title: Empress Myeongseong

text: On the basis of these reports, the Queen Consort began the reorganization of the government. Twelve new bureaus were established that dealt with foreign relations with the West, China, and Japan. Other bureaus were established to effectively deal with commerce. A bureau of the military was created to modernize weapons and techniques. Civilian departments were also established to import Western technology.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In the same year, the Queen Consort signed documents, arranging for top military students to be sent to Qing China. The Japanese quickly volunteered to supply military students with rifles and train a unit of the Korean army to use them. She agreed but reminded the Japanese that the students would still be sent to China for further education on Western military technologies.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The modernization of the military was met with opposition. The special treatment of the new training unit caused resentment among the other troops. In September 1881, a plot was uncovered to overthrow the Queen Consort's faction, depose the King, and place Heungseon Daewongun's illegitimate (third) son, Yi Jae-seon on the throne. The plot was frustrated by the Queen Consort but Heungseon Daewongun was kept safe from persecution because he was still the father of the King.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In June 1882, members of the old military became resentful of the special treatment of the new units and so they destroyed the house of Min Gyeom-ho and killed him, her mother-in-law's younger brother, who was the administrative head of the training units; Yi Choi-eung and Gim Bo-hyun were also killed. These soldiers then fled to the protection of the Heungseon Daewongun, who publicly rebuked but privately encouraged them. The Heungseon Daewongun then took control of the old units.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: He ordered an attack on the administrative district of Seoul that housed the Gyeongbokgung, the diplomatic quarter, military centers, and science institutions. The soldiers attacked police stations to free comrades who had been arrested and then began ransacking private estates and mansions belonging to relatives of the Queen Consort. These units then stole rifles and began to kill Japanese training officers, and narrowly missed killing the Japanese ambassador to Seoul, who quickly escaped to Incheon. The military rebellion then headed towards the palace but both Queen Consort and the King escaped in disguise and fled to her relative's villa in Cheongju, where they remained in hiding.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: It was also said that when Grand Internal Princess Consort Sunmok had entered the palace, she hid Empress Myseongseong, in what was probably a wooden litter she was riding on, but was seen by a court officer who then told the soldiers that were invading the palace. Her mother-in-law then tried to persuade the Heungseon Daewongun to stop chasing after the queen which gave him suspicions. The Heungseon Daewongun became resentful towards his wife after the ordeal, and kept her away from his affairs.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: When the Daewongun could not find the queen, he announced, "the queen is dead". Numerous supporters of the Queen Consort were put to death as soon as the Daewongun arrived and took administrative control of Gyeongbokgung Palace. He immediately dismantled the reform measures implemented by the Queen Consort and relieved the new units of their duties. Foreign policy quickly returned to isolationism, and Chinese and Japanese envoys were forced out of the capital.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Li Hongzhang, with the consent of Korean envoys in Beijing, sent 4,500 Chinese troops to restore order, as well as to secure Chinese interests in the country. The troops arrested the Heungseon Daewongun, who was then taken to China to be tried for treason. The royal couple returned and overturned all of the Daewongun's actions.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Japanese forced King Gojong privately, without Queen Min's knowledge, to sign the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1882 on 10 August 1882, to pay 550,000 yen for lives and property that the Japanese had lost during the insurrection, and permit Japanese troops to guard the Japanese embassy in Seoul. When the Queen Consort learned of the treaty, she proposed to China a new trade agreement, granting the Chinese special privileges and rights to ports inaccessible to the Japanese. She also requested that a Chinese commander take control of the new military units and a German adviser named Paul Georg von Möllendorff to head the Maritime Customs Service.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In September 1883, the Queen Consort established English language schools with U.S. instructors. She sent a special mission in July 1883 to the United States, headed by Min Yeong-ik, her adoptive nephew. The mission arrived at San Francisco carrying the newly created Korean national flag, visited many U.S. historical sites, heard lectures on U.S. history, and attended a gala event in their honor given by the mayor of San Francisco and other U.S. officials. The mission dined with President Chester A. Arthur, and discussed the growing threat of Japanese and U.S. investment in Korea. At the end of September, Min Yeong-ik returned to Seoul and reported to the Queen Consort:


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Progressives were founded during the late 1870s by a group of yangban who fully supported Westernization of Joseon. However, they wanted immediate Westernization, including a complete cut-off of ties with Qing China. Unaware of their anti-Chinese sentiments, the Queen Consort granted frequent audiences and meetings with them to discuss progressivism and nationalism. They advocated for educational and social reforms, including the equality of the sexes by granting women full rights, issues that were not even acknowledged in their already Westernized neighbor of Japan. The Queen Consort was completely enamored by the Progressives in the beginning, but when she learned that they were deeply anti-Chinese, she quickly turned her back on them. Cutting ties with China immediately was not in her gradual plan of Westernization. She saw the consequences Joseon would have to face if she did not play China and Japan off by the West gradually, especially since she was a strong advocate of the Sadae faction who were pro-China and pro-gradual Westernization.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: However, in 1884, the conflict between the Progressives and the Sadaes intensified. When American legation officials, particularly Naval Attaché George C. Foulk, heard about the growing problem, they were outraged and reported directly to the Queen Consort. The Americans attempted to bring the two groups to peace with each other to aid the Queen Consort in a peaceful transformation of Joseon into a modern nation. After all, she liked the ideas and plans of both parties. As a matter of fact, she was in support of many of the Progressive's ideas, except for severing relations with China.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Be that as it may, the Progressives, fed up with the Sadaes and the growing influence of the Chinese, sought the aid of the Japanese legation guards and staged a bloody palace coup on 4 December 1884. The Progressives killed numerous high Sadaes and secured key government positions vacated by the Sadaes who had fled the capital or had been killed.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The refreshed administration began to issue various edicts in both the King and Queen Consort's names and they were eager to implement political, economic, social, and cultural reforms. However, the Empress was horrified by the bellicosity of the Progressives and refused to support their actions and declared any documents signed in her name to be null and void. After only two days of new influence over the administration, they were crushed by Chinese troops under Yuan Shih-kai's command. A handful of Progressive leaders were killed. Once again, the Japanese government saw the opportunity to extort money out of the Joseon government by forcing Gojong, again without the knowledge of his wife, to sign a treaty. The Treaty of Hanseong forced Joseon to pay a large sum of indemnity for damages inflicted on Japanese lives and property during the coup.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: On 18 April 1885 the Li-Ito Agreement was made in Tianjin, China, between the Japanese and the Chinese. In it, they both agreed to pull troops out of Joseon and that either party would send troops only if their property was endangered and that each would inform the other before doing so. Both nations also agreed to pull out their military instructors to allow the newly arrived Americans to take full control of that duty. The Japanese withdrew troops from Korea, leaving a small number of legation guards, but the Queen Consort was ahead of the Japanese in their game. She summoned Chinese envoys and through persuasion, convinced them to keep 2,000 soldiers disguised as Joseon police or merchants to guard the borders from any suspicious Japanese actions and to continue to train Korean troops.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Peace finally settled upon the once-renowned "Land of the Morning Calm." With the majority of Japanese troops out of Joseon and Chinese protection readily available, the plans for further, drastic modernization were continued. Plans to establish a palace school to educate children of the elite had been in the making since 1880 but were finally executed in May 1885 with the approval of the Queen Consort. A palace school named "Yugyoung Kung-won" () was established, with an American missionary, Homer B. Hulbert, and three other missionaries to lead the development of the curriculum. The school had two departments, liberal education and military education. Courses were taught exclusively in English using English textbooks. However, due to low attendance, the school was closed shortly after the last English teacher, Bunker, resigned in late 1893.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Queen Consort also gave her patronage to the first all-girls' educational institution, Ewha Academy, established in Seoul, 1886 by American missionary, Mary F. Scranton (later became the Ewha University). In reality, as Louisa Rothweiler, a founding teacher of Ewha Academy observed, the school was, at its early stage, more of a place for poor girls to be fed and clothed than a place of education. The creation of the academy was a significant social change. The institution survives to this day as the Ewha Woman's University – one of the Republic of Korea's top private universities and still an all-women's school.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Protestant missionaries contributed much to the development of Western education in Joseon Korea. The Queen Consort, unlike her father-in-law, who had oppressed Christians, invited different missionaries to enter Joseon. She valued their knowledge of Western history, science, and mathematics, and was aware of the advantage of having them within the nation. Unlike the Isolationists, she saw no threat to the Confucian morals of Korean society in the advent of Christianity. Religious tolerance was another one of her goals.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The first newspaper to be published in Joseon was the , an all-Hanja newspaper. It was published as a thrice monthly official government gazette by the (Publishing house), an agency of the Foreign Ministry. It included contemporary news of the day, essays and articles about Westernization, and news of further modernization of Joseon.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In January 1886, the published a new newspaper named the "Hanseong Jubo" ("The Seoul Weekly"). The publication of a Korean-language newspaper was a significant development, and the paper itself played an important role as a communication media to the masses until it was abolished in 1888 under pressure from the Chinese government.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: A newspaper entirely in Hangul, making no use of the Korean Hanja script, was not published again until 1894. ("The Seoul News") was published as a weekly newspaper under the patronage of both Gojong and the Queen Consort; it was written half in Korean and half in Japanese.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The arrival of Horace Newton Allen under invitation of the Queen Consort in September 1884 marked the formal introduction of Christianity, which spread rapidly in Joseon. He was able, with the Queen Consort's permission and official sanction, to arrange for the appointment of other missionaries as government employees. He also introduced modern medicine in Korea by establishing the first western Royal Medical Clinic of Gwanghyewon in February 1885.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In April 1885, a horde of Protestant missionaries began to flood into Joseon. The Isolationists were horrified, realizing their defeat by the Queen Consort. The doors to Korea were not only open to ideas, technology, and culture but also to other religions. Having lost immense power with Heungseon Daewongun, who was still captive in China, the Isolationists could do nothing but simply watch. Prominent Protestant missionaries, such as Horace Grant Underwood, Lillias Underwood (née Horton), William B. Scranton and his mother, Mary Scranton, made Korea their new home in May 1885. They established churches within Seoul and began to establish centers in the countrysides. Catholic missionaries arrived soon afterwards, reviving Catholicism, which had witnessed massive persecution in 1866 under Heungseon Daewongun's rule.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: While winning many converts, Christian missionaries made significant contributions towards the modernization of the country. Concepts of equality, human rights and freedom, and the participation of both men and women in religious activities were all new to Joseon. The Queen Consort was ecstatic at the prospect of integrating these values within the government. She had wanted the literacy rate to rise, and with the aid of Christian educational programs, it did so significantly within a matter of a few years.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Drastic changes were made to music as well. Western music theory partly displaced the traditional Eastern concepts. The Protestant missions introduced Christian hymns and other Western songs that created a strong impetus to modernize Korean ideas about music. The organ and other Western musical instruments were introduced in 1890, and a Christian hymnal was published in the Korean language in 1893 under the commission of the Queen Consort. She herself, however, never became a Christian, but remained a devout Buddhist with influences from shamanism and Confucianism; her religious beliefs would become the model, indirectly, for those of many modern Koreans, who share her belief in pluralism and religious tolerance.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Modern weapons were imported from Japan and the United States in 1883. The first military factories were established and new military uniforms were created in 1884. Under joint patronage of Gojong and his Queen Consort, a request was made to the United States for more American military instructors to speed up the military modernization of Korea. Out of all the projects that were going on simultaneously, the military project took the longest.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In October 1883, American minister Lucius Foote arrived to take command of the modernization of Joseon's older army units that had not started Westernizing. In April 1888, General William McEntyre Dye and two other military instructors arrived from the United States, followed in May by a fourth instructor. They brought about rapid military development.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: A new military school was created called , and an officers training program began. However, despite armies becoming more and more on par with the Chinese and the Japanese, the idea of a navy was neglected. As a result, it became one of the few failures of the modernization project. Due to the neglect of developing naval defence, Joseon's long sea borders were open to invasion. It was an ironic mistake since nearly 300 years earlier, Joseon's navy was the strongest in all of East Asia. Now, the Korean navy was nothing but ancient ships that could barely defend themselves from the advanced ships of modern navies.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: However, for a short while, hope for the Korean military could be seen. With rapidly growing armies, Japan itself was becoming fearful of the impact of Korean troops if her government did not interfere soon to stall the process.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Following the opening of all Korean ports to the Japanese and Western merchants in 1888, contact and involvement with outsiders increased foreign trade rapidly. In 1883, the Maritime Customs Service was established under the patronage of the Queen Consort and the supervision of Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet of the United Kingdom. The Maritime Customs Service administered the business of foreign trade and collection of tariffs.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: By 1883, the economy was now no longer in a state of monopoly conducted by Japanese merchants as it had been only a few years ago. The majority was in control by the Koreans while portions were distributed between Western nations, Japan and China. In 1884, the first Korean commercial firms such as the Daedong and the Changdong Company emerged. The Bureau of Mint also produced a new coin called in 1884, securing a stable Korean currency at the time. Western investment began to take hold as well in 1886.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The German A.H. Maeterns, with the aid of the United States Department of Agriculture, created a new project called "American Farm" on a large plot of land donated by the Queen Consort to promote modern agriculture. Farm implements, seeds, and milk cows were imported from the United States. In June 1883, the Bureau of Machines was established and steam engines were imported. However, despite the fact that Gojong and his Queen Consort brought the Korean economy to an acceptable level to the West, modern manufacturing facilities did not emerge due to a political interruption: the assassination of the Queen Consort. Be that as it may, telegraph lines between Joseon, China, and Japan were laid between 1883 and 1885, facilitating communication.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Detailed descriptions of Min can be found in both The National Assembly Library of Korea and records kept by Lillias Underwood (1851–1921), a close and trusted American friend of Min who came to Korea in 1888 as a missionary and was appointed as her doctor.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Both sources describe the Empress' appearance, voice, and public manner. She was said to have had a soft face with strong features—a classic beauty contrasting with the king's preference for "sultry" women. Her personal speaking voice was soft and warm, but when conducting affairs of the state, she asserted her points with strength. Her public manner was formal, and she heavily adhered to court etiquette and traditional law. Underwood described the Empress in the following:


