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Zoie HartName: Silas Kilroy Subject Psi
Audio Diary Portrait:
Surface Life:
Silas Kilroy was born in Emporia, Kansas to a family of Irish Protestant impoverished farmers in March of 1937. Life was difficult for the family, and when the second world war erupted his father Hezekiah served in the U.S. Military, flying a bomber to attack Axis targets. He was shot down during a crucial mission and taken prisoner, his subsequent extensive interrogation and torture deeply traumatized him, changing him for life. At first, Hezekiah waited with hope that his government and fellow soldiers would save him. As the war dragged on, he slowly began to lose hope of rescue and came to realize that the only person who cared about his survival and well being would have to be himself. Organizing a riot with his fellow prisoners, he was wounded but managed to escape and return to Allied lines.
By the time Hezekiah was discharged from the hospital, the war was nearing its end. Returning to the United States, he was offered a large sum of money by a corporation named Ryan Oil after it was discovered on his farm property. He counter offered with the additional stipulation of a offer of employment at Ryan Security, a subsidiary of Ryan Industries, using his service in World War II as a qualification. Andrew Ryan accepted the deal, and he was introduced to its Head of Security, Sullivan. Hezekiah was working under Sullivan aboard Ryan's ship the Olympian as a bodyguard when Ryan discovered the location for his city. When work began on constructing Rapture, he was assigned with maintaining it's operational security and secrecy. Hezekiah became one of Ryan's truest ideological believers in the Great Chain and bet everything upon the man's dream. Because of this, he and his family were one of the first waves of people allowed to descend beneath the waves and permanently inhabit the city in January of 1947.
Construction (1945-1950):
Upon arrival in Rapture, the first place the star struck family stopped to eat was the famous Kashmir Restaurant in the Welcome Pavillion, enjoying a delicious and memorable meal together. Silas was soon enrolled at Ryan the Lion Preparatory Academy as a child and sang Rise, Rapture, Rise with his classmates every morning in a show of solidarity to Ryan. Young Silas also had his birthday at Ryan Amusements, coming to embrace the ideals of the Great Chain like his father. Hezekiah, meanwhile, used the money he had received from selling his property to Ryan Oil and the wages he had saved working for Ryan Security to manage to carve out his own little slice of Rapture in Olympus Heights, in Athena's Glory. The apartment was complete with connection to the city-wide pneumo system, Ryan Security home turret's (discounted as a perk of his employment with them), a personal Bathysphere and even a panic room to retreat to in case 'the Parasites get past the turrets'.
In 1949, Hezekiah spoke to a drinking buddy of his that he frequented The Fighting McDonagh's Tavern with about managing to secure a job for his 12 year-old son Silas working for him. The drinking buddy was named Buck Raleigh, and Silas would work in one of Buck's alcohol distilleries. Silas was thrilled with his own opportunity to lay his hands on the Great Chain and begin generating income of his own. For a while, things went well and Mr. Raleigh took good care of Silas, viewing him as a kind of protege. The business continued to thrive and grow and as it did Silas was slowly but surely given more responsibility, and pay. Silas used the money that he earned working for Raleigh to buy his very own Air Grabber, allowing him and other youths of the city to ride the pneumo system.
Everything changed in 1950 when Fontaine Futuristics began to explode in popularity selling Plasmids created from ADAM. They took the city by storm, granting powers and abilities previously thought unimaginable. Hezekiah became suspicious of them due to their connection to Frank Fontaine, who despite Ryan's reassurances he knew was one of the primary suspects for smuggling in Rapture. He forbid Silas from partaking in them while living under his roof. Around this time Silas mother, Helena, began to suffer from serious anxiety and depression due to lack of sunlight and claustrophobic confinement in the underwater city. Due to these feelings she started spending time at Dionysus Park and seeing Dr. Sofia Lamb at her clinic. Over time Helena slowly began to embrace Lamb's collectivist philosophy.
Rise and Fall (1951-1958)
By 1951 Silas witnessed great conflict and turmoil at home between his mother and father as they began having debates that were eerily similar to those that Andrew Ryan would publicly have with Dr. Sofia Lamb. At the age of 14, and as he grew older, his own adolescent rebelliousness began to take hold. Silas began to increasingly take notice of the disparity between the social classes, and wondering if the poor unfortunates he regularly witnessed down at Pauper's Drop and Apollo Square truly were all lazy parasites.
