Simon Wales

Father Simon Wales is a character in BioShock 2. A preacher in control of Siren Alley and a powerful lieutenant in service of Sofia Lamb, Wales altered Sofia's beliefs and spun them into a simple religion that the Splicers could comprehend, called The Rapture Family. Sofia uses this new belief system as a means to recruit more people.
==History==
Simon Wales and his brother, Daniel Wales, were architects who designed cathedrals in Ireland. Their firm, Wales & Wales Architects, was well known enough that Andrew Ryan commissioned them to design his city, Rapture. After the city was completed the Wales brothers took up residence in the area which would later be known as Siren Alley.
Wales & Wales continued to operate, but when Rapture started leaking, Wales & Wales lost their credit, making it impossible for them to find contracts. Simon was beset by guilt over the leaking in Rapture, convinced that it was somehow the fault of their designs. He sought counseling with Sofia Lamb and experienced a drastic change as a result of being exposed to her philosophies. He adopted the name "Father Wales", and began to hold religious services in Siren Alley, preaching Sofia Lamb's collectivist ideals. His adoption of religion caused him to become estranged from his brother Daniel, whom he still tried to reach out to and convert to the Rapture Family.
As time went on, Father Wales became more radical in his preaching. He mixed mythology and Christian terms equally into his sermons to the Family, and became less tolerant of other faiths, eventually persecuting them far worse than Ryan ever had. After the death of Ryan at the hands of Jack, Father Wales adopted those events into his myths, depicting Jack as an incarnation of God who punished smugglers, murderers, worshipers of false gods, and the pretensions of those who believed in the "Great Chain". By the time of Subject Delta's awakening, Father Wales had been spliced into an only vaguely humanoid form of Spider Splicer.
==BioShock 2==
During BioShock 2 Subject Delta first encounters Father Wales in Siren Alley, and is forced to confront him to get the key to the pump access station which will allow him to travel to Dionysus Park. Wales contacts Delta while he is riding the Atlantic Express after leaving Pauper's Drop. The preacher vows he shall never reach the Park before firing a torpedo at him, blasting Delta off the train car, and stranding Augustus Sinclair in the flooded Dionysus. Delta stumbles across him in Little Eden Plaza, lighting prayer candles by cult relics. As Delta approaches he leaps away, demonstrating the dexterity and movements of a Spider Splicer. Wales easily escapes and remains hostile to Delta, seeing him as an enemy of the Rapture Family who seeks to take Eleanor Lamb away from them. Wales becomes enraged after Delta kills his brother, Daniel, in The Pink Pearl. He sends waves of his Splicer allies in attempts to kill Delta. Finally, he is encountered in his Sanctuary of the Lamb and is defeated. When Lamb floods Siren Alley, Wales' corpse is flooded along with his church. 
===Strategy===
Father Wales is fought towards the end of Siren Alley, inside the cathedral of the Rapture Family. He takes the form of a Spider Splicer wearing a black suit and hat. Wales has an incredibly high amount of health (about on par with a Big Daddy's) and is also assisted by his congregation; who consist of several Spider Splicers, a Brute Splicer, and a couple of Leadhead Splicers armed with Machine Guns. Wales also is accompanied by a Security Bot, which follows him closely.
Wales does not show until all other enemies are killed. Although it is possible to do some damage when the player first sees him, Simon Wales flees as soon as he is seen, making it difficult to do any significant damage.
A useful strategy for the player on the harder difficulties is to hide in Lamb's Hideout outside of the Cathedral - specifically in the southeast corner of the second room, behind a bookcase adjacent to the entrance. Enemies can not damage the player at all from this position, and it grants the player a great view on the doorway, allowing them to plant Trap Rivets on the doorframe and presenting a close-quarters area where the player can fight Simon Wales and his congregation on the player's own terms. It is also possible that the Brute Splicer may become stuck between the desk and bookcase in the first room. The only problem with this strategy is that the enemies will need to be lured into the room as they do not always follow the player there.
