Shadow Arcida is a perhaps one of the strangest people you would meet on Zi. At first glance, he is often imagined and judged by his looks as an intimidating and dark character. Being only a mere five feet six inches tall and weighting only one hundred and fifty two pounds with all his “gear” on, he could almost pass as a middle school bully. “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, because contrary to popular judgment, Shadow is far from any of that. He is a big hearted, calm and quite quiet person for the most part. Call it a bit shy actually. He’s a bit clumsy with normal things, but the moment he climbs into a Zoid cockpit, or gets a hold of his wrench, he handles them both with an almost artistic gracefulness.
Shadows attire is quite flashy really. A pair of blue-greenish, rather open and “baggy” pants made of a soft, fire resilient membrane adorns his legs down slightly lower than the middle of his calf. His blackish-brown colored moccasin style shoes show there age with cuts and scratches adorning its surface. And a pair of socks that look more like the threads of a screw cover up the skin in-between. His waist was populated with a black and red belt to support his pants as well as the holsters for his short sword and gunblade. The remains of a maroon colored cape sits not upon his shoulders, but wrapped around his waist covering the front and back. The front is neatly trimmed to end just above his ankles while the back drags behind with cuts and holes adorning its surface. His black short-sleeve shirt has elliptical holes on each side of his body before it disappears into his pants. A heavy fabric, sleeveless mid-drift over shirt with a beat up popped color adds a little more color to him. Finishing off is his red-lens colored welding goggles and a pair of mismatched, beat up, old brown gloves.

Shadow's skin is quite pale as he spends most of his time in the shade, or inside his Gustav/trailers tinkering with machinery. His hair, however, is quite flashy. Naturally spiky, with an almost blinding white color to them. With a dress up like this, its quite easy to understand why people say what they do about him.

Someone once said, “Don’t bring a sword to a gun battle.” Shadow always loved his short sword. Combined with his naturally athletic build, he could hold his own. Don’t get him wrong though, not even he can block a bullet with his sword. Being a junkman, Shadow became fed up with being the short end the stick because he didn’t carry a gun, thus, he gave birth to the gunblade. The blade itself is not much longer than his short sword, yet many times wider. And while the sword itself is really only a third of the length of the whole thing, it makes up in the rest of its name. Built as the hilt and molded into the blade is a belt fed 9mm gun. Not only packing a punch, but with the trigger being mounted conveniently right below the hilt, it allows him to pull off some sick sword/gun combinations.

Shadow's past was a cruel one. His father treated him poorly. His two older brothers and one sister where always leaving him in the dust and eventually put his parents into a financial downspin that got them broke when Shadow was old enough to finally do something with his life. While his older siblings rolled away in there fancy supped up new Zoids, Shadow was left behind with nothing. Until a life changing day came for him. He broke into an old abandoned military base used by the empire during the war and accidentally knocked down a pile of scrap in a corner. After freeing himself he discovered a piece of very old technology. What was known as a diesel engine. Shadow was fascinated with the machine and spent most of his time eating off the bases remaining MRE supply and working well ripping it apart learning its inner workings. After almost a year of being alone inside he completed it. A perfectly rebuilt old diesel engine.
That was three years earlier. Now, at 22, he lives in New Helic City. After rebuilding the diesel, he hauled it onto the back of an old military truck and used its remaining fuel to get to the city. There, he began a new life as an apprentice in the local Zoid repair shop. Currently, he lives off a strong paycheck and is known as one of the best mechanics around. Over his time in New Helic City, he got a hold of a wrecked Gustav. He removed the old drive system and worked in 2 of his most powerful diesels then painted it black.
Shadow is ready to begin his adventure as a pilot now. He has submitted his application for a pilots license and awaits the final order. Travel the continent of Europa, battle the many other pilots out there, and build up a huge collection of parts and machinery from various areas is his dream…