This culminated in Andrew Ryan imprisoning Dr. Sofia Lamb and her burgeoning Rapture Family, including Silas' mother Helena, in Persephone. Silas reacted strongly to this, spending nearly all of his time at Poseidon Plaza in Fort Frolic, beginning to regularly gamble at Sir Prize and watch dancers at Eve's Garden. Likewise, Hezekiah felt torn between his loyalty to his ideology and his loyalty to his wife, and it was only through the intervention of longtime friends Sullivan and Bill McDonagh that kept him from resigning from his job at Ryan Security.
With the threat of collectivism seemingly defeated, Andrew Ryan increasingly turned his attention towards stopping smugglers in 1952, and Hezekiah threw himself into his work in an attempt to stay too busy to think about Helena languishing in Persephone. He became one of Sullivan, and by extension Ryan's, top agents. His attempts to find evidence to connect Fontaine to the smuggling rings required him to interrogate and torture people in much the same way he had been while in the prisoner of war camps during the war, retraumatizing him further. This lead to Hezekiah drinking heavily. Meanwhile, Silas was only growing more distant from his belief in the Great Chain, beginning to regularly associate with Fontaine's men. They began gifting Silas many illegal and smuggled goods from the surface. This resulted in many strained conversations between the two reminiscent to the ones had between Hezekiah and Helena only a year prior.
Associating with Fontaine's men only increased the social pressure to use plasmids, something many of the poor considered to be essential if they were to overthrow Andrew Ryan's oppressive regime. In order to fully gain the trust of his new companions, he was required to be the guinea pig of a experimental plasmid to be sold in Fontaine's Department Store, at Jack Frost's Village. Agreeing to try the new drinkable plasmid known as Old Man Winter, Silas consumed it and gained its advertised powers without issue. When Hezekiah found out, he kicked Silas out of their family apartment in Athena's Glory because of his newfound 'parasite' friends and having begun Splicing.
He was then forced to rent a room at the Sinclair Deluxe in Pauper's Drop. Silas also began drinking excessively at the Le Marquis D'Epoque, and was fired by Buck Raleigh from his job at the distillery. Becoming nearly destitute, he was forced to search desperately for work. Fontaine discovered him in Neptune's Bounty and offered him a under the table job as a smuggler of contraband working at the Smuggler's Hideout and a public job working at Fontaine Fisheries under Zigo Acosta, which Silas agreed to. For a brief time, things went well and he began making more money than he ever had before. Using the money he earned, he left the Sinclair Deluxe and managed to get his own apartment in Apollo's Square at the Artemis Suites.
As the crackdown on smuggling began to apply more and more pressure on Fontaine's smuggling operation, the risk and reward for contraband soared ever higher. Because of the fifteen-year old Silas' inexperience, he was frequently used for the most dangerous of operations, and had been selected by Fontaine to be a fall guy for more valuable members of the smuggling ring such as Silas' boss Peach Wilkins. Things culminated in December of 1952 when Hezekiah finally caught hard evidence of one of Fontaine's smugglers in the act. He was horrified to discover the smuggler to be his own son, who he now had to choose between his loyalty to Ryan and his loyalty to his family. Knowing that the penalty for smuggling was death, Hezekiah destroyed the evidence and did not report the encounter, lying to Sullivan that he had failed to apprehend the smuggler.
After the incident Silas quit his job at Fontaine Fisheries and stopped being a smuggler, angering Fontaine greatly. He threatened to betray Fontaine and his operation if they attempted retaliation against him for quitting, and Fontaine decided against pursuing Silas due to knowing that Silas' father was Hezekiah, a close friend of Sullivan who would bring much more heat and attention on his operation than was worth it.
During 1953 and 1954 Silas found the work he needed so badly in employment from Jack McClendon of McClendon Robotics, learning much from the man (including how to hack machines and computers) by assisting him in his failed endeavor and development of Robotic Little Sisters to replace the living ones at the request of Andrew Ryan, hoping the robotic girls would be more efficient and productive at harvesting ADAM. McClendon tried desperately to fulfill the contract but was eventually forced to close the project and lay off Silas as he couldn't afford to continue investment in the endeavor, compensating Silas by giving him one of the failed robotic little sisters instead of paying him.
