The Seraphim, Cross Applied Technologies special service, inspired me as much as they were, as well as the corporation itself, not used by SR authors. I had pitched a proposal for Loose Alliances that was turned down ; what I wanted to wrote can be read here. I then hoped to make a stripped-down version in the spy chapter in SOTA:2064. The chapter was written, but by someone else, who treated the Seraphim in a way I found to be a lot less original.

In the long view, a corporation like Cross Applied Technologies, who played a very small role but filled a seat as a AAA on the Corporate Court, was doomed. As the conflict with Ares Macrotechnology started getting repetitive, as soon as the opportunity would arise, Cross was to be thrown out. The opportunity was System Failure, a sourcebook specifically designed to introduce and justify that kind of changes for the 4th edition.

In System Failure, Lucien Cross, head of Cross Applied Technologies, died in an aircrash during the world computer crash. The link to the other events was rather tenuous. Seraphim operations were compromised by an unspecified act. The Bank of America, a subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology, and the Frankfurter Bankverein, would buy Cross Applied Technologies debts. And then Ares Macrotechnology started taking over Cross subsidiaries

The first thing that annoyed me was to be deprived of something I was using in my games. The second thing was I think that was badly pulled out. The main reason actually comes from a common misconception in Shadowrun. Most authors have a limited idea of how corporations work.
The term "subsidiary" describe a company whose has a parent company as a majority stakeholder, with more than half th voting rights. It is thus impossible to take control of a subsidiary without the parent company selling at least a part of its stake, or accept a share issue that wuld dilute its stake under 50%. Unless there are a large number of options or convertible bonds, which would be quite uncommon, it is impossible to take over a subsdiary without the agreement (possibly forced) of the parent company. And in my opinion, Cross management have all the reasons (moreover, personal reasons) not to sell to Ares, and to sell to any other corporation instead, even if it means loosing billions of nuyen.

Since I usually try to respect everything that has been published (still doing so so far, no matter how good or bad the recent release have been...), I searched how I could flesh out the fall of Cross Applied Technologies and the Seraphim, and make the events slightly more believable. also tried to pave the way for new stories, instead of simply ending everything.

The involvement of Frankfurter Bankverein (FBV, or FBA standing for Frankfurt Bank Association) in System Failure along with Ares Macrotechnology was interesting, as the only other time I know those two corporations worked together was in the German campaign Shockwellen (a summary was published in English as Shockwaves). Ares and FBV were opposing Proteus AG, who itself had ties with Seraphim, that I started to flesh out. You can rarely tell what the author had in mind, but to me, those were pieces of a puzzle that started to come together.

The second part links the Seraphim with the coups d'état in North America, which were a major event in System Failure (though only the UCAS coup is actually described). I always prefer to avoid coincidences, and search instead for a domino effect that would justify when two events occur at the same time. Lucien Cross had contacts within the intelligence services, where he recruited the first Seraphim. I imagined that between the late 2030ies and the early 2040ies, when he established his corporation, there would have been a lot of people from US agencieswho would leave rather than choose between UCAS, CAS or California. So, from that point, it wasn't hard to imagine that "Patriots", as I call them (for a Frenchman, it's difficult to use a name like "New Revolution" without thinking about our own history, rather than the US War of Independance), could establish a sleeper cell within the Seraphim, and another one inside Ares Macrotechnology as Damien Knight created Knight Errant around the same time. For no obvious reason (Joshua Tree ? Or possibly an obscure reference from a movie, I don't remember), I thought Joshua would be a good codename for an American patriot.

Another trigger that convinced me I could build an interesting plot around the end of the Seraphim was the arrival of Nicholas Aurelius Junior on Ares Macrotechnology board in Corporate Guide. He represents Gavilan Ventures and was handpicked by the Draco Foundation board. The intent is clear to choose someone who, for familial and personal reasons (he followed his father when he left Ares and joined Cross) is eager to make life difficult for Ares boss, Damien Knight.
On the other hand, Nicholas Aurelius was, in Corporate Download, an exception among Ares former executives working at Cross, as he was closely working with Seraphim. As the head of Cross Advanced Electronics in Seattle, he was dealing with Jezebel Surreteau, aka "Gabriel". According to Blood in the Boardroom, Surrateau was the one who managed to take over a part of great dragon Dunkelzahn operatives network, at the expense of the Draco Foundation. Since Nadja Daviar, the chairman of Draco Foundation as of 2064, disappeared in Seattle, more pieces for my puzzle. As I said above, I prefer to avoid coincidences.

