Character:Thomas Edison

Mr. Thomas Alva Edison was an inventor and businessman whose greatest contributions were - contrary to common myth - not to the lightbulb or to the power grid, but to the film and television industries. He viewed research ad development like a kid views a science fair, in that it was a competition he wanted to win. He abhored killing and was a strong detractor of using technology as a weapon.

Thomas died of diabetes symptoms in 1931.

Post-Ressurection
Thomas Edison is the origin of many myths about the Illuminated Brotherhood, viewing them as a potential monopoly of research and development during his first few years in the New Real. He later abandoned his accusations, but unfortunately the myths have taken on a life of their own.

While Edison never became part of the Illuminated Brotherhood, he has worked with them at several times, specifically in the reverse-engineering of Souls. While Semblances had been possible prior to 11937 GHE, they were produced exclusively for the black market and had no safety regulations or identifiers. Edison wanted to change this as well as end the social expectation that someone with a Soul could be trusted more than someone with a Biological body.

In 11937 GHE, Edison founded Edison Sophiologies, which would go on to destroy the monopoly of the Underworld over the creation of Semblances. A Semblance created using the Edison method or any publically-disclosed alternative method will have a birthmark on the interior of the lower eyelid of each eye, and is almost always of superior quality to a back alley Semblance. The result is that anyone seeking to abuse the transparency of Souls with a Semblance must either hope nobody asks them to prove they are a Soul, or go beyond merely deceiving the public and use the lie to put them in a position to do the right thing.