Silas used the knowledge and experience he had gained working at McClendon Robotics to attempt to get one of the most exclusive jobs in all of Rapture; working for Rapture Central Computing in Minerva's Den on The Thinker as an assistant technician under Reed Wahl. He was rejected due to his past ties working in Fontaine Fisheries, who was known to want their technology for Fontaine Futuristics and in desperation he was forced to turn to his father Hezekiah to assist him. Hezekiah managed to successfully secure the job for his son, but warned him that if he betrayed Rapture Hezekiah would kill Silas himself. In truth Silas didn't want to work at Rapture Central Computing to benefit Fontaine, but because he believed it could help him in freeing his mother Helena from Persephone.
From 1955 through 1956 Silas worked diligently at his new job in Central Computing, earning the trust and respect of his colleagues and focusing his energy on his rescue attempt. Eventually discovering that Mr. Wahl had begun using the Thinker inappropriately in order to win at gambling, Silas demanded a bribe in order to not reveal the information to his Co-Founder Charles Milton Porter. Reed payed the bribe, reasoning he could easily generate more income from the Thinker, and then promptly fired Silas for threatening him. In retaliation, Silas revealed the information to Charles Porter anyway before moving on with the bribe money to continue his own scheme.
He used the money to pay Fontaine Futuristics to help him with his scheme, hoping to customize a Bathysphere to be able to save Helena from Persephone and escape to the surface. Eventually Hezekiah discovered this plan, and was once again deeply divided between his loyalty to Ryan and his loyalty to his family. Hezekiah sided with his family and began helping Silas with his secret project. Specifically, Hezekiah began weapons and combat training with Silas, teaching him how to properly handle firearms and how to box, sparring with him at the Fighting McDonagh's Tavern.
By the end of 1957 the duo had acquired a vital Signal Beacon, necessary to scramble the location of the bathysphere so that torpedoes could not target it. Although neither Silas nor Hezekiah could gain access to the beacon themselves, Silas used the repurposed robotic Little Sister to crawl through vents to acquire it. Not only this, but they also managed to pay for extensive modifications meant to disrupt and disable electromagnetic underwater mines designed to be attracted to Bathyspheres. Unfortunately the upgrades at Fontaine Futuristics attracted the attention of its proprietor, and once Fontaine learned about Silas plan to break into Persephone and rescue his mother, he decided to use the plan for his own benefit.
Fontaine had his men secretly modify the Bathysphere to allow him to remotely take control of it, as well as tasking Silas with going to Persephone and either convincing Dr. Sofia Lamb and her Rapture Family to ally with Fontaine, or killing her if she refused. Silas reluctantly agreed, seeing no alternative to be able to save Helena.
Societal Collapse (1958-1960)
Taking the bathysphere to Persephone in early September of 1958, Silas arrived at Outer Persephone during a time of turmoil and upheaval. Riots in the penal colony had escalated to the point of an open rebellion, with inmates fighting viciously against a divided staff that were split between loyalty to Dr. Sofia Lamb and Augustus Sinclair. Silas was forced to kill both deranged inmates and bloodthirsty security staff, fighting his way deep into the heart of the facility. Reaching Inner Persephone as Dr. Sofia Lamb took complete control of the complex, he found his mother had become one of her most devoted followers and a lieutenant in her family. Not only this, but he learned that she was one of the members of the family who had been sacrificed to save the rest, having been used extensively in Plasmid experimentation and testing while at the facility. She had also spent years studying psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Edward Grimes, and had managed to retain a surprising amount of lucidity and sanity.
Silas asked Lamb to ally herself with Fontaine, but she rejected the proposal, claiming that Fontaine was a thug and a mobster who had only his own self-interest in mind no different than Ryan. When Silas informed her that Fontaine had made clear to him that if she rejected the offer he was to kill her and her Rapture Family, Helena offered to leave Persephone with Silas in order to locate Eleanor Lamb. Sofia reluctantly agreed to the proposal, allowing the duo to leave together.
