the future of the trading firm.

Henry made five expeditions to the continent, in all. In his thirty-four years of travels around West Africa, Henry developed an extensive, seventy-two volume encyclopedia on the region, detailing the lives and traditions of its various peoples, the local geology and ecology. Unfortunately, upon his return, his Natural History Conspectus was viewed upon by the scientific community as being largely-fabricated or prone to literary-license and, as a result, few copies were printed. Based on tales that survived into the 21st Century, Henry's elder brother, who ran the Travis firm, was the cause of this disassociation with Henry's work, having intentionally questioned Henry's work in order to make sure that only the company would believe in the existence of the potential wealth that his younger brother described. Henry fell into a depression and died on the second year of his return, having failed to become a childhood hero like Livingstone.

At the end of the 19th Century, the firm made its first expansion, using the geological information from Henry's encyclopedia to make significant inroads in Africa's natural resource extraction, mining for precious metals; oil and gas. It was during this process that the company began obtaining samples of various African animal and plant species, intending to sell them to naturalists within the scientific community. The medicinal qualities of some of these samples were noted by the company as a potential source of revenue, thus creating the third 'cell' of the company - the pharmaceutical sector - in the mid-20th century.

In the 1960s, the company went through a significant change, with the three sectors becoming the "cells" of the new company, "TRICELL".

Post-Raccoon City and the Federation (1998-2005)

After the Umbrella Corporation was indicted in the Raccoon City Destruction Incident and with illegally developing biological weapons, the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies (FPC) - of which Tricell's pharmaceutical division was a member - was disgraced as people began to distrust chemical organizations comparable to Umbrella, which was also a senior member of the FPC. The organization's reputation was damaged further when it became apparent that Umbrella had been using its fellow medical corporations as suppliers for chemicals which Umbrella used for its bio-weapons program. The FPC - Tricell included - willingly handed over documents regarding their dealings to be used against Umbrella, after it was agreed that they themselves would not be investigated further. After Umbrella lost the Raccoon Trials, the FPC began to restore its image by founding and funding the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance - Tricell was a major funder of this organization.

Even so, soon after the founding of the BSAA, TRICELL showed interest in the use of bio-weapons. As they helped develop the t-Abyss Virus, which in 2005, they re-acquired a sample of from Jessica Sherawat and Raymond Vester, TRICELL's moles in the BSAA and FBC respectively during the Queen Zenobia incident.

When fellow pharmaceutical giant, WilPharma, collapsed after its head researcher, Frederic Downing, was revealed to have made dealings with bioterrorists by selling samples of the t-Virus in order to make hefty profits for the company once the t-Vaccine entered circulation; Tricell purchased what was left of the company. During its investigation of the corporation's ruinous Air Dome Laboratory, its hazmat crews stumbled upon part of a tail believed to be from the G-Virus-infected Curtis Miller. The company proceeded to hack into the computer of US senator Ron Davis as well as having him assassinated, completely wiping it to tie up any loose ends.

TRICELL Africa and partnership with Wesker

Albert Wesker, an ambitious agent with insatiable power hunger, made sure that Umbrella toppled after betraying it on behalf of his other employer. He broke into the corporation's final stronghold in the Caucus and stole all of its data, planning to build-up his own version to lead the world into a new era. After his ordeal in Russia in 2003, Wesker contacted Tricell and decided to secretly work with them.

Wesker agreed to provide Tricell with viral samples of the Tyrant virus and T-Veronica virus for research in exchange for capital to add to his accumulated resources salvaged from Umbrella, which he initially intended to replace; however, he would soon find that his destiny had more to come, as he met with Oswell E. Spencer, Umbrella's fugitive CEO, and learned of his origins. Deciding that Spencer's vision was truly why the world needed to be repaired, Wesker killed him and decided upon a new way to remake the world that he saw as destroying itself. Thus, he continued working with Tricell using all of his amassed research and assets.

Wesker and Excella would meet and discuss each other's ideals. They agreed greatly upon the idea of changing the Earth for the sake of humanity. They forged a partnership, and Wesker motivated Excella to take the CEO position she so craved. To quench the doubt among her superiors, Excella needed to prove the usefulness of the plan she and Wesker proposed. Wesker provided them with a Plaga sample and perfected it, creating the Type 2 and Type 3 Plagas with assistance from Tricell researcher, Ricardo Irving. The parasite's success ensured the security of Excella's position as CEO of Tricell Inc., Africa. The two then began creation of the most deadly virus yet, the Uroboros virus, an advanced strain of the Progenitor virus.

Having all of Umbrella's data and Spencer's personal records at his disposal, Wesker managed to lead Tricell to the abandoned Umbrella Africa Research Center and began production of Uroboros there, setting up a base with Excella. Eventually, however, Tricell's doings in Africa would be discovered by the BSAA's deployed agents, Chris Redfield, Sheva Alomar, Jill Valentine and Josh Stone. Irving was inevitably defeated, Jill was rescued from her brainwashed state, and Wesker ultimately betrayed Excella, revealing that he considered himself a god and never intended to be a "king" with Excella as his "queen." Nevertheless, he was defeated by Chris and Sheva, and destroyed along with Uroboros.

End of TRICELL and legacy

Following Wesker's failed plans, the number of human rights violations connected with a number of Tricell researchers, and the implications of Tricell's pharmaceutical division dealing in the bioterrorism market, the rest of the company was condemned by the events following the BSAA investigation. What remained of Tricell's operations were salvaged by Glenn Arias, who used Neo-Umbrella and Tricell's resources to create B.O.W.s that could tell friend and foe apart. By 2011, stirrings of a new virus and references to Tricell came from Washington and the news hit TerraSave senior Neil Fisher, who expressed his concerns regarding it towards fellow member Claire Redfield. However, Claire reassured him that Tricell was gone for good and there was nothing to worry about. B.S.A.A. member Barry Burton encountered B.O.W.s created on a secluded island, by Alex Wesker using the same Uroboros virus conceived by her "brother" Albert Wesker and TRICELL. Black market salesman, Glenn Arias salvaged what's left of the company along with the bioterror organization Neo Umbrella to create B.O.Ws that can tell from friend or foe.

Further notes

• Tricell's Pharmaceutical Division is part of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies, which helped fund the BSAA.
• Originally, Tricell's name was to be Seashell, referred to as "S" in Resident Evil 4. This was later changed. "S" is instead merely a codename, and not a synonym as may have been originally intended.
• Tricell's logo has been spotted in the 2009 version of "Bionic Commando" in various billboards of the destroyed city.

Bibliography

• Resident Evil: Degeneration Artbook

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