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Isabella Bird Bishop, a British woman who was a member of the Royal Geographical Society, had described the Empress' appearance to be that of "...a very nice-looking slender woman, with glossy raven-black hair and a very pale skin, the pallor enhanced by the use of pearl powder" while meeting with her when Bishop traveled to Korea. Bishop had also mentioned Empress Myeongseong in her book, "Korea and Her Neighbours," in detail:


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Bishop described Jayeong as "clever and educated", and Gojong to be "kind" during the time she visited the palace.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: William Franklin Sands, a United States diplomat who came to Korea during Japan's colonization, also spoke highly about Empress Myeongseong:


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The young queen consort and her husband were incompatible in the beginning of their marriage. Both found the other's ways repulsive; she preferred to stay in her chambers studying, while he enjoyed spending his days and nights drinking and attending banquets and royal parties. The queen, who was genuinely concerned with the affairs of the state and immersed herself in philosophy, history, and science books normally reserved for men, once remarked to a close friend, "He disgusts me."


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Court officials noted that the queen consort was exclusive in choosing who she associated with and confided in. She chose to not consummate her marriage on her wedding night as court tradition dictated her to, but later had immense difficulty in conceiving a healthy heir. Her first pregnancy came five years after marriage, at the age of 21, and ended in despair and humiliation when her infant son died shortly after birth. This was followed with losing her first infant daughter at the age of 23, her third infant son at the age of 25, and her fourth infant son at the age of 28; leaving her with Yi Cheok, her only living child, born when she was 24. The queen's failed pregnancies were probably because of the constant conflicts she and her husband faced with the Heungseon Daewongun and other countries during the modernization of the Joseon Dynasty.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: When the royal couple married in 1866, there was already a skirmish with France occurring and during 1876, the process of the Treaty of Ganghwa had made the relationship of the Heungseon Daewongun and Gojong unbearable. As their relationship deteriorated, this led to the king's father making death threats against her, and it was most noticeable during the Insurrection of 1882, in the 1884 coup where her relatives were killed, and in 1874 when her mother died. As a result, she stopped having children as she was always exposed to danger; which was considered a bit early since royal women stopped giving birth around their early thirties.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Her second son, Sunjong, was never a healthy child, often catching illnesses and convalescing in bed for weeks. This led to the Empress to care for the Crown Prince and being anxious that a son of a concubine would replace her son, and prompted her to go after the help of shamans and giving monks beneficial positions to ask for their blessing. The Crown Prince and the Empress shared a close mother and son relationship despite her domineering personality. While Min was unable to truly connect with Gojong in the early years, trials during their later marriage brought them together.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Both the Gojong and his Queen began to grow affections for each other during their later years. Gojong was pressured by his advisers to grab control of the government and administer his nation. However, Gojong was not chosen to become King because of his acumen (which he lacked because he was never formally educated) or because of his bloodline (which was mixed with courtesan and common blood), but because the Pungyang Jo clan had falsely assumed they could control the boy through his father. When it was actually time for Gojong to assume his responsibilities of the state, he often needed the aid of his wife to conduct international and domestic affairs. In this, Gojong grew an admiration for his wife's wit, intelligence, and ability to learn quickly. As the problems of the kingdom grew bigger and bigger, Gojong relied even more on his wife, she becoming his rock during times of frustration.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: During the years of modernization of Joseon, it is safe to assume that Gojong was finally in love with his wife. They began to spend much time with each other, privately and officially. They shared each other's problems, celebrated each other's joys, and felt each other's pains. They finally became husband and wife.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: His affection for her was undying, and it has been noted that after the death of his Queen Consort, Gojong locked himself up in his chambers for several weeks, refusing to assume his duties. Emperor Gojong demoted the empress position, but two days after the assassination, and under the pressure of the Japanese, Emperor Gojong raised the Empress' position to (, ); the title being the first rank of Women of the Internal Court.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: When he finally came out of his chambers, he lost the will to even try and signed treaty after treaty that was proposed by the Japanese, giving the Japanese immense power. When his father regained political power after the death of his daughter-in-law, he presented a proposal with the aid of certain Japanese officials to lower his daughter-in-law's status as Queen Consort all the way to commoner posthumously. Gojong, a man who had always been used by others and never used his own voice for his own causes, was noted by scholars as having said, "I would rather slit my wrists and let them bleed than disgrace the woman who saved this kingdom." In an act of defiance, he refused to sign his father's and the Japanese proposal, and turned them away.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: It has been stated that after Gojong's father died in 1898; he did not attend his funeral due to their strained relationship.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Empress' assassination, known in Korea as the Eulmi Incident (), occurred in the early hours of 8 October 1895 at Okhoru () in Geoncheonggung (), which was the rear private royal residence (the king's quarters) inside Gyeongbokgung Palace.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In the early hours of 8 October, the assassination was carried out by Heungseon Daewongun's guide, which was in conflict with Empress Myeongseong. Japanese agents under Miura Goro carried out the assassination. Miura had orchestrated this incident with Okamoto Ryūnosuke (岡本柳之助), Sugimura Fukashi (杉村 濬), Kunitomo Shigeaki (國友重章), Sase Kumatetsu (佐瀨熊鐵), Nakamura Tateo (中村楯雄), Hirayama Iwahiko (平山岩彦), and over fifty other Japanese men. Said to have collaborated in this were the pro-Japanese officers Major () and Major Yi Du-hwang () both battalion commanders in the Hullyeondae, a Japanese-trained regiment of the Royal Guards. The 1,000 Korean soldiers of the Hullyeondae, led by Majors Woo and Yi had surrounded and opened the gates of the palace, allowing a group of Japanese ronin to enter the inner sanctum.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Upon hearing the cry of Lieutenant Colonel Hong Gye-hun, the Queen changed into court lady attire to disguise herself among the rest of the court ladies, and hide before the Japanese arrived at Okhoru. It is said that the empress had asked the Crown Prince if he was safe before she was killed.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: As the Japanese soldiers were coming in, Gojong tried to divert their attention away from the Queen, to have her escape the palace, by putting himself in front of their search but this led them to beat the court ladies and threaten the Crown Prince at sword point to make him talk on the whereabouts of his mother. But her son did not disclose her location and made it safely to where his father stood to which he watched the queen run as a Japanese soldier followed her down a path with a sword. The wife of the Crown Prince, Crown Princess Consort Min (later Empress Sunmyeong), was dragged downstairs while she was with a few court ladies, had her hair cut, and was beaten by the soldiers.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In front of Gwanghwamun, the Hullyeondae soldiers led by Woo, and the Japanese Legation Security Group led by Lieutenant Commander Niiro Tokisuke climbed over the palace walls and battled the royal guard unit, the Capital Guards ("Siwidae", , ) led by their commanders Lieutenant Colonel Hong Gye-hun (), An Gyeong-su (), Major Hyeon Heung-taek (), and General William McEntyre Dye incidentally. But due to inferior weaponry and numbers, Hong and Minister Yi Gyeong-jik () were subsequently killed in firefight, causing the palace defenses to collapse, and forced William and Hyeon and the remaining guards to retreat allowing the ronin to proceed to Okhoru (), within Geoncheonggung, and kill the Empress brutally. It was said that Yi Gyeong-ik outstretched his arms in attempt to protect the queen but it only gave away the clue as to who she was, leading to his death and queen's. It is said that Empress Sunmyeong, the empress' daughter-in-law, was a witness to her assassination as she stood in front attempting to protect her. She later died due to her depression.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The corpse of the Empress, and the two court ladies that followed her ill-fate, was moved to the Daeguk Pine Tree Forest where her body was violated and then drenched in oil to be burned and buried. As news reached that Japan was involved in the assassination, an investigation was conducted in October; only a single finger bone was found within the ash and sand so it made identifying body parts hard when a eunuch reported, and gave them back to Emperor Gojong. The title of the queen was also given back.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Historian of Japan Peter Duus has called this assassination a "hideous event, crudely conceived and brutally executed." Donald Keene, who calls the queen "an arrogant and corrupt woman", says that the way in which she was murdered was nonetheless "unspeakably barbaric."