Returning to the Bathysphere and leaving, it was immediately taken control of by Fontaine who radioed Silas and asked how the mission to Persephone was resolved. Silas told Fontaine that things had taken an unexpected turn, with Lamb having taken complete control of Persephone. He told Fontaine that Lamb had refused to ally with him because she knew what Silas had learned the hard way; Fontaine's Homes for the Poor were a scheme and scam meant to manipulate the vulnerable and needy. While angering the mobster on the radio, he managed to hack the Bathysphere's navigation system to override Fontaine's remote control, rerouting it away from Fontaine's Fisheries to instead deliver them to Hezekiah's apartment in Athena's Glory. Fontaine reacted with a mix of being angered, shocked, and impressed by the youths tenacity. He promised Silas that he would pay dearly for his actions, but took his words to heart coming to believe that Fontaine's reputation was too sullied to rally the support needed to defeat Ryan, beginning to consider the alias of Atlas.
The reunion in Athena's Glory was a mixed one, with Hezekiah and Helena still having large ideological differences but having missed one another terribly in the years apart from one another. They agreed to set their differences aside for the sake of their family, renouncing loyalty to Lamb, Fontaine, Ryan, or anyone else outside the Kilroy family. Instead they focused all of their attention on their escape, knowing that a failed attempt could cost all of them their lives. Hezekiah spoke to his close friends the Chief of Security Sullivan and City Councilman Bill McDonagh, hoping that they would agree with his assessment that Rapture was on the precipice of full blown Civil War.
While his companions did agree that Fontaine had become a ever growing threat to the city's stability, they believe he wouldn't be a problem for much longer. Bill McDonagh shared with Hezekiah that they had finally acquired enough evidence to formally convict Fontaine in court for his smuggling ring, and wanted to know if Silas would testify against Fontaine in exchange for immunity for his own part in the operations. Sullivan asked Hezekiah if he would be one of the agents who would attempt to arrest Frank Fontaine, to which he agreed. After telling Silas about it, he volunteered as well, wanting to see the look on Fontaine's face when he was arrested.
Despite the protests of Hezekiah, Silas decided to splice himself with a second plasmid in preparation for the arrest of Fontaine, injecting himself with Electro Bolt. On September 12th, the arrest attempt on Fontaine went as poorly as could be expected and resulted in a massive shoot out that resulted in the death of Fontaine and the wounding of Hezekiah protecting Silas. In the aftermath of the failed arrest, Fontaine's surviving loyalists were rounded up into his Department store and their future was a hot topic of debate among the citizens.
Helena and Hezekiah grew much closer together while he was recovering from his wounds, rekindling the spark of their relationship. For a time, things seemed like they were genuinely improving. Order briefly returned to Rapture with Fontaine no longer opposing Ryan, though when Ryan nationalized all of Fontaine's business and assets it caused a level of uproar that threatened the newfound peace. In November of 1958, Ryan made the decision to disconnect and sink Fontaine's Department Store with his imprisoned supporters. He also decided that Anna Culpepper needed to be silenced for her Anti-Ryan artistic works, yet another betrayal of his own philosophy. Sullivan asked Hezekiah to accompany him on the hit, having him stand guard outside her apartment while Sullivan murdered her. This act deeply shook both men, causing them to decide to finally betray Ryan.
In the absence of Frank Fontaine and while Ryan was consolidating power, whispers of a new working class hero named Atlas began to spread through the weary city. A terrifying package arrived at the Kilroy home through the pneumo network in December of 1958, including a cryptic and threatening note with a blue butterfly pin attached, demanding Helena find Eleanor Lamb or suffer the consequences of the Rapture Family. Knowing they could no longer rely on a increasingly erratic Ryan for protection, the Kilroy family decided the best course of action was to indeed find Eleanor. While Helena and Silas searched Rapture for the girl, Hezekiah was approached by Bill McDonagh who asked him if he'd be willing to attempt to assassinate Ryan, to which Hezekiah agreed.
