Blackbird

In Strife, Blackbird is a female guide who keeps track of the player's progress and communicates with the player on behalf of the Rebel Front. She is not always the best guide as she continuously gets lost, especially when traveling through many of the game's underground areas; she apologizes for this on numerous occasions. Her one-sided dialog with the player is frequently amusing and she calls-out silly video game practices ("You know, from the outside, this building looks tiny.") and tactics the player encounters/performs frequently ("Looks expensive. let's blow it up!"), when not giving directions or directing plot. Blackbird claims to be taking refuge in an underground bunker somewhere, hiding from the Order's influence, near where the 'mutants' hideout is. She is one of the few women left, after they were hidden from the order, along with the children. She is voiced by Marcia Pizzo

Blackbird is first met after you get the Communicator, which allows her to see and hear what you do, but will only work on people fully human. In the shareware version, when you find the communicator, Blackbird starts to get the signals from it and so decides, since you must be human, you can help the Rebel Front.. In the full Version, Rowan gives you the Communicator in order to contact Blackbird and help the Rebel Front.

In the best ending - killing the Oracle before Macil - Blackbird emerges from her underground bunker during the end sequence, after the Entity is dead and reveals her real name, Shana.

If the worst of the good endings are pursued - killing Macil before the Oracle - the last fight with the Entity is preceded by a soundfile which suggests that the Entity has been impersonating Blackbird. There is no indication when this impersonation began, or if there was ever a human Blackbird. If the best ending and the worst of the good endings are both to be possible, if the Entity's forces didn't find Blackbird on their own, then either Macil or the Oracle exposed her some time after the player chooses to trust the Oracle.