Before writing this, I considered other options to keep Seraphim and the plots involving them around. That's how Katrina Showski, the head of Cross European Development and probable head of Seraphim ops in France and Europe, was mentionned as the new CEO of Esprit Industries in the additionnal content of Cartels Fantômes, the French version of Ghost Cartels. This move was renewing the mangement of Esprit (something that happens way too rarely in Shadowrun) without for once pulling a new character out of thin air, as well as suggesting the "true" Seraphim could join the SDEI, Esprit intelligence services, while Ares would only retain some low-level agents. But that was before 25 caracters in Corporate Guide made Esprit Industries a subsidiary of Aztechnology.

I worked on additional content for the French and German versions of Corporate Guide, about several a number of european corporations. The project was cancelled for financial reasons, at least on the French side. My first idea was to have Aérospatiale SA (or Aésa), a French corporation that always lacked proper exposition since it was first introduced in Shadows of Europe, taken ove Esprit Industries. The story would have involved a feud between the Bourbon and Rochefort family, following the events in the SOX campaign. A takeover attempt by Aésa on Esprit was to create the conditions for a rumor to spread among market analysts, for a few hours, that Aztechnology managed to snatch Esprit instead (explaining the contradictory references in Corporate Guide, where Esprit is refered once a subsidiary, and once as competitor). Finaly, a reverse takeover was to make Esprit takes over Aésa.
Then, line developper decided Esprit Industries was to be a subsidiary of Aztechnology from now on, canon-wise. I was more than disapointed to "loose" this way a corporation I used and still was using a lot in my game and in my materials, but I got bak to work. If Esprit was to disappear in the depths of Aztechnology organizatinal chart, the final showdown should be spectacular. I kept the idea of the feud between Bourbon and Rochefort, where the later would finally resort to Aztechnology's help to avoid defeat. But, sorry, I went a bit far from the original topic, Seraphim.

I realized I had a rather good reason for Seraphim to join Aérospatiale instead of Esprit. Among the unpublished material for Shadows of Europe, Cross European Development was the main shareholder of Alcatel-Nokia, a member company of the Eutronics Consortium (I usually refers to the company only as A-N Telecom to ease the confusion with the Nokia part of Erika, now Neonet...), along with the Amas International holding that belonged to the d'Amat family. The Eurtronics consortium was to be an alliance of corporation who were (ab)using the consortium extraterritoriality and logistics for their own black ops. In Cross' case, A-N Telecom thus wuld have been a cover for the Seraphim.
At the end of the French SOX campaign, the d'Amat were trying to sell their shares in Aérospatiale to the Bourbon. According to the figures featured in SoE, that would make the Bourbon the major shareholder in Aésa, ahead of the French state. Aésa could possibly grow bigger by taking over some of Cross assets in Europe, like A-N Telecom for instance. There was my link between Seraphim and Aésa. It would make sense for the Bourbon, as they try to take over Esprit Industries, to hire intelligence specialists who wouldn't hail from the SDEI or the French military or intelligence services, where Rochefort has a lot of supporters. Hiring former Seraphim of Eurotronics could be a solution. So I got the backstory for Aésa handpicking Katrina Showski to head Esprit Industries, before the takeover, and moving her to a new position later.

The problem now is, with Seraphim with Ares Macrotechnology, Patriots, Esprit Industries or Aérospatiale, Proteus AG, and possibly elsewhere, it's difficult to have a clear vision on whichever ongoing plots. I previously had a handful of different plots that involved Seraphim (January 23rd, 2033 operation, Proteus AG secret projects, Ares conflict, Da Vinvi works, and now, on top of that, the Patriots). And yet, I already dropped the idea that Seraphim could be the Québec chapter of the Black Lodge (which provided another reason to use biblical codenames, especially when you know the complete, unpublished history of the Black Lodge). In retrospect, it was for the better, considering how declawed and lame the Black Lodge now appears to be in Conspiracy Theories.
Since there no longer is a single organization, it should be reversed, and only keep a single plot, with all the "heirs" of the Seraphim fighting over it. For once, there would a certain credibility in each side having moles, double and triple agents. January 23rd, 2033, Proteus projects and the war with Ares are things of the past, case closed as far as I'm concerned as a GM. The mystery surrounding Da Vinci works (the real Da Vinci, not the Brightlight impersonator) could be the center of rivalries between the Seraphim Heirs (keeping in touch with my Alias inspiration). There is still some rework to do, to see how that plot should interract with the Patriots actual objectives, and gives a better description of the Proteus faction. Possibly funnily enough, there would be two American, one French and one German factions, and so freelancers in each country could play favorite.

About the illustration, I simply wanted something to break the wall-of-text effect a bit, and had no idea for boxed content or anything else.