While searching for Eleanor Lamb, Silas traveled to Dionysus Park and met Stanley Poole who had been left in charge of the area while Sofia Lamb was imprisoned. Upon informing Stanley of Lamb taking control of Persephone, he informed Silas that Eleanor had been given to Grace Holloway for safekeeping. After Silas left for Pauper's Drop to find Grace, Stanley began plotting to destroy Dionysus Park to prevent the recently freed Sofia Lamb from discovering his treachery both in his poor and selfish handling of Dionysus Park and his selling of Eleanor to a Little Sister's Orphanage in Plaza Hedone.
Upon arriving in Siren Alley, he found the area had fallen from its prestigious roots into crime and poverty, as had much of the city. He immediately traveled to and and searched at the Orphanage for Eleanor, but was unable to locate her among the other orphan girls.
While continuing his search and investigation, Silas decided to get a room at the infamous hotel turned brothel known as the Pink Pearl in Little Eden Plaza. While staying there, he met the socialite turned lady of the night Mlle Blanche de Glace. After developing a romantic and sexual relationship with her, she informed him that she had overheard her boss and pimp Daniel Wales say that a man named Dr. Gilbert Alexander was taking the orphan girls for a mysterious experiment. Concerned that Eleanor had been abducted by Dr. Alexander, Silas set out to find the doctor.
It was during this time that he was contacted by the legendary scientist and innovator Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum who had come to learn that Silas was looking to free Eleanor. She made a deal with him to free a number of Little Sisters, and in trade she would provide the location of Eleanor and do what she could to help him free her. Agreeing to her deal, Silas knew he would need additional plasmids to attempt such a feat. Using what money he still had from the bribe he had recieved from Reed Wahl, he purchased and used his 3rd plasmid, Telekinesis.
Silas stalks and hunts the Alpha Series with great success, taking multiple of the Little Sisters to Tenenbaum. In return, she fulfilled her part of the bargain and informed Silas about the hidden Fontaine's Plasmid Research and Development where Dr. Alexander was hiding. She wasn't able to provide a way into the facility, but Silas relied on his Robotic Little Sister to crawl through air ducts and open the door for him.
Silas fought his way through the facility and found the doctor, threatening him. Dr. Alexander revealed the location of Eleanor and Subject Delta at the Adonis Luxury Resort.
Leaving the facility, he decided to return home to the Kilroy Residence to inform them that he had discovered Eleanor's location. Upon arriving however, he discovered the situation with his family was dire. His mothers lucidity due to the massive amounts of plasmids that had been experimented on with had only further deteriorated, with her no longer sane or operating in reality. As a result Hezekiah had to keep her in a locked room in their home as she was a danger and no longer able to behave in public. His father had become an alcoholic as well as having ironically begun splicing himself. He had fully dedicated himself to his plot to kill Andrew Ryan, who he ultimately blamed for all of their problems and for the ruination of their lives. Specifically, he had begun collaborating with his longtime friend Bill McDonagh as well as having taken a new lover with the would-be assassin Anya Andersdotter.
After informing Sophia about Eleanor's location and how she had been turned into a Little Sister and bonded with Subject Delta, Silas decided to investigate the rising star and proletariat hero known as Atlas. Silas had become relatively jaded after all he had experienced, but couldn't help but think that someone like Atlas was exactly what Rapture needed. He felt it needed a salt of the earth common man to remind the elites of Rapture who they relied on and who had actually built this city. Ultimately Silas made the decision that he would join up with Atlas in the hopes of overthrowing Ryan and making the city a better place.
On New Years Eve of 1958 Silas managed to convince both of his parents to attend the New Years Ball, and to have a meal at the Kashmir Restaurant just as they had done when they first arrived in Rapture all those years ago. Hezekiah agreed if only to keep up appearances and keep Ryan's suspicion off of him. It went surprisingly well, with Hezekiah managing to attend sober and Helena remaining more lucid than expected. For once they felt like a normal family again, and Silas allowed himself to hope that things could go back to the way they were, and that they could live together happily. During this meal Hezekiah would reveal that he had managed to illicitly secure a Genetic Key to one of if not the most heavily guarded locations in Rapture; Rapture Central Control from where Ryan ruled his city from his office.