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Gojong's "The Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty" do not have a Japanese name. The names written are: Jeong Zun (2nd Battalion Officer), Yi Doo (1st Battalion Officer), Yi Chung (Senior 2nd Battalion), Yi Chun (Deputy Commander), Gong Yu Zhen (at that time police officer).


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Crown Prince Sunjong reported that he saw Korean troops led by Woo Beom-seon at the site of the assassination, and accused Woo as the "Foe of Mother". In addition to his accusation, Sunjong sent two assassins to kill Woo, an effort that succeeded in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1903. By then, Woo had married a Japanese woman, and had sired Woo Jang-choon (禹長春 우장춘), later to become an acclaimed botanist and agricultural scientist.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Lieutenant Colonel Yi Hak-gyun wrote that some of the assassins wore military uniform while others were in their civilian clothes. Also he reported that the Capital Guards were not able to stop the assassins from coming.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In 2005, professor Kim Rekho () of the Russian Academy of Sciences came across a written account of the incident by a Russian architect Afanasy Seredin-Sabatin () in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (; AVPRI). Seredin-Sabatin was in the service of the Korean government, working with the American general William McEntyre Dye who was also under contract to the Korean government. In April, Kim made a request to the Myongji University () Library LG Collection to make the document public. On 11 May 2005 the document was made public.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Almost five years before the document's release in South Korea, a translated copy was in circulation in the United States, having been released by the Center for Korean Research of Columbia University on 6 October 1995 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Eulmi Incident.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In Korea, King Gojong declared that the following were the 'Eulmi Four Traitors (을미사적, Eulmisajeok, 乙未四賊)' on 11 February 1896:


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The Gabo Reform and the assassination of Empress Myeongseong generated a backlash against the Japanese presence in Korea; it caused some Confucian scholars, as well as farmers, to form over 60 successive righteous armies to fight for Korean freedom on the Korean peninsula. The assassination is also credited as a significant event in the life of Syngman Rhee, the future first president of South Korea.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: The assassination of Empress Myeongseong, and the subsequent backlash, played a role in the assassination of influential statesman and Prince Itō Hirobumi. Itō Hirobumi was a four-time prime minister of Japan, former Resident-General of Korea, and then President of the Privy Council of Japan. Empress Myeongseong's assassination was the first of 15 reasons given by the Korean-independence assassin An Jung-geun, who is regarded as a hero in Korea, in defense of his actions.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: After the assassination, King Gojong and the Crown Prince (later Emperor Sunjong) fled for refuge to the Russian legation on 11 February 1896. He ordered the deaths of pro-Japanese officials such as the Four Eulmi Traitors ending the Gabo Reform. Gojong disbanded the Hullyeondae for participating in the assassination and Capital Guards in August 1895 for failing to stop the Japanese. However, In 1897, Gojong, yielding to rising pressure from both overseas and the demands of the Independence Association-led public opinion, returned to Gyeongungung (modern-day Deoksugung). There, he proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: On 6 January 1897, Gojong changed Queen Min's title to "Queen Moonseong,"; changing her Neungho (funeral) location to Hongneung. After some discussion with officials on the similarity to King Jeongjo's "Moonseong" temple name, Gojong changed the name to "Queen Myeongseong" on 2 March 1897 (not to be confused with Queen Myeongseong of the Cheongpung Kim clan, King Hyeonjong's wife). As Gojong proclaimed a new reign and became Emperor Gwangmu on 13 October 1897, the queen's title was also changed to "Empress Myeongseong" (); adding () to her posthumous title in 1897.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: However, Korea succumbed to Japanese colonial rule after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and the Hirobumi mentioned above the assassination in 1909. Prime Minister Ye Wanyong signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, without the knowledge of the Emperor, that would last from 29 August 1910 to 15 August 1945.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: On 13 October 1897, King Gojong, with Russian support, had regained his throne, and spent "a fortune" to have his beloved Queen Min's remains properly honored and entombed. On 22 November 1897, her mourning procession included 5,000 soldiers, 650 police, 4,000 lanterns, hundreds of scrolls honoring her, and giant wooden horses intended for her use in the afterlife. The honors King Gojong placed on Queen Min for her funeral was meant as a statement to her diplomatic and heroic endeavors for Korea against the Japanese, as well as a statement of his own undying love for her. Queen Min's recovered remains are in her tomb located in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, South Korea..


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In May 2005, 84-year-old Tatsumi Kawano (川野 龍巳), the grandson of Kunitomo Shigeaki, paid his respects to Empress Myeongseong at her tomb in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, South Korea. He apologized to Empress Myeongseong's tomb on behalf of his grandfather, however, the apology was not well received as the descendants of Empress Myeongseong pointed out that the apology had to be made on a governmental level.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Since 2009, Korean organizations have been trying to sue the Japanese government for their documented complicity in the murder of Queen Min. "Japan has not made an official apology or repentance 100 years after it obliterated the Korean people for 35 years through the 1910 Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty," the statement said. The lawsuit will be filed if the Japanese government does not accept their demands that the Japanese government issue a special statement on 15 August offering the emperor's apology and mentioning whether it will release related documents on the murder case.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: Documents note that she was in an official royal family photograph. A royal family photograph does exist, but it was taken after her death; consisting of Gojong, Sunjong, and Crown Princess Min, Sunjong's first wife. Shin Byong-ryong, a professor at Konkuk University, said that the reason why there are not many photos of Empress Myeongseong was because she lived in constant fear of being known to the public. Others believe that there is in fact a photo of her since she was politically active, and suspects that Japan had removed any traces of the Empress after her assassination, or has kept a photo of her.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: There was a report by KBS News in 2003 that a photograph allegedly of the Empress had been disclosed to the public. The photograph was supposedly purchased for a large sum by the grandfather of Min Su-gyeong that was to be passed down as a family treasure. In the photo, the woman is accompanied by a retinue at her rear. Some experts have stated that the woman was clearly of high-rank, and possibly a wife of a bureaucrat. The woman's clothing appears to be that is worn only by the royal family however, her outfit lacked the embroideries that decorates the apparel of the empress and so some dismissed that the woman is the Empress' servant.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: There was an original European oil painting done by an Italian artist named Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) that was allegedly the portrait of the Empress. But it was soon found out that the painting was a portrait of Xiang Fei; a concubine of Emperor Qianlong during 18th century Qing Dynasty.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: In August 2017, an antique gallery exhibition, held by Daboseong Ancient Art Museum in Central Seoul, had a portrait of a woman that was assumed to be Empress Myeongseong. The woman is seen wearing a white hanbok, a white hemp hat, and leather shoes sitting on a western-style chair. Kim Jong-chun, director of Daboseong Gallery, has said that upon inspection of the portrait, "Min clan" was written on the top and "portrait of a Madame" on the back. But due to infraring the portrait, it was damaged. Scholars and an art professor say that it is not the Empress.