== Personality ==
Simon Wales is portrayed as a deeply religious and unhinged zealot who is determined to spread his beliefs to the populace of Rapture at large. He constantly compares Andrew Ryan to a devil-like figure and seems convinced Jack was some sort of god who liberated the underwater city from tyranny, and he is described by Sofia as a man so sincere in his beliefs that he doesn't fear death and will stop at nothing to further the goals of the Rapture Family. Despite his madness, Simon is shown to care about his brother Daniel, becoming enraged at Delta once he learns the Big Daddy murdered his sibling.
==Quotes==
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The following are phrases that Simon Wales says in BioShock 2. The name of the source audio file is listed when known.
===Scripted Dialogue===
*"The beast of Ryan lives! Gather the family!"
*"Each of you know the child of the Lamb. Through ADAM our soul shall pass into her holy blood and will be reborn as a single immaculate body."
*"…But the Beast is upon us children. It wears a hide of iron and its hands are death and change. It would seize the child from us and with her, paradise itself! Be ye soldier of the ground or angel of the sky, we must stand fast and send it howling back to Hell!"
===Combat Dialogue===
====Attacking the Player====
*"Unbeliever!"
*"Pretender!"
*"His fiery sword!"
*"Touch not the Holy Lamb!"
*"I will be reborn!"
*"Thy will be done!"
====Berserk====
*"Arghhh! Betrayed!"
*"Arghhh! Judas Iscariot!"
====Exiting Combat====
*"We shall meet again."
*"It's over. Make thyself penitent."
====Sees the Player Fleeing====
*"Craven beast! Thou cannot hide from the one true God!"
*"I am absolution! I am peace!"
*"Back to the sea Spawn of Leviathan."
====Upon Killing the Player====
*"I forgive ye, sinner."
*"Thou are shriven, creature."
*"Ye have been weighed and found wanting."
====Dying====
*"My Lord, I come to you."
==Audio Diaries==
===BioShock 2===
*Siren Alley
**A Silent God
**Lamb's Salvation
**Guidance of Lamb
**The Creed of the Faithful
*Removed Audio Diaries (on the Cult of Rapture website)
**Before the Lamb I
**Before the Lamb II
**Before the Lamb III
**Before the Lamb IV
**Before the Lamb V
**Path of the Lamb
==Bugs/Glitches==
* During the player's confrontation with Simon Wales there is a glitch where, if the player is killed whilst Simon is in the corridor leading up to his church dwelling, it causes the player to re-spawn at the Vita-Chamber inside the church. However, this locks Simon and whatever Splicers remain with him outside, making the player unable to continue the game without restarting from a previous save.
* Another rare glitch is for Simon to follow a player-friendly Security Bot to the top floor of the cathedral and get stuck up there, so the player can't get the key from him.
==Behind the Scenes==
*The "Demiurge" Simon Wales speaks of in his "A Silent God" and "Before the Lamb" Audio Diaries is the imperfect creator God in Gnosticism.Demiurge on Wikipedia It is evident that Father Wales preaches a form of Gnosticism to the Splicers in Rapture: he equates the Demiurge with the ADAM-making Sea Slug, from which the citizens "take its dread power in our blood". Wales blames the Demiurge for tempting Ryan below the waves and then destroying the people of Rapture.
*Father Wales' pre-spliced appearance also bears a resemblance to Grigori Rasputin,Grigori Rasputin on Wikipedia who greatly influenced the royal family through his charisma and supposed religious miracles.
*It's possible to befriend Simon Wales using Hypnotize 2. It does not grant any advantage though, as the player cannot leave the church until he is defeated, and the only enemies to fight until he is dead are randomly spawning Leadhead Splicers.
*Upon Wales' death, any Leadhead Splicers remaining inside the Cathedral will become non-hostile and flee from the player.
*Simon Wales is the only major character in BioShock 2 without a unique model of his own, being a recycled Crawler Splicer wearing a black preacher outfit.
**This is also the same model for the harvestable corpse in Simon Wales' Church in The Protector Trials.
==References==
de:Simon Wales
es:Simon Wales
fr:Père Wales
ru:Саймон Уэльс
Category:Splicers
Category:The Rapture Family
Category:BioShock 2 Characters
Category:BioShock 2 Enemies
Category:BioShock: Rapture Characters