It was at that moment that an explosive inferno consumed the restaurant, slaughtering many of Rapture's socialites and Ryan's loyalists, officially starting Rapture's Civil War. The explosions killed both Hezekiah and Helena, as well as destroying the illicit access card to Rapture Central Control. Silas was heavily wounded, and was only saved from death by being saved by Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters that he had had saved earlier. They nursed him back to health, and while physically he recovered his psyche was fractured by the sudden death of his parents as well as the toll that the splicing had on him. Now he heard the disembodied voices of his parents, guiding him and advising him whenever he had a decision to make. In general his father advised him to act more pragmatically, while his mother advised him to act more idealistically.
After recovering from his wounds and leaving Tenenbaum's, he swore off aiding Atlas as it was his bombs that had ruined his life. He returned to his home and retrieved the copy of the access card to Rapture Central Control his father had left in their family safe. Shortly thereafter the Rapture Bank Crash occurred and the city slipped even further chaos, with Silas struggling with his deteriorating sanity. He began tagging various areas of the city with his new signature and referring to himself as Kilroy rather than Silas.
He vowed vengeance against both Ryan and Atlas, though as time went on he slowly forgot the reason why with only a unexplainable hatred for both remaining. He preyed upon either faction whenever possible, looting and scavenging for necessities. As he grew more experienced he began to lure the factions into each other to incite battles between them, once one side won he would pick off the survivors and loot both sides. Kilroy, like the rest of the city, became aware of the crash of Apollo Airways Flight DF-0301 and the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
Events of BioShock (1960)
Kilroy thought about preying upon the new mysterious stranger, but once he discovered that Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum was also using him for her own purposes he decided to leave him alone out for respect for her saving his life. As the dollar collapsed he focused on his revenge, and to prepare himself to try and kill two of the most powerful men in the city he attained a fourth plasmid.
Kilroy bitterly discovered that both Ryan and Atlas were killed by the newly arrived son of Ryan before he could find a way to reach either one. Shortly after the end of the Rapture Civil War, Jack left as suddenly and mysteriously as he had arrived. Many in the city had come to revere him, and they mourned his absence. The city settled into a relative slumber without him, with people attempting to merely survive, stabilize the economy, and restore order. Unfortunately the city struggled to recover from both the civil war and the loss of its leadership. It was during this time that Kilroy considered leaving the dying city for the surface world, but realized he was now too heavily spliced to ever be able to fit in to normal society.
Sophia Lamb returned to the city at large, with the numbers for her Rapture Family swelling to become a majority of the remaining citizens. Having become disillusioned from Andrew Ryan and having been tricked by Fontaine into embracing Atlas, he was too jaded and refused Sophia and her Rapture Family. Instead he used his experience and plasmids to prey upon Lamb's Family much as he had done against both Ryan and Atlas. Unfortunately he was caught off guard by the creation of the Big Sisters who managed to capture him and deliver him to Sophia. She was aware of his custom made Bathosphyere, and needed more little girls to create Little Sisters. She made a deal with Kilroy that she would let him live and let him go in return for having him use his Bathosphyere to kidnap little girls from the surface world and deliver them to her.
Kilroy is forced to agree, and does her bidding which traumatizes him greatly. He brings the Big Sister to the surface who kidnaps Cindy Meltzer thus leading to Mark Meltzer discovering the city. After delivering sufficient Little Sisters, he is betrayed by Sophia who praises Jack's lack of self determination due to psychological conditioning. She decides to experiment upon Silas, turning him into a Alpha Series similar to Subject Delta.
Events of BioShock 2 (1968)
Kilroy awakens and is now known as Subject Psi. Before he goes through the bonding process with a Little Sister, Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum returns to Rapture manages to save him and break much of the brainwashing before the process is completed. He is freed at the same time that Tenenbaum also frees Subject Sigma.
Released into the city, he is given a mission from Tenenbaum to gather ADAM Plants as well as the Lazarus Vector for her to study. This causes him to have to spend the majority of his time either on the outskirts of the city or in areas that have been flooded. Now rather than only hearing the disembodied voice of his parents, Subject Psi visually sees them as well. During his assignment he is attacked by both a heavily mutated shark as well as a heavily mutated squid.