title: Empress Myeongseong

text: On 13 January 2005, history professor Lee Tae-jin (이태진, 李泰鎭) of Seoul National University unveiled an illustration from an old Japanese magazine he had found at an antique bookstore in Tokyo. The 84th edition of the Japanese magazine Fūzokugahō (風俗畫報) published on 25 January 1895 has a Japanese illustration of Gojong and the then-Queen Consort receiving Inoue Kaoru, the Japanese chargé d'affaires. The illustration is marked 24 December 1894 and signed by the artist Ishizuka (石塚) with a legend ""The [Korean] King and Queen, moved by our honest advice, realize the need for resolute reform for the first time."" Lee said that the depiction of the clothes and background are very detailed and suggests that it was drawn at the scene as it happened. Both the King and Inoue were looking at the then-Queen Consort as though the conversation were taking place between the Queen and Inoue with the King listening.


title: Lindsey Broad

text: Lindsey Broad is an American television, stage, and film actress. She is best known for her role as flirtatious temp Cathy Simms on the NBC series "The Office". Her film credits include "21 Jump Street", "Don Jon", and "Get Him to the Greek". She also starred on the Fox sitcom "'Til Death" and appeared opposite Stephen Merchant on the HBO series "Hello Ladies". Her theatre credits include the world premiere of "Sukie and Sue: Their Story", by Michael John LaChiusa, at the Blank Theatre.


title: Myelin

text: Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can be likened to an electrical wire (the axon) with insulating material (myelin) around it. However, unlike the plastic covering on an electrical wire, myelin does not form a single long sheath over the entire length of the axon. Rather, myelin sheaths the nerve in segments: in general, each axon is encased with multiple long myelinated sections with short gaps in between called nodes of Ranvier.


title: Myelin

text: Myelin is formed in the central nervous system (CNS; brain, spinal cord and optic nerve) by glial cells called oligodendrocytes and in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) by glial cells called Schwann cells. In the CNS, axons carry electrical signals from one nerve cell body to another. In the PNS, axons carry signals to muscles and glands or from sensory organs such as the skin. Each myelin sheath is formed by the concentric wrapping of an oligodendrocyte (CNS) or Schwann cell (PNS) process (a limb-like extension from the cell body) around the axon. Myelin reduces the capacitance of the axonal membrane. On a molecular level, in the internodes it increases the distance between extracellular and intracellular ions, reducing the accumulation of charges.


title: Myelin

text: The discontinuous structure of the myelin sheath results in saltatory conduction, whereby the action potential "jumps" from one node of Ranvier, over a long myelinated stretch of the axon called the internode, before "recharging" at the next node of Ranvier, and so on, until it reaches the axon terminal. Nodes of Ranvier are the short (c. 1 micron) unmyelinated regions of the axon between adjacent long (c. 0.2 mm – >1 mm) myelinated internodes. Once it reaches the axon terminal, this electrical signal provokes the release of a chemical message or neurotransmitter that binds to receptors on the adjacent post-synaptic cell (e.g., nerve cell in the CNS or muscle cell in the PNS) at specialised regions called synapses.


title: Myelin

text: This "insulating" role for myelin is essential for normal motor function (i.e. movement such as walking), sensory function (e.g. hearing, seeing or feeling the sensation of pain) and cognition (e.g. acquiring and recalling knowledge), as demonstrated by the consequences of disorders that affect it, such as the genetically determined leukodystrophies; the acquired inflammatory demyelinating disorder, multiple sclerosis; and the inflammatory demyelinating peripheral neuropathies. Due to its high prevalence, multiple sclerosis, which specifically affects the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord and optic nerve), is the best known disorder of myelin.


title: Myelin

text: The process of generating myelin is called myelination or myelinogenesis. In the CNS, oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes, which form myelin. In humans, myelination begins early in the 3rd trimester, although only little myelin is present in either the CNS or the PNS at the time of birth. During infancy, myelination progresses rapidly, with increasing numbers of axons acquiring myelin sheaths. This corresponds with the development of cognitive and motor skills, including language comprehension, speech acquisition, crawling and walking. Myelination continues through adolescence and early adulthood and although largely complete at this time, myelin sheaths can be added in grey matter regions such as the cerebral cortex, throughout life.


title: Myelin

text: Myelin is considered a defining characteristic of the jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes), though axons are ensheathed by a type of cell, called glial cells, in invertebrates. These glial wraps are quite different from vertebrate compact myelin, formed, as indicated above, by concentric wrapping of the myelinating cell process multiple times around the axon. Myelin was first described in 1854 by Rudolf Virchow, although it was over a century later, following the development of electron microscopy, that its glial cell origin and its ultrastructure became apparent.


title: Myelin

text: In vertebrates, not all axons are myelinated. For example, in the PNS, a large proportion of axons are unmyelinated. Instead, they are ensheathed by non-myelinating Schwann cells known as Remak SCs and arranged in Remak bundles. In the CNS, non-myelinated axons (or intermittently myelinated axons, meaning axons with long non-myelinated regions between myelinated segments) intermingle with myelinated ones and are entwined, at least partially, by the processes of another type of glial cell the astrocyte.


title: Myelin

text: CNS myelin differs slightly in composition and configuration from PNS myelin, but both perform the same "insulating" function (see above). Being rich in lipid, myelin appears white, hence the name given to the "white matter" of the CNS. Both CNS white matter tracts (e.g. the optic nerve, corticospinal tract and corpus callosum) and PNS nerves (e.g. the sciatic nerve and the auditory nerve, which also appear white) each comprise thousands to millions of axons, largely aligned in parallel. Blood vessels provide the route for oxygen and energy substrates such as glucose to reach these fibre tracts, which also contain other cell types including astrocytes and microglia in the CNS and macrophages in the PNS.


title: Myelin

text: In terms of total mass, myelin comprises approximately 40% water; the dry mass comprises between 60% and 75% lipid and between 15% and 25% protein. Protein content includes myelin basic protein (MBP), which is abundant in the CNS where it plays a critical, non-redundant role in formation of compact myelin; myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), which is specific to the CNS; and proteolipid protein (PLP), which is the most abundant protein in CNS myelin, but only a minor component of PNS myelin. In the PNS, myelin protein zero (MPZ or P0) has a similar role to that of PLP in the CNS in that it is involved in holding together the multiple concentric layers of glial cell membrane that constitute the myelin sheath. The primary lipid of myelin is a glycolipid called galactocerebroside. The intertwining hydrocarbon chains of sphingomyelin strengthen the myelin sheath. Cholesterol is an essential lipid component of myelin, without which myelin fails to form.


title: Myelin

text: The main purpose of myelin is to increase the speed at which electrical impulses (known as action potentials) propagate along the myelinated fiber. In unmyelinated fibers, action potentials travel as continuous waves, but, in myelinated fibers, they "hop" or propagate by saltatory conduction. The latter is markedly faster than the former, at least for axons over a certain diameter. Myelin decreases capacitance and increases electrical resistance across the axonal membrane (the axolemma). It has been suggested that myelin permits larger body size by maintaining agile communication between distant body parts.


title: Myelin

text: Myelinated fibers lack voltage-gated sodium channels along the myelinated internodes, exposing them only at the nodes of Ranvier. Here, they are highly abundant and densely packed. Positively charged sodium ions can enter the axon through these voltage-gated channels, leading to depolarisation of the membrane potential at the node of Ranvier. The resting membrane potential is then rapidly restored due to positively charged potassium ions leaving the axon through potassium channels. The sodium ions inside the axon then diffuse rapidly through the axoplasm (axonal cytoplasm), to the adjacent myelinated internode and ultimately to the next (distal) node of Ranvier, triggering the opening of the voltage gated sodium channels and entry of sodium ions at this site. Although the sodium ions diffuse through the axoplasm rapidly, diffusion is decremental by nature, thus nodes of Ranvier have to be (relatively) closely spaced, to secure action potential propagation. The action potential "recharges" at consecutive nodes of Ranvier as the axolemmal membrane potential depolarises to approximately +35 mV. Along the myelinated internode, energy-dependent sodium/potassium pumps pump the sodium ions back out of the axon and potassium ions back into the axon to restore the balance of ions between the intracellular (inside the cell, i.e. axon in this case) and extracellular (outwith the cell) fluids.


