Columbia

**Columbia** is an isolated and technologically advanced city-state situated on a series of floating structures suspended in the sky by the quantum levitation technology of physicist Rosalind Lutece. The city was constructed in 1893 under commission by the United States government as a symbol of American political and religious ideals, but seceded from the United States in 1902 as a white-supremacist regime led by founder King Washington and Zachary Hale Comstock.

## Columbia's Purpose

The U.S. government intended Columbia to be a showcase of American exceptionalism. Through tours across various countries and lands, America would be capable of spreading its vision of the future and the American ideal to others.

Through Rosalind Lutece's discovery of the "Lutece Particle", which held atoms at a fixed position and support by Zachary Hale Comstock, a charismatic American religious figure, the city of Columbia was created and presented at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

The city was launched to great fanfare and was later dispatched to distant shores. What began as an endeavor of achievement and hope went horribly wrong for the American Government. In 1901, during the Boxer Rebellion where American hostages had been taken, Columbian Forces intervened without orders from the U.S. Government and destroyed the city of Peking. The destruction of the city caused the death of untold Chinese civilians and demonstrated the danger that Columbia posed to the rest of the world.

When the floating city was revealed to be heavily armed and to have had acted on its own, a rift emerged between leadership in Columbia and Washington, resulting in the floating city being recalled to American shores. In response, on July 6th, 1902, Columbia seceded from the Union and the following year disappeared into the clouds. Comstock now had complete control over the city and its people who rallied to his beliefs and set to creating his ideal society.

This emerging utopia had its flaws, though they were not seen as problems by its leadership. Comstock and his regime, The Founders, believed that Columbia embodied the true society envisioned by the Founding Fathers of the United States, where white Anglo-Saxons ruled over the world and that their country served a higher purpose in "civilizing" through military might and propagating their particular brand of religion. To many Columbians, America had turned away from its divine purpose, having abandoned slavery, religion, militarism, and racial supremacy. America and the rest of the world below were viewed with contempt, described as "the Sodom Below," a sinful and chaotic world which only deserved to be destroyed. Columbia in comparison was referred to as "Another Ark, for Another Time" by its citizens, meaning the city was the only source of goodness and order, and once Columbia destroyed the rest of the world, everything could restart pure and anew under the city's absolute rule. Due to Comstock's dogma, Columbians had a very narrow perspective of American history; President Abraham Lincoln was labeled "The Apostate" by Columbia for ending slavery. His killer, John Wilkes Booth, was revered as a saint. The Columbian perspective of the Civil War is that of a demonic Lincoln leading a barbarous horde against the saintly Confederate forces under a deified George Washington, underscoring Columbian beliefs about racial slavery, as well as the anarchistic nature of the "false" America.

With the city free from the United States' anti-slavery and workers' safety laws, institutionalized racism and elitism were widespread and legally enforced in Columbia. Anglo-Saxon supremacy was widely asserted by the upper classes, matched with poor treatment of the immigrant working class. There was constant paranoia over "the foreign horde" and "anarchists" due to the racial beliefs of the time, causing Columbian xenophobia and militarism. People of "minority races", such as Africans, Native Americans, Asians, Jews, and Irish, were regularly subjugated in Columbia, with many working in Finkton to power Columbia's industry. This was under the guise of employment, while some (such as eventual Vox Populi leader Daisy Fitzroy) were brought in by force to serve as slaves or indentured servants. The more privileged classes lead more leisurely lives. This all was justified by some with the belief that the minorities had "risen above their station", and that their toil was a just form of penance. Others simply saw it as a source of cheap, expendable labor.

As a result of this separation, minorities were largely relegated to menial labor with no opportunity for upward mobility, and asking for improvements would likely result in being attacked by the City Police, or worse. The hard labor workforce at Fink Manufacturing (well-known for mistreating its workers) was chiefly composed of the city's minority population and was closely supervised and controlled by heavily-armed Police Officers. The majority of Columbia's working class lived in Finkton's shabby, crime-ridden, and diseased slums, a stark contrast to the clean, stately neighborhoods of the upper classes. Those few who worked in areas where The Founders dominated were expected to be servile to their betters while dealing with inhumane working and living conditions. The rare few that worked in the homes of the elite might enjoy slightly better lives depending on their owner's generosity.

