[hider=The EDA]
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[img]http://imgur.com/vXyLnCx.png[/img]
[h1][/h1][h2][sup][sup][i][/i][/sup][/sup][/h2][hr][hr][/center][h2][sub][b][u]	Common Name						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]EDA. Most believe it to be an acronym, but it has never been confirmed and no one knows what it really means.[/indent]

[h2][sub][b][u]	Origins						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]The turn into the new millenium was exciting for a great many reasons. One very notable one was the appearance of what many believed to be humanity's next entrance to a higher level of existence: the emergence of cybernetics-enhanced mechanical implants accessible to everyone. The heralds of this new invention were the EDA, a relatively small company with an unclear past, emerging from a hidden underground complex after reportedly years of tireless work. They offered crude prototypes that were still lacking some functionality—but the technological background was there and everything was tried, tested and proven to work. The reception was universal: this innovative fusion of metal and electronics which allowed for enhanced capabilities and greater compatibility with the human body was considered a world-first and a huge triumph in both science and engineering. The concept of replacing the flesh and bone for other than medical reasons was something radically new and largely restricted because of regulations and ethic concerns, but the EDA nonetheless achieved one crucial thing: releasing the genie of augmentation from the bottle.

Unfortunately, the technology's full potential could not be realised as the Great Collapse took away the possibility of using implants for all but the absolute richest. No one was more infuriated by this than the EDA's enigmatic leader who could not accept his vision failing. Coupled with the plummeting stocks that left no one unscathed, the company was forced to turn to drastic methods. They proceeded to lobby the failing government in their home country of France to give them even more grants and resources and entrust the creation of a prospering future onto them. Exploiting the general desperation and the short burst of productivity that followed after the collapse, they regained their lost assets and simultaneously drained the state dry and primed for a takeover. 

Once the change of leadership was finally secured, they used the country's influence within the European Union to invest great sums into keeping the Euro financially stable, finding allies in corporations with similar wishes.

The EDA did good on at least part of their promise: they pulled France through its worst years economically and reintroduced the technology, turning the nation into one of the augmentation capitals of the world with the greatest percentage of ‘transhuman’ people out of all countries. When the leader saw it fit, an outwards expansion was also initiated, which eventually ended with the company in firm control of the Iberian Peninsula and with a slowly strengthening grasp on Italy.

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[h2][sub][b][u]	Leadership						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]The EDA's corporate hierarchy ends before the highest levels. There is no CEO or COO, all executive and creative control is in the hand of the founder and lifetime leader, known in company circles as the Visionary—[b]Ryan Valois.[/b] Very few things are known about his past, his first public appearance was the one that rose him to fame: when he announced the EDA's emergence from their underground complex. It was claimed and then confirmed that the majority of their breakthrough designs came from him. After that however, he was rarely seen and 4 years ago, he completely disappeared. The EDA is incredibly tight-lipped about their Visionary, it is suspected that even within the company only the man's closest circle knows his true whereabouts. With how many years have passed since the incident, he is generally presumed to be dead.

The sizeable vacuum was eventually filled by Ryan's third assistant, the comparatively young [b]Roxana Neosca.[/b] She leads the EDA similarly to her former boss, albeit she relies much more on the Adepts, the close circle of the most talented senior members that function similarly to a board of directors.
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[h2][sub][b][u]	Major Industries/Brands/Subsidiaries						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
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[b]EDA[/b] or [b]EDAC[/b] [i](EDA Core)[/i] (cybernetics - original and main focus)
[b]EDAE[/b] [i](EDA Extension)[/i] (robotics - only formally separate from the main branch)
[b]BotF[/b] [i](Builders of the Future)[/i] (manufacturing - kept under strict quality control)
[b]Arcadia Hotels & Resorts[/b] (tourism, new direction exploiting the marketability of the controlled countries, used as a secondary source of income)
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[h2][sub][b][u]	Company Culture						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]The strongest belief of the EDA that is drilled into every employee is that their work is what will elevate humanity to yet-unseen levels and perhaps even save them from their mortality. With such degree of urgency, their workers are generally proud but secretive, while the people living in the controlled countries are made to believe they will be the first to ‘ascend’. These tendencies are amplified in the company's engineers and scientists, who often regard the outside world with condescending elitism. The figure of the Visionary is revered as almost a religious idol, especially in the inner circles. Some people go as far as to staunchly believe that their leader is alive and still directs them through Roxana.