title: Myelin

text: Whilst the role of myelin as an "axonal insulator" is well-established, other functions of myelinating cells are less well known or only recently established. The myelinating cell "sculpts" the underlying axon by promoting the phosphorylation of neurofilaments, thus increasing the diameter or thickness of the axon at the internodal regions; helps cluster molecules on the axolemma (such as voltage-gated sodium channels) at the node of Ranvier; and modulates the transport of cytoskeletal structures and organelles such as mitochondria, along the axon. In 2012, evidence came to light to support a role for the myelinating cell in "feeding" the axon. In other words, the myelinating cell seems to act as a local "fueling station" for the axon, which uses a great deal of energy to restore the normal balance of ions between it and its environment, following the generation of action potentials.


title: Myelin

text: When a peripheral fiber is severed, the myelin sheath provides a track along which regrowth can occur. However, the myelin layer does not ensure a perfect regeneration of the nerve fiber. Some regenerated nerve fibers do not find the correct muscle fibers, and some damaged motor neurons of the peripheral nervous system die without regrowth. Damage to the myelin sheath and nerve fiber is often associated with increased functional insufficiency.


title: Myelin

text: Demyelination is the loss of the myelin sheath insulating the nerves, and is the hallmark of some neurodegenerative autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, neuromyelitis optica, transverse myelitis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, Guillain–Barré syndrome, central pontine myelinosis, inherited demyelinating diseases such as leukodystrophy, and Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease. Sufferers of pernicious anaemia can also suffer nerve damage if the condition is not diagnosed quickly. Subacute combined degeneration of spinal cord secondary to pernicious anaemia can lead to slight peripheral nerve damage to severe damage to the central nervous system, affecting speech, balance, and cognitive awareness. When myelin degrades, conduction of signals along the nerve can be impaired or lost, and the nerve eventually withers. A more serious case of myelin deterioration is called Canavan disease.


title: Myelin

text: The immune system may play a role in demyelination associated with such diseases, including inflammation causing demyelination by overproduction of cytokines via upregulation of tumor necrosis factor or interferon. MRI evidence that docosahexaenoic acid DHA ethyl ester improves myelination in generalized peroxisomal disorders.


title: Myelin

text: Demyelination results in diverse symptoms determined by the functions of the affected neurons. It disrupts signals between the brain and other parts of the body; symptoms differ from patient to patient, and have different presentations upon clinical observation and in laboratory studies.


title: Myelin

text: Typical symptoms include blurriness in the central visual field that affects only one eye, may be accompanied by pain upon eye movement, double vision, loss of vision/hearing, odd sensation in legs, arms, chest, or face, such as tingling or numbness (neuropathy), weakness of arms or legs, cognitive disruption, including speech impairment and memory loss, heat sensitivity (symptoms worsen or reappear upon exposure to heat, such as a hot shower), loss of dexterity, difficulty coordinating movement or balance disorder, difficulty controlling bowel movements or urination, fatigue, and tinnitus.


title: Myelin

text: Research to repair damaged myelin sheaths is ongoing. Techniques include surgically implanting oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the central nervous system and inducing myelin repair with certain antibodies. While results in mice have been encouraging (via stem cell transplantation), whether this technique can be effective in replacing myelin loss in humans is still unknown. Cholinergic treatments, such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), may have beneficial effects on myelination, myelin repair, and myelin integrity. Increasing cholinergic stimulation also may act through subtle trophic effects on brain developmental processes and particularly on oligodendrocytes and the lifelong myelination process they support. Increasing oligodendrocyte cholinergic stimulation, AChEIs, and other cholinergic treatments, such as nicotine, possibly could promote myelination during development and myelin repair in older age. Glycogen synthase kinase 3β inhibitors such as lithium chloride have been found to promote myelination in mice with damaged facial nerves. Cholesterol is a necessary nutrient for the myelin sheath, along with vitamin B12.


title: Myelin

text: Dysmyelination is characterized by a defective structure and function of myelin sheaths; unlike demyelination, it does not produce lesions. Such defective sheaths often arise from genetic mutations affecting the biosynthesis and formation of myelin. The shiverer mouse represents one animal model of dysmyelination. Human diseases where dysmyelination has been implicated include leukodystrophies (Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease, Canavan disease, phenylketonuria) and schizophrenia.


title: Myelin

text: Functionally equivalent myelin-like sheaths are found in several invertebrate taxa including oligochaetes, penaeids, palaemonids, and calanoids. These myelin-like sheaths share several structural features with the sheaths found in vertebrates including multiplicity of membranes, condensation of membrane, and nodes. However, the nodes in vertebrates are annular; i.e. they encircle the axon. In contrast, nodes found in the sheaths of invertebrates are either annular or fenestrated; i.e. they are restricted to "spots". It is notable that the fastest recorded conduction speed (across both vertebrates and invertebrates) is found in the ensheathed axons of the Kuruma shrimp, an invertebrate, ranging between 90 and 200 m/s (cf. 100–120 m/s for the fastest myelinated vertebrate axon).


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an action role-playing game developed by Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary in August 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. A version for OS X was released the following year. It is the third game in the "Deus Ex" series and a prequel to the original "Deus Ex" (2000). The gameplay—combining first-person shooter, stealth, and role-playing elements—features exploration and combat in environments connected to multiple city-based hubs, in addition to quests that grant experience and allow customization of the main character's abilities with items called Praxis Kits. Conversations between characters feature a variety of responses, with options in conversations and at crucial story points affecting how some events play out.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Set in the year 2027, players control Adam Jensen, a security officer for Sarif Industries, a company which develops controversial artificial organs dubbed "augmentations". After an attack on Sarif, Jensen undergoes extensive augmentation and investigates the shadowy organization behind the attack. The story explores themes of transhumanism and the growing power of megacorporations and their impact on social class. It also uses the series' cyberpunk setting and conspiracy theory motif.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Development of "Human Revolution" began in 2007 with a small team within the fledgling Eidos-Montréal studio after failed attempts to create a sequel at original developer Ion Storm following "" (2003). The two key influences were the myth of Icarus, a thematic element carried over from "Deus Ex", and the artwork and ideas of the Renaissance, which influenced the story, graphics, and music while combining with the series' typical cyberpunk elements. The open-ended gameplay was tricky for the team to achieve; the boss battles were outsourced to another developer due to time constraints. The music, composed by Michael McCann, focused on ambience and three-layered compositions over character themes and overt melodies. "Human Revolution" was announced in 2007, soon after its beginning development. Its title and release window were announced in 2010. After release, a downloadable episode, "," was developed, featuring gameplay improvements. A director's cut, featuring further improvements and additional content, was released in 2013 for the original platforms and Wii U.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: "Human Revolution" received acclaim for its player-driven plot, gameplay, and freedom of choice in the story and character customization. The major criticisms went to its boss fights and technical problems. The director's cut was praised for its revamped gameplay. By November 2011, the original version had sold 2.18 million units. It was followed by a spin-off, "", and a sequel, "".


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" is an action role-playing game incorporating first-person shooter and stealth mechanics. Players take the role of Adam Jensen, a man equipped with mechanical cybernetic implants called augmentations. The game's environments, ranging from open world hubs to more scripted environments, are explored in first-person, although actions such as hiding behind cover, conversing with non-playable characters (NPCs), and some attack animations switch to a third-person view. In these environments, players can find NPCs who will advance both the main story quest and optional side quests: completing quests, along with other actions such as combat with enemies, rewards Adam with experience points, which raise his experience level. Also accessible are black market vendors that supply equipment and weapons for Credits, the in-game currency. Interactive objects within environments can be highlighted, although these options are either turned off on the hardest difficulty or can be turned off in the options menu by the player.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: There are various ways to approach the game's situations: players can use a violent approach and shoot their way through environments while using cover to hide from enemy fire. Alternatively, Adam can take a stealthy approach, avoiding guards and security devices and using cover to avoid enemy sight lines. Adam can move between cover elements and around corners while staying hidden. The melee takedown system offers lethal and non-lethal options, in addition to an assortment of lethal and non-lethal weapons. Adam can also move the bodies of enemies into hiding places, preventing them from being seen and raising an alarm. A crucial part of Adam's abilities are augmentations, which can be acquired and upgraded using Praxis Kits either bought from particular vendors, found in the game environments, or are automatically unlocked by levelling up: higher-level augmentations require more Praxis Kits to unlock. Augmentation functions can range from passive enhancements to Adam's vision or damage resistance to active upgrades such as allowing Adam to fall from great heights without injury or increase his strength. Some augmentations depend on Adam's energy level, deactivating after an amount of energy has been drained.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: At multiple points within the game, Adam partakes in conversations with NPCs related to main and side quests. When talking, Adam is presented with three different conversation options that affect the outcome of conversations: choosing the right option can help with completing objectives while choosing the wrong option closes off that route and forces the player to find an alternate solution. A "Social" augmentation enables better reading of an NPC's expression and judging their psychological profile, improving chances of selecting the correct dialogue option. While in the game's environments, Adam finds terminals and computers that can be accessed with a password or through hacking. When hacking, the hacking screen is summoned, which shows the pathway through a device's security system to access the information: the pathway is accessed by opening "directory" nodes to reach the registry. Different nodes have different ratings, affecting how easily they can be accessed. Various devices have different grades of difficulty, which dictate how often hacking may be attempted. Each hacking attempt activates a Diagnostic Sub-Routine that works to stop the hack, activating a time limit once it is alerted. Adam can use additional skills and items to lengthen the time, such as software to stop or instantly capture nodes or fortify captured nodes to increase the time limit. Successful hacks yield experience points, Credits, and sometimes additional items.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: "Human Revolution" takes place in the year 2027, 25 years prior to the original "Deus Ex". The "Deus Ex" series is set in a cyberpunk future rife with secret organizations and conspiracies: among these forces is the Illuminati. Leading up to "Human Revolution", there have been marked improvements in human society, with people actively fighting global warming, finding cures for various diseases, and improving green energy. Alongside this, global megacorporations have come to eclipse government authority in power and influence, while private military forces dwarf the sanctioned armies of First World countries. Advances in biotechnology and cybernetics have led to the development of "augmentations", advanced artificial organs capable of significantly improving and enhancing the human body's performance. The development of augmentation technology has triggered a new social divide: those with augmentations become the world's new upper-class citizenry and are touted as the future of humanity, while normal humans form the majority of the lower-class population. Augmentations also require taking Neuropozyne, a limited and expensive immunosuppressive drug that stops the body from rejecting the technology. By the events of "Human Revolution", society is being divided between "augs", humans who have accepted augmentation technology, and ordinary humans who are either morally opposed to it, too poor to afford it, or whose bodies actively reject it. The tensions between the two factions begin generating open conflict.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The main protagonist is : coming from a humble background in Detroit, he worked as a leader with the local SWAT squad until he refused to follow a questionable order and was turfed out. After this, he is taken on as a security manager at Sarif Industries, a local company at the leading edge of augmentation technology. A fellow at the company is Megan Reed, a researcher for Sarif and Adam's ex-girlfriend. His employer is company CEO David Sarif, who is instrumental in saving Adam after he was left near-dead at the beginning of the game. Adam meets many key characters during his missions between Detroit, Montreal, and the new Shanghai metropolis of Hengsha. These include Sarif's chief pilot Faridah Malik; Sarif systems engineer Frank Pritchard; Eliza Cassan, a media personality and public face of Picus Communications; William Taggart, founder of the anti-augmentation group Humanity Front; Hugh Darrow, who founded augmentation technology but is one of those genetically incapable of using them; Zhao Yun Ru, CEO of the Tai Yong Medical megacorporation; and the "Tyrants" mercenary squad, composed of leader Jaron Namir and his associates Lawrence Barrett and Yelena Fedorova.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: "Note: While the general plot of Human Revolution follows a distinct path, many elements are subject to the player's decisions. The game also offers several subplots that the player may or may not encounter, depending on their actions within the game. This synopsis concentrates on the main, unavoidable plot thread of the game."


