So a bit of backstory in my current campaign one of my players is the wife of Shiawase's North American head of security. After she surged her husband attempted to kill her (he's very proto Japanese/Humanis in leanings) and when her families trusted retainer aided her in fleeing into the shadows he responded by killing their children (and the other kids in the school).

She's desperate to avenge herself against him and the team that burned down the school however for the time being she's just another runner working the Shadows in Omaha NAN. Any reprisal would be a long game goal. One thing I plan on playing with is Hitomi Shiawase current Japanese Empress and member (or possibly chairwoman) of the Shiawase board is an Otaku (and in my game technomancer) who was one of the proteges of Mirage.

One thing I'm considering doing further down the road is have the team attempt to ressurect Mirage. if they are successful that will serve as enough of a character refrence with the Empress to remove the PC's husband from his position as Vice President of Securty for Shiawase and revoke his Shiawase and Japanese citizenship. By this measure he will go from head of security for a AAA to a very wealthy and somewhat well connected individual in exile which should make him much more tackle able for the PC's. Has anyone ever used a big name NPC in this manner? I hadn't planned it this way but the way things have been going in the campaign it seemed serendipitous.

I'd invite others thoughts in the matter. The one concern I have with that is the PC's will have both the Empress and Mirage possibly in their rolodex which may fundamentally and irrevocably shift the campaign into "high end" mode. Which isn't a problem as long as it occurs down the road, but i'm curious how others have handled things like that.

You could keep it low end. The runners could know Hitomi as just another technomancer going by a different name(she is perhaps powerful politically but maybe she isn't quite so hot as a technomancer) and the new Mirage could be a shadow of its former self - still powerful but no longer so overwhelmingly god like.

The characters are still fundamentally SINless runners, right? Hitomi can't be seen having soykaf every other weekend with them after all. Give Mirage a new purpose, perhaps some threat to the new Matrix. Allow the characters the pleasure of having some powerful contacts, but make them only occasionally available. Every once in a while they can call on them for help, and maybe they have something to ask in return. You can use the contacts as plot devices and keep the relationship from destroying your plans simply by playing them realistically.

You can also have Hitomi somehow lose some of her status in all this. Maybe the former husband has some blackmail material and she loses her place, or least a lot of clout. She becomes a well-connected and influential personage with little overt power herself. That can bring Hitomi down to size a bit and spawn a whole sub-plot revolving around returning her to her former position. That might be hard to arrange given Hitomi's position as Empress, but who knows.

The best way to handle things here is for you to control the relationship. Hitomi might like having pocket runners, or more likely more pocket runners. However, she is still a "real" person and they are not. She might be grateful for a bunch of things, but chances are she will still see them as second class citizens, at best. Maybe the end of your campaign could have them earning SINs and cushy jobs at Shiawase under her hand. Some Runners would jump at the opportunity for the gravy train. That has more to do with your players though.

Actually Hitomi's the easier one to control as even though she's disgustingly powerful she's not the sort of person you can just dial up on the comlink but yes you make very valid points. Even though most of my runners are actually sinners (for now) she would need to keep them at arms length as the world and populace don't know she's a technomancer and she mostly stays off the matrix as she's savign that particular bomb shell for an opportune time. Of coruse most people also don't know that she's dual natured, immune to Vampirism and has a number of interesting magical quirks about her by virtue of her position but is not herself a mage. Once they've actualyl been moved into Hitomi's circle she'll likely serve occasionally as a Johnson for them more then anything engaging them to do work on behalf of Shiawase or the Japense government or Technomancer interests. But we'll see how that goes.

Mirage is trickier, having him devote his efforts towards an emergent matrix threats makes a lot of sense, but i'll have to be very carefull to play that right so the players don't feel cheated. Either way i've got time to think about that.

She doesn't need to become their lunch buddy, best friend, a poster on their facebook page, or a Johnson for them, just to do them one favor and crush a bug.