The very nature of their work is controversial ethics-wise and the company's practices are not reassuring in that regard either. Many believe that the main reason they kept to a secret underground complex for so long was that they have done human experiments. Still, there is no shortage of test subjects—after all, what risk is too great if it is about following the vision of the future?
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[h2][sub][b][u]	Security Detail						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]The Visionary's ideals and the company culture makes it so that the EDA guards their current products and especially their new developments with everything it can. While many corporations have embraced automation in their security forces, the EDA instead uses their own augmented operatives—the so-called ‘super soldiers’. Augmentation is also encouraged and pushed into the nations' standing armies, to increase their efficiency and prepare them for potential war...[/indent]
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[hider=Roxana Neosca]
[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/tNdicgU.jpg[/img]
[h1]Roxana Neosca[/h1][h2][sup][sup][i]“The future is in our hands.”[/i][/sup][/sup][/h2][hr][hr][/center][h2][sub][b][u]	General Information						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent][b]Full name:[/b] Roxana Cristina Neosca
[b]Age:[/b] 36
[b]Gender:[/b] Female
[b]Birthday:[/b] 9 January[/indent]

[h2][sub][b][u]	History						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]
Roxana was born in Romania in 2013, a decade after the Great Collapse. The world was still reeling from the fallout, but the smoke has already started to clear, revealing a new future: an age where governments are replaced by corporations. At that time, she could not foresee how deeply she would one day get involved in this new world. Until that however, she lived life as much as her moderate standing allowed her to. While no prodigy, she has shown promise and signs of a keen scientific mind from an early age. She did her studies in the country's capital, Bucharest in one of the last state-funded universities and graduated as a computer engineer in 2035. Her ambition drove her deeper inside Europe and she had a brief stint working for the Dreyed Group before finally wounding up in France in 2037. Through a mixture of talent and luck, she was accepted into the EDA from dozens of applicants and got to work at their main facility in Paris.

Coincidentally, the day she started her work was also the day the elderly Ryan Valois appeared for the first surprise visit in months. It was a habit of the Visionary to personally check on his employees every now and then. It was then and there that he exchanged an almost prophetic few words with the young woman who was still only at the start of her true career. He told her, much to the shock of everyone, that he glimpsed a special opportunity in her and that she would one day reach the highest heights if she exploited her potential.

And, unlike most similar motivational speeches, that one actually came true. Roxana worked her way up the corporate ladder with commendable speed, overcoming her peers with quick learning skills and zealous ambition when her talents were outmatched. She was popular within the EDA—the ideal worker and a real success story.

That is, until she became Ryan's personal assistant. It was considered to be the highest honour one can achieve within the company, and only two people have ever filled this role before her. The outpouring support quickly turned into envy of similar magnitude as everyone from senior managers to young upstarts suddenly wanted to unseat her. To add fuel to the fire, when Ryan inexplicably disappeared in 2045, suspicions immediately turned onto her. Faced with a sudden loss of direction and sagely advice, as well as mounting pressure to maintain good public image and secure the corporation's ever-expanding territory, the Romanian engineer is up against her greatest challenge yet.
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[h2][sub][b][u]	Personality						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]Roxana was a much different person six years ago. Just entering her 30s, she had a high leadership position at one of the world's megacorporations with possibilities still ahead of her. She was optimistic and forever passionate, excited about the future the EDA was helping bring along under the Visionary's direction.

After she was appointed assistant, she had to realise that no matter how much the body is altered, people will always remain people. And people generally do not like when someone is above them. Killing with kindness was her go-to weapon against the more rebellious ones, but when that failed to work, she too had to fight fire with fire and that left a considerable mark. Now solely in charge of the EDA and its four former countries, she plans to follow the plans the Visionary laid out for her...dealing with anyone who stands in the way.
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[h2][sub][b][u]	Relations						[/u][/b][/sub][/h2]
[indent]She has a sister but does not keep contact with any of her family members. She was a rather adventurous type through the university years and for a few more after that, but increasing dedication to her work at the EDA eventually killed any option of long-term relationships, much less having a family of her own. Her last serious affair was with an engineer of similar interests within the company, which almost ended in a scandal.

Above all, she had very close ties to Ryan, looking up to him first before everyone else. She spent years at his side and got to know him very well—relatively, the old man had never revealed much about himself—, believing in his vision even when no one else truly did. His sudden disappearance left a considerable void in her heart that she was forced to quickly fill.
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[hider=Territorial claim]
Since I utterly suck at all sorts of image editing: it is basically France, Spain, Portugal and Italy as written in the history section. The lower parts of Italy are still contested and the company does not have concrete control (only interests) in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/fefHOfx.png[/img]
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