Such policies are widely accepted by the majority of the upper and middle class. To them, this hierarchy was heaven-born and divinely ordained. Some exceptions existed, with a few progressives operating in secret, who published rebellious material demanding equality, and who provided safe lodgings for escaped workers. "Protecting Our Race" was an official maxim of Columbia's Police, and any attempts of race mixing were illegal; public stoning of interracial couples was a common diversion during important celebrations. Any attempts to promote egalitarianism lead to imprisonment, torture, or "re-education". Torture and murder of minorities is ignored by the Founders, as well as the Columbian police authorities, if not outright encouraged. Control was also enforced covertly and brutally by a splinter group of The Founders, the Fraternal Order of the Raven, which doubled as an assassination group and Special-Operations force who regularly lynched, attacked, and kidnapped those who threatened Comstock's ideals. Their special mission was seeking vengeance for the murder of Lady Comstock.

Columbia was a militantly theocratic and fascist society that idolized American exceptionalism. Religion and government were one and the same, and devotion to the city and its prophet was required of its citizens. This was based upon the teachings of Father Comstock as a divine prophetic figure, as well as interpretations of the Founding Fathers of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin, whom Columbian belief said were appointed by the Archangel Columbia to "rise America above all other nations" in law, technology, and power. The belief that Comstock was chosen to complete and succeed the Founding Fathers' was widespread. His word was law, though some form of elected officials did exist in the city. Images of him, his wife, child, and the Founders, alongside angels, are found all over Columbia, which is presented as a heavenly place, despite its oppressive and militant nature. Columbia's religiosity appears like a form of protestant Christianity that would have risen during that era due to the Great Awakening, but little resembles actual Christianity. Columbia's prevailing religious ideology was very much a personality cult that is typical of despotic regimes.

Deviation from this state-imposed dogma was unacceptable and illegal. The Founders, led by Comstock and Columbia's elite, were the prevailing political faction in Columbia, retaining exclusive control over the city's society, government and business infrastructure. They enforced Comstock's religious and social vision out of blind devotion or greed, and in turn benefited from it as part of the privileged social strata. The Founders were also extremely militaristic, enforcing their laws and operations in a police state with a huge army of police officers and security automatons. They used child indoctrination to encourage military service through the popular Duke and Dimwit Theatre. A fleet of airships, headed by Comstock's personal zeppelin *The Hand of the Prophet*, kept constant watch over Columbia's skies, ready to attack on Comstock 's orders.

## Science and Technology

Comstock believed that scientific knowledge was the blueprint of "God's work," and that it could, therefore, be practiced and controlled in the name of God. Many advancements in Columbia were the product of the mind of Rosalind Lutece, a quantum physicist and one of the most prominent scientists of her time. Her work led to the discovery of the Lutece Field, a field capable of manipulating the properties of subatomic particles. One such application was the suspension of particles in space, facilitating the creation of airborne machinery and, by extension, the city of Columbia.

Following her work on the Lutece Field, Rosalind Lutece made an even more ground-breaking discovery: the device she created allowed her to interact with parallel realities, leading her to contact her duplicate from another universe, Robert Lutece. Through their joint effort, they developed machinery capable of creating contingencies in the space-time continuum, or Tears, allowing Robert to travel to Rosalind's reality (albeit at a great physical cost).

Father Comstock interpreted these Tears as revelatory visions of the future, increasing his delusions of grandeur. Using these Tears, he orchestrated the transfer of Anna DeWitt, the daughter of an alternate version of himself to Columbia and rechristened her as Elizabeth to become his successor. He unknowingly gave birth to her reality-bending powers by splitting her from across multiple realities. In an attempt to control her powers, he had the Luteces engineer several Siphons, devices capable of feeding off her energy. Their experiments nonetheless led to the spontaneous formation of many Tears around Columbia.

While most citizens regarded these Tears as a mere curiosity, individuals such as Jeremiah and Albert Fink exploited their access to parallel universe technologies. While Albert Fink simply used Tears as a means of trans-dimensional artistic theft, Jeremiah copied the designs of other researchers (some of them hinted to be from Rapture) to create radically new technologies, such as Vigors, automotive horses, the Voxophones, and Motorized Patriots. Based on the blueprints of an armored suit, he engineered the Songbird Defense System.

## Beginning of the End

As Zachary Comstock observed the Tears engineered by the Lutece twins, he became convinced that the glimpses of potential futures were, in fact, prophetic visions. Styling himself as the Prophet, he envisioned a future in which Columbia would bring forth a cleansing apocalypse across the world below, reshaping it in the city's image. However, repeated exposure to the device left him sterile, prematurely aged and terminally ill. In search of an heir, he used the Luteces' device to travel to an alternate universe in 1893 and purchase the daughter of his counterpart, Booker DeWitt. He rechristened her Elizabeth and established her birth as the result of a miraculous seven-day pregnancy. The transfer also granted Elizabeth the power to create Tears when one closed on her little finger, causing her to exist in multiple realities.

