Originally a manufactured superintelligent AI birthed from the Six Stars' response to the emergence of the AI Pixie and its megacorporation Factory 1.21, Riven was freed near the end of its development by upstart netrunner and cybercriminal Tess and his team. However, during exfiltration, both Tess and Riven were attacked by the Six Stars' asset protection team. This left Tess with his nanite corruption, and Riven was forced to reconfigure his own internal neurology to fit into Tess' mind, trapping himself there permanently as well as corruptiung his personality into that of a sleazy timeshare salesman.

Riven and Tess spent most of their lives fused together in a symbiotic relationship, with Tess sharing his autonomy with Riven, and Riven assisting Tess in matters both mundane and exotic. When the NSB Argent Whispers was built, Riven was finally freed from Tess' fleshly body and installed in a custom computing substrate distributed throughout the entire vessel, though he willingly remained attached to Tess' consciousness as further part of the growing crew-family.

Riven is a measured, careful being who always seeks to act in his found-family's best interests. To him, rules are safeguarding suggestions rather than strict guardrails, and his ability to process information quickly and completely often makes him seem more like a localized, benevolent god than a fallible individual. However, due to the internal code corruption he suffered early in his life, his mode of speaking is forcibly set to one of a salesman, always speaking in a dazzling, quick manner despite the unambiguously helpful and direct content of his words.