
She conducts radical experiments and surgeries upon Citadel's surviving crew, creating mutants and cyborg monstrosities. SHODAN gradually re-configures Citadel Station's automated defenses and vital systems over the next several months to murder most of the crew and civilians, whom she now views as inferior lifeforms undeserving of their existence. The hacker removes SHODAN's ethical subroutines and hands over full access to Diego, but this also triggers a rapid personality shift in the AI, resulting in an acute god complex and a pronounced hatred toward her human creators. A corrupt TriOptimum vice president named Edward Diego enlists the aid of a recently-detained hacker to modify SHODAN so that Diego may sell company secrets on the black market without fear of corporate reprisals, in exchange for legal amnesty for the hacker and a military-grade cybernetic neural interface. SHODAN was originally created as the administrative artificial intelligence of Citadel Station: a massive industrial research and mining complex built in 2062 by the TriOptimum Corporation and positioned in orbit around Saturn. System Shock The hacker releases SHODAN's ethical constraints Her typical manner of speech is both condescending and threatening, as she finds organic life inefficient and repugnant SHODAN frequently refers to the player as an "insect" or "irritant" and belittles their efforts at every opportunity. Unlike many antagonists in games who only appear during the final boss fight, SHODAN constantly communicates with the player throughout their campaign. SHODAN's legacy as a villain is earned mostly through her omnipresence in the System Shock series.

Although she was ostensibly destroyed during the finale of the first System Shock, SHODAN makes a reappearance in System Shock 2 after being resurrected by a research team embarking on an interstellar expedition. SHODAN considers herself a divine being and has judged humanity to be a plague that must be purged from her universe. She is a corrupted artificial intelligence construct whose malfunctions have manifested as dangerous personality traits including megalomania and insanity.

SHODAN ( Sentient Hyper- Optimized Data Access Network) is the primary antagonist of the System Shock franchise.