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: On the eve of unveiling a way to end Neuropozyne dependence, Sarif Industries is attacked by a group of augmented terrorists, the Tyrants, who slaughter the staff. Megan Reed and many other scientists are presumed dead in the attack, and Jensen, the head of security, is grievously wounded. Sarif saves Jensen by giving him advanced augmentations.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Months later, Jensen is summoned to deal with another terrorist attack by a group of anti-augmentation radicals. Jensen finds an augmented terrorist trying to steal information, but he commits suicide before Jensen can capture him. Pritchard discovers that the terrorist was controlled remotely and tracks the hacking signal to an abandoned factory in Highland Park. Jensen discovers the Tyrants guarding a FEMA detention camp, but they are moving out after the Sarif raid failed. Jensen defeats one of the mercenaries, Barrett, who tells him to go to the Hengsha megacity in China before launching a failed suicide attack.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Jensen travels to Hengsha and tracks down the hacker, Arie van Bruggen, who is being hunted by private security company Belltower Associates and hidden by local triad leader Tong Si Hung. Van Bruggen directs Adam to Tai Yong Medical, the world's largest augmentation technology manufacturer and Sarif's main rival. Infiltrating Tai Yong, Jensen finds footage of a call between Namir and Zhao Yun Ru, which confirms that Megan and the other scientists are alive and that Eliza Cassan is involved. Confronting Zhao, he learns she is allied to an organization controlling global interests before she forces him to leave. Jensen tracks down Eliza, who is revealed to be an artificial intelligence construct designed to influence the media, who has begun to question her role and offers to help Jensen. He defeats Fedorova, another Tyrant, and Eliza directs him to Isaias Sandoval, an aide to William Taggart.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: In Detroit, Sarif admits that the Illuminati are behind the attacks. Jensen infiltrates a Humanity Front rally and discovers Sandoval's location. Sandoval admits his involvement in the kidnapping and gives Jensen a lead to find the researchers. In Sarif HQ, Jensen meets Hugh Darrow, who is working to stave off global warming with the Panchaea Facility in the Arctic. Jensen and other augmented people start experiencing glitches, with authorities urging them to have a biochip replacement. Pritchard locates the tracking beacon of one of the kidnapped scientists, taking Jensen back to Hengsha, where Belltower ambushes him and Malik. The beacon leads Jensen to Tong Si Hung, who has been implanted with the now-deceased scientist's arm. With Tong's help, Jensen stows away in a stasis pod, waking up in a secret Singapore base days later. He finds the scientists and learns that the biochip malfunctions were staged to distribute a new biochip to control augmented humans. Jensen and the scientists stage a distraction, allowing him to infiltrate the facility's secret bunker. Here he defeats Namir and finds Megan. Megan tells him that she was kidnapped for her research into augmentation rejection and confesses that her research was based on Jensen's DNA.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Moments later, Darrow broadcasts a modified signal that throws any augmented person with the new biochip into a murderous frenzy. Jensen evacuates the scientists and commandeers an orbital flight module to reach Panchaea. He confronts Darrow, who reveals that he wants humanity to abandon augmentation technology, believing it will destroy human identity. Jensen sets out to disable Panchaea's Hyron Project supercomputer and end the broadcast; on the way, he encounters Taggart and Sarif, who each urge him to side with them and further their agendas. At the heart of Panchaea, Jensen confronts Zhao Yun Ru, who tries to hijack the signal, and then Eliza, who offers Jensen four choices. Jensen can either broadcast the truth and distance humanity from augmentations; rig the broadcast, so it blames Humanity Front and allows the development of augmentation technology; send out a report to benefit the Illuminati; or destroy Panchea, leaving no one to "spin the story". Jensen's final narration varies depending on his choice and approach throughout the game.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: In a post-credits scene, Megan meets with Bob Page to discuss her employment in "the nanite virus chimera" and "D project": prior to this, Page instructs his cohort Morgan Everett to search the Hyron Project for salvageable technology for the 'Morpheus Initiative', setting up "Deus Ex".