Lady Comstock, the Prophet's wife, did not take kindly to this fraud. Unwilling to listen to Rosalind Lutece's explanation, she accused her and Comstock of having an affair and threatened to reveal Elizabeth's true nature to the public. Desperate to maintain the myth surrounding the Lamb of Columbia, Father Comstock orchestrated Lady Comstock's murder and framed her scullery maid, Daisy Fitzroy, for the crime. However, Daisy escaped custody and went on to lead the Vox Populi as revenge against the Founders. In order to preserve secrecy, he also engineered the sabotage of the Lutece Twins' device in an attempt to murder them and cover up their deaths. Unbeknownst to him, the accident actually scattered them across the space-time continuum, allowing them to travel freely across all realities. Determined to set things right, they contacted Booker DeWitt and arranged his journey to Columbia.

## Booker DeWitt

Upon transfer to Comstock's reality, Booker's memories are rewritten: rather than setting out to find his daughter, he believes he has taken the task of retrieving Elizabeth to be able to wipe away his debt.

Booker arrives in Columbia and is directed to find Monument Island. Traveling through to the 1912 Raffle and Fair, he is exposed as being the False Shepherd, the anti-christ figure prophecized to lead the Lamb of Columbia astray. Immediately, he is hunted down by Comstock's forces and must fight his way through to Monument Island. There, he meets Elizabeth and is beset by Songbird, her giant mechanized jailer. Songbird chases the two down, destroying portions of the city sky-line and part of the Monument in the process before they escape to Battleship Bay. Later on, the two gain access to *The First Lady*, an airship capable of taking them to the mainland. The two get separated, and Booker finds himself forced to work for Daisy Fitzroy: to regain the airship, he must find Chen Lin, an arms manufacturer sympathetic to the Vox Populi's cause, so that the Vox may lead an armed revolution against the Founders.

Booker and Elizabeth reunite in Finkton and travel inside to find that Chen Lin has been murdered by Jeremiah Fink's men. Elizabeth then creates a Tear to a parallel reality in which Chen Lin is still alive, albeit with his tools confiscated. Setting out to Shantytown to find his tools, the two travel through to another Tear in which Columbia is in the middle of an uprising. In this reality, Booker DeWitt was a martyr of the Vox who died for their cause. Fighting their way back to Finkton, the two are discovered by Daisy Fitzroy who orders their execution. At the summit of Fink Manufacturing, Elizabeth kills Daisy, after the Vox leader murders Fink, to prevent her from killing a young boy in cold blood. Though the two manage to come back on board *The First Lady*, they are attacked by Songbird, who crashes the airship into Emporia.

Set upon by both the Founders and the Vox, who are rapidly putting the city to ruin, Booker and Elizabeth attempt to gain access to Comstock House. To do so, they must collect a handprint from Lady Comstock to bypass a lock. Father Comstock activates a Siphon at the grave and resurrects his dead wife as the Siren. Confused and angry, this new entity attacks Booker, using her powers to send armies of dead soldiers against him. Through three Tears, the two discover that Elizabeth is not, in fact, Comstock's daughter and that the latter had Lady Comstock and the Lutece twins murdered to keep Elizabeth's origins a secret. In a final battle, Elizabeth finally manages to appease the Siren, who blasts open the door to Comstock House.

As soon as they enter, Songbird appears, captures Elizabeth and brings her to Comstock House. Booker sets out to rescue her. He finds that he was too late, and Elizabeth has been indoctrinated to become Comstock's successor. Fighting his way through Comstock House, he is greeted by an elderly Elizabeth, who explains to him that she felt remorse for her actions and brought him through a Tear to prevent her from turning into a monster. He then witnesses the destruction of New York in 1984, an event he had seen before in a recurring dream. Elizabeth then gives him a note for him to pass down to her younger self and sends him back to the previous timeline.

Inside another part of Comstock House, Booker manages to rescue Elizabeth from torture intended to break her to Comstock's will. Together they board the Hand of the Prophet, Comstock's flagship. Elizabeth meets face-to-face with Comstock and demands he explains her true nature. He can only utter a cryptic response before Booker, in a fit of rage, beats him and drowns him in his own baptismal font. Determined to find answers, Elizabeth uses her older self's note to take control of Songbird and sets the course for Monument Island, which houses the primary Siphon that had been limiting her powers all this time.

After fighting off waves of Vox Populi, Booker orders the destruction of the Siphon, unlocking Elizabeth's near-godlike powers. She effortlessly transports herself, Booker and Songbird to Rapture, crushing her ex-guardian under the ocean's pressure. Through a series of Tears, Elizabeth reveals to Booker that Columbia and Rapture are connected via key elements, and are linked across different realities.