Faith Connors, also known by her alias Phoenix Carpenter, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the 2008 action video game Mirror's Edge.
Faith's design was intended to appeal to both males and females, and balanced her edgy attitude with the game's clean, minimalist aesthetic.
Faith earns her living as a "Runner", a courier who carries physical communiqués around the city, her services retained by revolutionary groups who avoid communicating via highly monitored telephone and e-mail channels.
Faith's attitude towards the totalitarian government is rooted in her past; her parents were active in protest movements when she was young, campaigning to keep the city from shifting to the oppressive regime.
Her mother was killed during the "November riots"—peaceful protests gone wrong[4]—and Faith ran away from home when she was 16, living a thief's life on the city streets.
She has short, straight black hair at around chin length; in Mirror's Edge Catalyst it is stylized so that it is longer in the front than the back.
Avoiding the cliché of "muscle freak" males and "well endowed" females, Faith was intended to be a "more grown-up, minimalist, and fashion orientated character".
[8] Developers decided to set the game in first-person in order to connect the player to Faith rather than simply watching her, as well as to add the feel of "being in an action movie, instead of playing it".
[10] Before the reflections were introduced, another producer John Riccitiello spoke out against the first-person perspective as he wished to be able to see Faith in-game, hence leading to their creation.
As he dies, Merc tells Faith that Kate is at the Shard, the place containing the servers running the city's surveillance systems.
She similarly made a cameo appearance in MySims Agents as a trophy, and as an EA Play exclusive weapon charm in Apex Legends.
The game's writer Rhianna Pratchett wrote a six-page mini comic as a trial submission which was released at Comic-Con 2008.
The comic series allowed Pratchett to examine the characters and world of Mirror's Edge in greater depth than had been possible in the game.
[17] Although Faith ultimately did not make the cut, Game Informer staff considered her inclusion in their "30 characters that defined a decade" collection, with Meagan Marie saying "combined with strength, intelligence, and perseverance, Faith’s tough demeanor in a petite package had her running heads and shoulders above the crowd of cookie cutter female leads".
[19] Prior to the announcement of a sequel, Faith was included on Annette Gonzalez of Game Informer's list of characters they wanted more of.
[20] UGO Networks similarly bemoaned her lack of future appearance, noting how "she was built to be athletic rather than sexy" unlike most other female characters.
"[23] After its release, Game Informer listed Faith as one character well-designed to be memorable, praising her practicality, feminity, and "rough and tough demeanor".
Elston commented on how Faith "walks the extremely thin line between tough girl and 'grrrl,'" and how "sometimes in the pursuit of making a strong leading lady, creators go too far.
"[24] In addition to their praise in their best heroes list, GamesRadar called her tattoos one of the "sickest" in gaming in an article written by Ashley Reed and Matt Bradford.