Before becoming an Exo, Ada-1 was known as Adelaide Meyrin, daughter to one of the founders of the Black Armory, Henriette Meyrin.¹

Adelaide was born near the end of the Golden Age and lived through the Dark Age of Humanity, after the Collapse.² Her mother, along with Yuki Satou and Helga Rasmussen, founded the Black Armory in an attempt to challenge the threat that faced Humanity at the time.³ As well as the forging of weapons and armour, the Black Armory experimented in the development of Exo technologies. These experiments eventually led to the creation of the only Exo the Black Armory created: Ada-1.⁴ During the days of the Collapse, the Black Armory family were attacked by unknown creatures. Helga Rasmussen died during this attack, and Adelaide was injured.⁵ After Adelaide began dying from her injury, her mother decided to transfer her consciousness to an Exo body with unique capabilities. With Satou’s help, the transfer was successful and Adelaide became Ada-1.⁶

Following this transfer, Ada and the remaining members of the Black Armory family left the dangers surrounding their facilities and made their way to a safer location. Henriette, who led this expedition, planned to find safety on the remote island of Corsica.⁷ Throughout their journey to the shoreline, Ada would question her purpose, her relation to the Black Armory, and her origins, as she had lost her memories during the Exo procedure. However, her mother would generally avoid answering these questions directly and be distant throughout this time in fear of losing her daughter.⁸ Ada and the Black Armory family encountered and were attacked by several Lightbearers on their journey, but they were repelled. A Lightbearer from this attack would pursue the Black Armory family and upon noticing Ada’s unique abilities given to her by the Obsidian Accelerator, demanded possession of the Exo for the lives of the remaining family members. Yuki Satou sacrificed herself to allow Ada and Henriette to escape. This act would leave the mother and daughter as the only surviving members of the Black Armory.^{9 10}

Upon reaching the shoreline, Ada and her mother discovered a small settlement, in which a Lightbearer would arrive shortly after. The Lightbearer noticed Ada’s unique abilities, and because of Henriette's paranoia over her daughter, she decided to continue on and leave the settlement. As there were no more boats available to flee to Corsica, Henriette and Ada continued their journey on foot.¹¹ Soon after their departure, the Lightbearer who’d previously been pursuing them discovered and raided the settlement in search of Ada. Henriette decided at this point to remove the Obsidian Accelerator from Ada and send her away.¹² Eventually, the Lightbearers confronted Henriette and demanded the Accelerator. Unbeknownst to her, Ada was watching from a distance, and using the Izanagi’s Burden sniper rifle, eliminated the Lightbearers.¹³ It would be these negative interactions with Lightbearers that caused Ada’s distrust of Guardians for years to come. During this time, Henriette would write the final entry into her journal that she had kept since the arrival of the Traveler, informing Ada about her origins and purpose as the last surviving member of the Black Armory family. This journal would become known as the Black Armory Papers.^{1 14}

Years later, the Black Armory’s most prized technologies, Forges, were lost due to the Red War. Other forges were seized by a Fallen known as Siviks, Lost to None, and his faction the ‘Kell’s Scourge’.^{15 16} With the help of the Spider’s Black Armory badge, Guardians came to meet Ada-1 in her hidden facility within the Last City.^{17 18} Although distrustful of Guardians initially, Ada’s relationship with Guardians grew to be one of mutual respect. Guardians assisted Ada against Siviks’ assault on the Black Armory, and came to recover lost forges such as Volundr and Gofannon.^{19 20} Guardians also crafted new Black Armory armaments and eventually recovered the Black Armory Papers.19 14 These efforts lead to the fall of Siviks and the return of the Obsidian Accelerator to Ada-1.^{13 21}

Upon the arrival of the Black Fleet into the Solar System, Ada would become involved with the Vanguard and the Consensus on a project known as ‘Project Stronghold’.²²

During the intake of the Eliksni refugees of House Light, Ada looked to evolve the use of the Black Armory after discovering her Forges were no longer operational.²³ After meeting with Suraya Hawthorne and listening to her advice as to the new direction of her work, Ada decided to look into the original founders of the Armory.^{24 25} Upon finding a link between the Black Armory and Clovis Bray, and with the help of Eido and the Guardian, Ada developed a new use for the Armory with technology that utilizes matter programming, known as the Loom.^{26 27}