As it took off and did well, THEN you had some people spinning things off with connections to the long longago and, eventually, when enough intrest was built up, starting the Earthdawn branch, but, it's safe to say that it wasn't planned from launch.
Not at all true (assuming you mean "not at ED's launch").
In the original, first-printing ED corebook? Back in the day, I knew (and regularly gamed with) over half the names listed as playtesters in that book. And with a few of the chief writers, too.
And the university club I was part of, was involved in the later playtest. So I got the opportunity to read through a lot of early-draft material. The links were there, and they were pretty explicit. The writers responsible for making ED, had a link in mind from Day 0 (of ED, not SR).
(Mind you, while I've *played* since '89, I wasn't part of the design crew, so, not Word of God here or anything.)
I also wasn't part of the team itself - but had regular access to, and conversations with, more than one of them.
