ShadowChild

"Can I reprogram it?! There are only ten hackers in the world who can. And I'm two of them."

- ShadowChild about reprogramming a Pass-Port

ShadowChild, also stylized as Shadow(hild, is a hacker operating from Klímová Apartments in the Blade Plaza of Prague in 2028. She is a major character in System Rift and also serves as the Ripper's handler in Breach.

Biography
Hacking since age six, the enigmatic ShadowChild is a world-class Ripper working to pull off the "hack of the century." By exposing The Palisade Bank Corporation's fortress-like Palisade Blade servers to hackers world-wide, ShadowChild intends not only to position herself as the world's foremost hacker, but also to take vengeance against the man who put a bounty on all Rippers: Palisade CTO and mastermind of the Blades, Masaaki Oshiro.

In 2029, ShadowChild has an apartment space consisting of two adjacent units (3A and 3B) in the Klímová Apartments, an apartment building located in the Blade Plaza. She resides with Marta Romanowski, the registered tenant of both units. One of the units has been modified to accommodate a secret room that houses ShadowChild's Neural SubNet (NSN) terminal.

When Adam Jensen is sent by Francis Pritchard to infiltrate Palisade Blade-01 to retrieve data from the Blade, ShadowChild assists Jensen by reprogramming a Pass-Port needed to infiltrate the facility. Later, ShadowChild assists Jensen in rescuing Pritchard's avatar when it becomes trapped in the Blade's mainframe. In order to bypass the Blade's AI virtual defenses guarding the mainframe, ShadowChild creates a hole in the Blade's outer defenses and invites some of her Ripper associates to attack the client servers of the Blade, thereby distracting the AI defenses from the mainframe. This process, however, creates the Breach.

In the aftermath of the creation of the Breach, ShadowChild tells Jensen that Rippers will be attacking the Blades' corporate servers day and night to extract the Terabytes of private data stored within. She tells Jensen that the creation of the Breach is a good thing, for the sake of exposing the truth hidden in the servers.

ShadowChild realizes that it's only a matter of time before the authorities trace her involvement with the Breach. She tells Jensen that her time in Europe is over, and that she and her partner (Marta) are moving to either California or Argentina.

While the Breach is open, ShadowChild gives Rippers "Darknet Files," humanitarian cases where people go to the Darknet for help in uncovering and exposing the secrets of major corporations. ShadowChild has contacts with experience in the military, in medicine, and in analytics for assistance, who can assist Rippers in carrying out these investigations. These contacts include: Watchstan68, an ex-military personnel well versed in covert tactics, infiltration and fire teams; Fairbanks, an analytics specialist adept at unraveling the red tape of corporations and governments; and Shorthand, described by ShadowChild as an impatient but brilliant doctor.

As a Ripper, ShadowChild believes in operating under a moral code. If questioned by Jensen as to the possibility of Rippers invading the privacy of innocent individuals, ShadowChild will say that such is a line "real" Rippers will never cross, and that "real" Rippers only target people and companies that abuse the masses.

Breach
In Breach, ShadowChild serves as a mentor to the Ripper protagonist. After guiding the Ripper into Palisade's servers, ShadowChild assigns a series of Darknet Files for the Ripper to complete, often offering advice or contacts to assist the Ripper in completing the files. Eventually, the Ripper meets a rival of ShadowChild who is opposed to the latter's ideology that Rippers should work only for moral causes. The Ripper must choose to support either ShadowChild or her rival. If the Ripper sides with the rival, ShadowChild is banished from the Breach network and her identity becomes exposed to the authorities. Otherwise, ShadowChild and the Ripper work together to fend off an attack by her rival and the two continue their work in exposing Palisade's data.

In Sleight of Hand, ShadowChild makes an appearance in gameplay, either as an ally or an adversary depending on the protagonist Ripper's choice of allegiance.

Quotes

 * "You can tell a lot about a person by how clean they keep their home when they are not expecting visitors."
 * "Privacy stopped being a right when everyone started using 'free' e-mail accounts and smartphones."
 * "Extract the data! Expose the truth!"

Trivia

 * Her outfit features a, a shape from Conway's Game of Life that is recognized as a subtle hacker emblem.
 * ShadowChild resembles Kate Libby from  (1995). It is not known whether the resemblance is intentional.
 * The figurine ShadowChild ask to be put on Leona Rosolova's desk is Garrett from the game  (2014), also developed by Eidos Montréal. Completing the task grants the Go Figure achievement.