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The original "Deus Ex" and its sequel "" were developed by Ion Storm, with varying involvement of series creator and studio co-founder Warren Spector and designer Harvey Smith. After the release of "Invisible War", multiple attempts were made to develop a sequel, even after Spector left Ion Storm. The two main projects were dubbed "Deus Ex: Insurrection", which used the same engine as "Invisible War" while moving away from its divisive mechanics, and "Deus Ex 3", which aimed to be an open-world game with a branching narrative. An aborted attempt, intended as the fourth "Deus Ex" project following "Insurrection", led to the development of "Project Snowblind". Future development on the third "Deus Ex" game was halted when, following further staff departure and financial difficulties, the studio's owner Eidos Interactive closed them down in 2005.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Concept development on "Human Revolution" began in early 2007, shortly after the founding of Eidos-Montréal. The team at this point was pretty small, consisting of producer David Anfossi, director Jean-François Dugas, senior designer François Lapikas, and art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête. The early period was devoted to research before performing brainstorming sessions to create the game's basic concepts. One of the concepts established early on was that it would be an ambitious project, and they needed to bring the key staff on board as early as possible. They started with playing the first two games, determining what they liked and disliked about the original "Deus Ex" and how they could carry over or improve these points. An early decision was to remain faithful to the series' core values, despite "Human Revolution" being essentially a series reboot. When presenting their project to Eidos management, they presented multiple sheets of their concept, and after two days, the game was green-lit. The entire main staff were newcomers to the "Deus Ex" series, providing a significant challenge to the development team. During the early design process, one of the things that worked well was the blueprint testing process and cutting items that would either not fit into the game or make the project too large to handle. The most challenging period for the development team was the opening two-year period, which was described as a "vertical slice" through the game concepts when they were trying to bring a piece of "Human Revolution" to retail quality before extending that out across the whole game.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: "Human Revolution" was planned for consoles and Microsoft Windows systems, and Dugas insisted that the PC version would not be a port of the console versions. With this in mind, the two versions needed to be as close as possible in gameplay feel. The full motion cutscenes were created collaboratively by Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix's CGI department Visual Works, and Vancouver-based company Goldtooth Creative. Goldtooth created initial concepts based on the game; then, the animation proper was handled by Visual Works. Visual Works has been involved with the project since 2009, following the acquisition of Eidos by Square Enix. It was later stated that, despite the need to incorporate multiple story-telling methods into the game, the team felt that the cutscene creation process was turned into a multi-studio effort due to time constraints. Time limits also forced them to drop real-time cutscenes. For the engine, the team used the Crystal Engine, developed by Crystal Dynamics for use in their . This was part of a technology-sharing policy that would further improve the engine for distribution in an enhanced form. Despite the initial intentions and an early tech demo going smoothly, the engine quickly proved inadequate to the team's needs as Eidos-Montréal and Crystal Dynamics were pulling the engine's design in different directions. Eidos-Montréal was permitted to branch away from the core engine so they could make the game work, adding new production tools that made it work in the new environment.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Lapikas was responsible for multiple aspects of the game as lead designer, including the cover system, augmentations, conversations, hacking, combat and stealth AI, interactive objects, and general balancing. When creating the gameplay, the team settled on four pillar concepts: "Combat", "Stealth", "Hacking", and "Social". While gameplay took place primarily in first-person, a feature that had been part of the "Deus Ex" series since its inception, the camera switched to a third-person view during specific actions. This was because the team wanted to create a connection between players and Adam despite the risk that it might break immersion. Augmentations were designed to be customizable by players depending on playstyle, but unlike the previous two "Deus Ex" games, mechanical augmentations and switches to third-person view enabled the player to see their changes affect Adam's appearance.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: For combat, multiple references were used. These included "" for the cover system and tactical combat; "F.E.A.R." for the design of AI; "BioShock" for the interlinking of weapon and obstacle types; the "Call of Duty" series for the regenerating health system; and "Resident Evil 4" for multiple aspects including the inventory system, game economy and contextual actions. Regenerating health ended up divisive among the fanbase during the game's run-up to release, despite being seen as a necessary inclusion in the modern gaming market. Combat was intended to be easy to understand and visceral, with enemy types ranging from normal humans to augmented humans to robots, all mixed and matched for different combat situations. For stealth gameplay, the team used "Metal Gear Solid" as a reference for the AI and alert systems and "" for the general organic feel of stealth. They had similar precepts to combat, wanting to make this style's rules and rewards clear to players. Interactive hacking was one of the earliest things the team had decided upon, alongside not including quick time events. The Hacking mechanics were inspired by the tabletop role-playing game "Shadowrun". They were designed to invoke tension and require a survey of the surroundings and the security system while simultaneously providing rewards. Social interactions followed similar patterns, becoming an extension of the general gameplay with a similar risk-reward system.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The team had initially wanted to create the game's boss battles in-house around the game's similar elements of player choice, with their initial design inspired by the boss fights in "Metal Gear Solid". As the development of the story and gameplay framework took priority, boss battles became less and less of a focus. It eventually reached a point when the main development team could not complete them in time for the game's release. The team contemplated cutting them, but that would have negatively impacted the story and other areas of the game's design. In the end, the development of the boss battles was outsourced to Grip Entertainment. Having been given access to the game's engine, Grip Entertainment was tasked with creating the boss battles and incorporating them into the framework of "Human Revolution". For this, they needed to incorporate their technology into the system, working from Eidos' specifications while bringing their development style to bear on the project. They also attempted to balance the boss fights' action-focused approach with the other elements within "Human Revolution" so it would be accessible to all players.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The script of "Human Revolution" was written by Mary DeMarle, the narrative director and main writer. While she acted as chief writer, DeMarle also worked with many others throughout development so that the story could be conveyed through environments and dialogue, along with handling how player choices influenced its progression. Sheldon Pacotti, the main writer for the first two "Deus Ex" games, was a story consultant during early development and was contacted regularly through production to ensure that the storyline fitted adequately within the series chronology. A total of four writers worked on the game, including author James Swallow. DeMarle was brought onto the project four months into its development after it had been decided that it would be a prequel to the first game, focusing on mechanical rather than nanotechnological enhancement technology. As part of her research, DeMarle looked up multiple subjects, from speculated conspiracy theories to the current level of biotechnology: the final story was largely influenced by her reading of non-fiction and writings concerning transhumanism. DeMarle compared the game's study of transhumanism through the main character, Adam, to that in the 1982 film "Blade Runner" while also using the video game medium to put questions surrounding the ethics and motivations surrounding transhumanism in a nuanced way. She also stated that Adam being forced to confront these issues in person was the narrative's central irony, which had previously been explored using different narrative elements in "Deus Ex". The ending, which was ultimately decided using a choice of buttons, was chosen because of technical and time constraints while retaining player interaction. While the gameplay evolved continually through development and some elements required cutting, the story remained almost unchanged, instead being further refined and improved to work out plot holes.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: When creating the character of Adam Jensen, DeMarle wanted to give him a well-defined personality, which necessitated balancing it with the narrative's player-driven nature. One of the biggest challenges was creating the various dialogue choices, as she needed to imagine what a character would say if they were hostile when she might typically portray them as benign. Multiple layers of dialogue were created within these variances to create different atmospheres within the narrative. There was standard dialogue with minor characters, more complex dialogue with major characters in quests, and what DeMarle termed "conversation boss fights", dialogue tied to the gameplay where social skill could help the player reach an objective. When creating characters, the team drew inspiration from the character portrayals in the "Metal Gear" series. When designing the corporate side, DeMarle particularly cited the backgrounds of Howard Hughes, Richard Branson and Bill Gates as inspiration for the influential CEO figures in the narrative of "Human Revolution". She also noted how corporations had gained greater power than governments in the narrative, which paralleled political comments on corporate power at the time.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The world of "Human Revolution" was designed to parallel the Greek myth of Icarus; in the myth, Icarus was flying with artificial wings, but flew too close to the sun and destroyed his wings, causing his fatal fall. The world's new reliance on and experimentation with augmentation technology mirrored the myth, with the game's narrative taking place at a crucial tipping point, the outcome of which would be decided by the player. The general focus on technology and its effect on human society is also tied into the game's visual themes. The development team used multiple sources as references while creating the world and scenario. "The Children of Men" was used to capture the setting and resultant chaotic drama; "BioShock" gave them a reference for handling mature themes, while the television series "Rome" showed how influential people's ambitions shaped history. The sense of tension between augmented and normal humans was inspired by the similar tension between humans and mutants in the "X-Men" franchise. For the conspiracy elements of the plot, the team used the novels "Deception Point", "The Firm", and Frank Herbert's "Dune" saga as inspiration. The "Grand Theft Auto" and "Mass Effect" franchises directly inspired he desired quality of cutscenes and dialogue. DeMarle termed the final product as a study in contrasts, as the implementation of augmentation technology had created a new form of a divided social class system when other social barriers had fallen. Other themes used earlier in "Deus Ex", such as exploring a culture of fear; the workings of a surveillance state; and the exploitation created by economic inequality, were paralleled in "Human Revolution". The team created supplementary written material such as emails, e-books, and cell phone-like devices called pocket secretaries to add more depth to the world and narrative.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Jonathan Jacques-Belletête acted as the game's art director, being in charge of creating its look. The two key visual themes were the Icarus myth and the artwork of the Renaissance: both were woven in on a narrative and visual level. In terms of colours, the team drew inspiration from notable Renaissance artists, including Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt. The colour scheme was dominated by black and gold: black represented the game's dystopian aspects, while gold represented humanity and hope for the future. The Renaissance styling originally permeated everything, but they ended up with crates looking like baroque furniture, so they toned it down and blended it with modern and cyberpunk elements. During development, the team coined the term "cyber-renaissance" to define their blending of Renaissance styling, cyberpunk elements, and the Icarus myth. An extensive amount of concept art was created for the game: while the majority was handled by artists Richard Dumont and Eric Gagnon, other contributors included Jim Murray, Brian Dugan, Theirry Doizon, Trong Nguyen and Sébastien Larroudé.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: While cyberpunk remained a core part of the game, the team were faced with the trouble that no-one really knew what cyberpunk was any more: the most recent game and film references they had were from the early 2000s, as many works that might have been classed as cyberpunk were now being treated as science fiction. While they could easily have replicated the atmosphere of films like "Blade Runner", the team wanted to create something original within the genre. Something that concerned the team was about portraying the world of "Human Revolution" in relation to the original "Deus Ex", which chronologically took place 25 years later: while the original "Deus Ex" used technological elements common at the time it was made such as 4:3 aspect ratio monitors and landline telephones, "Human Revolution" used mobiles and wide-screen televisions. According to Jacques-Belletête, this separation was ultimately put down to the differing portrayals of the world between the two games: while "Deus Ex" was set in poor communities and focused on the social impact of new technology, "Human Revolution" focused on the high end of society and technology's physical impact.