Élodie: the people of Europe have definitely seen better days, and by the time of the mid-21st century the former European project had long come undone, with member states going every which way, and sometimes themselves imploding. But growing up with undreamt luxurious wealth certainly insulated her from the ongoing slow collapse of the continent. Showered with family wealth and media attention from a young age, she would grow up to become a public intellectual, author, socialite, and cultural critic. Even as the remaining leading institutions of Europe slipped away, her head remained squarely in the past, reading and writing and reminiscing about its past glories, and the lessons that could be applied to the modern day. Even as the Ardennes burned from unnatural dryness sparked by global warming, rioters filled the streets of the capital protesting against the feckless Western European Union's failures, and the whole enterprise dwindled into the Mediterranean States, Élodie's dreams of past empire did resonate with those seeking the escapism of the past. The Canon by Élodie open-source archival project made her a household name among Europeans and the pretentious, seeking to build an immortal Library of Alexandria to preserve as much of what remained of the continent's great works, both intellectual and physical, even establishing protective domes around historical sites and museums. At the end, her role as architect of the Canon and deep pockets secured her a place on Unity; she was in fact considered a civilian contractor.
Élodie was appointed Chief Librarian with a rank of Curator on Unity. She oversaw the teams of archivists, anthropologists, sociologists, artists, musicians, writers, and talents of all kind who were to deliver Earth's greatest works to the stars. And of course, Élodie's single-minded approach immediately ran into issues with Captain Garland and others, spurring accusations of ethnocentrism for her regional focus. Her political aspirations were dismissed as neo-imperialism, her dreams of a revived Europe, "Nothing more than an Inter-National Rally." As such, she was often at odds with her own team, and during the chaos of Planetfall, many of the technical librarians departed to follow others. Yet her personal charisma and vision always kept a core group of true believers.
She rebuffed the Peacekeepers despite being offered the Director of UNESCO on Chiron, which was somewhat of a relief to the Commissioner, who found her to be a chauvinist and troublesome to work with. Surprisingly, she and her acolytes joined Sister Miriam Godwinson's flock. Though not a dogmatic believer, Élodie believed that the Lord's Believers' emphasis on continuing Earth's traditions was laudatory, and only they would clearly prioritize both preserving and celebrating the culture and religion. It was an- unusual time in her life. While the Believers are not as hidebound and medieval as their reputation suggests, their austere focus on metaphysics, cautious attitude towards scientific progress, and ultimately parochial perspective exhausted Élodie - she would later liken her time as spending an extended retreat in a nunnery. Indeed, during her time there, she and her followers were known as the "Secularist party" of the Believers, viewed as a bunch of know-it-all historians who wanted to throw hermeneutics into the wind and turn the faction into a more cultural-nationalist direction away from pure faith. Naturally, there was no end to squabbles between her and the reverend sister, who eventually found her gadfly obsessions tiresome even if it made for some great discourse. After the first few initial years, Élodie commandeered a colony pod during a base founding mission and founded her Europa Universalis, a faction devoted to the preservation, study, and practice of the Eurafrican cultures that were left back on Earth, and must be reborn on Planet.
The Lord's Believers were glad to see the secularists go, their endlessly didactic behavior cancelling out the fun rhetorical challenges they posed in dissension. Godwinson herself likened them to Anne Hutchinson's Antinomians who left Puritan Massachusetts Bay for the wild. Since then, Europa Universalis has found some limited appeal for the few nationalists and chauvinists throughout the factions, Morganites appreciating luxury but presuming to also care for cultural pretensions, Peacekeepers sick of the post-national status quo. But most unexpectedly, Élodie has found interest from a most unlikely fan- Lady Deidre Skye of the Stepdaughters of Gaia has provided some survival aid and protection to the newly-found faction. Though they have vastly different goals, the Gaians respect Europa's democratic progressive values (a legacy of the latter-day French and Spanish republics, shortly before everything went Rally-shaped), and their instinct to preserve. And the Gaians aren't completely devoid of culture beyond the veneration of biological life, after all. Élodie finds the neopagans puzzling, but are grateful for their aid; after all, the pre-Christian animist and druid traditions of Europe are still worth preserving, even if they are gauche by modern standards and come from the Boche. And the Gaians make some great wine…