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Jacques-Belletête worked on character designs with Murray, whose previous work included artwork for the comic series "2000 AD". Before designing character costumes, Jacques-Belletête looked extensively at modern fashion. As focusing purely on Renaissance styling would have resulted in clothing styles deemed "too allegoric" to work in the game, they redesigned them so they included Renaissance and cyberpunk elements while resembling clothing people would wear in the present day and not appearing clichéd. For Adam's character design, the team looked at multiple protagonist from cyberpunk fiction, from "Blade Runner" to the original "Deus Ex". Their main wishes were to incorporate sunglasses and a trench coat. Jacques-Belletête moderated his design to combine Renaissance aesthetics with the cyberpunk thematics: he defined it as being able to see Adam's augmented state in combat during the brief third-person camera moments while still seeing him having a meal in a high-class restaurant. One design which had him sleeveless throughout the game was scrapped as it made him "look like a douche". Instead, they created two looks: a sleeveless action-oriented look for missions, and a sleeved trench coat with a high collar and geometric patterning to portray the Renaissance elements. In total, it took two years and a half to finalize Adam's design, with multiple designs being rejected as they failed to properly balance the cyberpunk and Renaissance elements.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The team wanted to make the game as consistently realistic as possible, wishing to avoid the situation of realistic character models standing in front of low-resolution backgrounds. They created varying degrees of technical advancement for different locations: the most realistic location they created was the Detroit hub, while the most advanced was the two-level fictional metropolis of Hengsha. Architecture in the Detroit area was inspired by then-modern buildings from Japan and Europe. Jacques-Belletête spent a long time researching furniture designs while creating interiors for in-game environments, joking that they could fill an IKEA catalogue with the results. Multiple other hub locations were planned, including the upper levels of Hengsha, and an area of Montreal dubbed "Plateau" that featured "very specific architecture, called tri-plexes, with twirling exterior staircases made of [...] old metal". At the beginning of production, there were even plans to feature a hub location in India. When it became clear how much work it would be, the team cut out what could not be managed. Upper Hengsha was built but never finished before being scrapped.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The music of "Human Revolution" was composed by Michael McCann, who worked on the score from 2008 to 2011. McCann also handled production, performance, mixing, and arranging. Additional arrangements were done by Francois Arbour and Eric Arvisais. Vocals were provided by Andrea Revel and Courtney Wing. McCann, when comparing "Human Revolution" with his prior work on Ubisoft's "", stated that the latter could be scored more like a feature film due to its linear nature, while "Human Revolution"s non-linear approach to both gameplay and story made composition more challenging. McCann's music for "Human Revolution" was focused around the game's multilayered dualistic themes, which he described as "technology/nature, past/future, wealth/poverty", all of which were encompassed by the general transhumanist theme. McCann and sound director Steve Szczepkowski initially started out using dark electronic scoring typical of the cyberpunk genre, but during the three-year period he worked on the game the music gradually became more "organic". He was influenced by the visuals' Renaissance styling, convincing him to blend organic and traditional cyberpunk elements. The electronic elements were influenced by the film music of John Carpenter, Vangelis, and the band Tangerine Dream. The acoustic mood elements were inspired by the work of Lisa Gerrard, Ennio Morricone and Elliot Goldenthal. Outside films, he was strongly influenced by electronic bands and musicians, such as Amon Tobin and the band Massive Attack.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The musical structure was defined by him as "three-sided", mimicking the thematic use of triangles in the game. His three musical elements were acoustics (vocals, strings) representing the past; electronic music representing the future; and the present being a mixture of the two in both style and instrumentation. Vocals also evoked slight religious overtones, which again connected to the use of the number three due to the number's multiple religious associations, in turn suggested and influenced by the Renaissance atmosphere. Another example of three-fold design was the ambient music, which needed to vary between quiet, tense, and active, depending on Adam's situation: each piece was constructed as a standalone cue that would interact with its fellows depending on the flow of gameplay. This presented a challenge to McCann about the handling of themes and melodies, as short cues might grow repetitive over time. Individual environments were also designed to contrast each other musically. An example given by McCann was different areas of the main city hubs: in the wealthy areas of Hengsha, the music evokes light and wealth, while in the poor areas of Detroit, it would be dark to reflect lawlessness and the surrounding decay. This necessity of intertwining music with the environment meant that McCann needed to keep the music minimal enough to be unobtrusive while still being noticeable.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: McCann did not design any specific character themes, instead keeping any recurring themes ambiguous. He gave both stylistic and technical reasons for this: technically the music system was too simple to allow for a large number of unique musical cues, and stylistically it worked on a technical and musical level for there to be no specific musical themes influencing the player's judgement of characters and situations. The cues for hacking sequences were created fairly early in the process, and was one of a group of cues McCann created during a break from the project. A piece he commented on in 2010 was "Icarus", the game's main theme. He created special versions for the game's reveal trailer, including a six-minute version broken into five sections for the director's cut of the trailer. He worked on creating the theme for two months, starting out with piano, vocals and minimal synthesizer work before building the full layers onto it. The final layer added were "synth arpeggios" that completed the piece's transformation into a full piece of cyberpunk-themed music. The "Icarus" theme, and by extension the soundtrack, also tied into the game's overall themes and motifs.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: A soundtrack disc was included in the limited "Augmented Edition". An official album, "Deus Ex: Human Revolution Original Soundtrack", was released on November 15, 2011. It was released through Sumthing Else Music Works as a physical and digital release. The album contained 25 tracks created from 50 out of the 200 pieces created for the game. The tracks included both cues from the game and arranged versions used in trailers. McCann chose the tracks to represent the game's story, drawing on the various styles of the music as a whole. He used the official album release to accentuate what he had been doing for the soundtrack as a whole. He initially wanted the soundtrack to be two discs, but realized that this would lead to repetition, so limited himself to a single disc. The remaining unreleased pieces were left out because of that potential repetition. The soundtrack received praise from multiple music critics: Original Sound Version's Gideon Dabi, commenting on the game's music prior to the album's commercial release, was highly positive about McCann's work, calling it "a tremendous upgrade over its predecessors" and praising its low-key impact. Simon Elchlepp, writing for Video Game Music Online, gave the album 4/5 stars: he called it "a very satisfying experience", praising the score's connection to the game's themes and overall quality despite some perceived missteps about use of its main theme. RPGFan's Liz Maas said that, while it trended towards being generic, with the track "Barrett Boss Fight" being most guilty of this, it managed to remain consistent with its themes and was worth buying.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: A third entry in the "Deus Ex" series was stated to be in development at Eidos-Montréal in May 2007 by Eidos France director Patrick Melchior during an interview on MusiquePlus. At the time, Eidos did not comment on the story. Eidos-Montréal project manager Stéphane D'Astous confirmed the game's existence in November, stating that concept approval had only just been granted. An initial teaser trailer was released on November 26, 2007. The title, first details, and original release window were announced at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. It was published worldwide by Square Enix. While originally scheduled for 2010, the game was shifted to beyond April the following year so the team could further polish the gameplay. It was released for PlayStation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC). The gameplay was identical across all platforms barring control schemes. Originally Eidos had intended to make the PC retail version of the game region locked. The reason behind this was due to DVD limitations which meant the languages on the game had to be split. However, due to negative reaction from the public, this lock was not implemented.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The PC port was outsourced by Eidos-Montréal to Nixxes Software, who also worked with Eidos on multiple projects including the PC port of "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light". The decision to outsource the PC port was made because the team wanted to make a quality port, but their team could not handle the three different versions. Nixxes were chosen as they had already been collaborating with the project, were a trusted port developer, and had a deep understanding of the game's engine. The two teams kept in constant contact, working from the same code base so the PC and console versions were as close as possible in terms of content and graphics. To create the port, Nixxes developed a DirectX 11 renderer that the PC version would use, which enabled the inclusion of multiple graphical tweaks and extra touches such as adding tessellation and extra anti-aliasing options. The controls and HUD were customized to work with a computer keyboard. The initial response to the announcement of the PC port's outsourcing was mixed, which made the teams more determined to deliver a high-quality port. Further technical assistance was provided by Advanced Micro Devices. The game was also ported to Apple Inc.'s OS X platform. First announced in September 2011 after the other versions were released, the porting was handled by Feral Interactive, who had made their name porting games such as "BioShock" and "Max Payne" to the platform.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: It released in August 2011 in major Western regions: it released in North America on August 23, Australia on August 25, and Europe on August 26. In addition to the standalone releases, special editions were created featuring extra content in North America and Europe. The "Explosive Mission Pack" included a mission focusing on a central character from "Deus Ex" along with additional weapons and equipment. The "Augmented Edition" included all content from the "Explosive Mission Pack" in addition to new equipment and in-game bonuses. The European version sported a few extra items than the North American version. A separate pack included codes to unlock "Deus Ex"-themed items for "Team Fortress 2" for pre-orders on Steam. The OS X port released on April 26, 2012. The version released was the "Ultimate Edition", including all pre-order content in addition to downloadable content (DLC) released the previous year. A minor controversy arose around the PC version when video game retailer GameStop started removing content from the original packaging. GameStop had instructed employees to remove coupons for free access to "Human Revolution" on OnLive, an online game service, stating that the coupon promoted a competitor of one of its subsidiaries, Spawn Labs and Impulse, which it had recently acquired. As an apology, GameStop began giving customers a $50 gift card in-store to those who purchased copies of "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" for PC prior to August 26 and who brought the issue to their staff.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: The game was localized for and released in Japan for PS3 and Xbox 360, and included all pre-order content. The PS3 version also included the English voice track. The game's subtitle was cut for Japan, releasing simply as "Deus Ex". It was given a "Z" rating by country's CERO entertainment rating board, equivalent to the North American ESRB's "Adults Only" rating, although it still underwent editing to remove some overtly violent and suggestive content, the display of which is prohibited under Japanese law. Initially planned for release alongside Bandai Namco's "Tales of Xillia", it was pushed forward into the following month due to CERO requesting a further edit. It eventually released on October 20.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: A DLC episode set during the main game, "", released digitally on October 18 for Steam and Xbox Live, and October 19 for PlayStation Network (PSN). It likewise debuted in Japan for the console versions: it released on PSN on March 7, 2012, and March 20 for Xbox Live. Set during a transitional event in-game, the plot sees Adam captured and stripped of his augmentations, having to escape and navigate a cargo ship and then a base operated by Belltower.


title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

text: Plans for DLC were first announced in August 2010, with it being planned as an extension of the game. The developers initially did not plan for DLC, with it beginning development later in the game's production when the visual theme was finalized. Despite using only core team members, development was slow due to the main focus being on "Human Revolution". For "The Missing Link", the team improved the lighting, gameplay mechanics, player freedom, and character animation. The DLC was developed entirely at Eidos-Montréal, and this gave the team the opportunity of developing a boss fight with multiple solutions, something they regretted not being able to do with the main game.