He learns that Subject Delta has succeeded at reuniting with Eleanor as well as Subject Sigma succeeding at retrieving the Thinker's Codes, and is offered by Tenenbaum to return to the surface with her. He nearly accepts, but his delusions convince him that his work is not yet done in Rapture. Tenenbaum leaves him with the task of learning about the mysterious Luminescent Biomass. After being left alone, he uses Tenenbaum's research with the Lazarus Vector and ADAM Plants to develop a unique plasmid that allows him to withstand intense amounts of radiation, which the Luminescent Biomass emits. This allows Subject Psi to properly approach the Biomass without risk of damage.
Bioshock: Whalefall
Subject Psi is forced to fight his way through the remains of the city, as by this point only crazed splicers remain in the city. The city has devolved into warring factions of splicers which fight over dwindling amounts of ADAM. The three largest factions are the Rapture Family as well as the remnants of Ryan and Atlas loyalists. The Rapture Family is lead by Father Simon Wales, who had survived his encounter with Subject Delta and now without Sophia to restrain him had turned the Family into a religious cult full of devoted fanatics. He has renamed them to the ADAM Family, as that is what they now worship. They believe in a prophecy that Jack will return to the city and bring infinite ADAM for everyone with him for the faithful, as well as worshiping a strange creature from the Deep they refer to as the Light in the Dark.
The remaining diehard Ryan loyalists had fallen under the employ of a man named Robert House who was one of if not the only men in the city who still remained unspliced. He had been comparable in wealth and power to the likes of Sinclair before the Civil War, and had only further profited during it as his company primarily sold firearms and munitions. Because of that, he had stoked the flames of war believing he could make a profit, and now was desperate to save the city so that he may succeed where Ryan had failed. Though House is a believer in certain values of Ryan's Great Chain philsophy such as the importance of ambition in great individuals and competition breeding innovation, House believed more in a chess board type approach and is more authoritarian, disregarding Ryan's libertarian view of laissez-faire free markets not needing regulation. Declaring himself Chariman of the City Council, he has control over what is left of any Government systems.
Lastly the remaining communists and revolutionaries from Atlas's cause have banded together under the name of the Fifth International Union, demanding that the power be given to the people. Made up of blue-collar workers, guerilla fighters, insurgents, tradesmen, and more they all work together in the hope that under the sea and away from the corrupting influence of capitalism from the surface, they can establish a communal paradise. They seek to seize the means of production and turn the city into a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Subject Psi discovers that each of the three factions possess something that he requires in order to gain further progress learning about the Luminescent Biomass. Either through cooperation and diplomacy, he sets out on a new quest. He learns that ADAM Family have a special 'Fruit of the Gods' that Subject Psi eats allowing his body to adapt to holding as much ADAM as it does, restoring his sanity and reversing the effects of Splicing on his mind and body. Fifth International Union know the path to reach the weakest and the least irradiated point of the Biomass from which it needs to be approached. Lastly the Rapture City Council have a special cutting laser that is needed to cut into the impossibly thick hide of the Biomass to gain access within it.
After completing these tasks and approaching the Biomass, Subject Psi is surprised to encounter Dr. Gilbert Alexander. Gil has become a giant anglerfish, with his human body now glowing and floating ominously out in the depths. He can somehow speak but his personality has been fully warped, becoming an abomination with little thought other than hunger for ADAM and flesh. He jealously guards the entrance to the Biomass and is a boss that must be defeated after attaining what is needed from the 3 factions. After defeating the creature and gaining access to the Biomass, Subject Psi discovers a variety of mutated and deadly crustaceans. Fighting his way ever deeper to the center, he discovers a pulsating heart like organ that he manages to take a sample of. He sends the sample and relevant data to Tenenbaum before succumbing to the intense radiation in the central chamber of the Luminescent Biomass.
Epilogue
Tenenbaum discovers that the Luminescent Biomass is/was a prehistoric organism that has survived and remained undetected due to living exclusively within the deepest depths of the worlds oceans. The creature has been altered due to the radiation involved during World War II, and has developed cancerous growths upon its flesh. The source of the light emitting from the creature is Cherenkov radiation. The creature is terminally ill and crashed to the ocean floor resulting in a Whale fall. The intense radiation emitting from the creature has resulted in Foster's Rule which has caused Adaptive radiation. This is what has caused the creation of the ADAM plants and by extension the sea slugs and everything else.
Subject Psi awakens in the Sea of Doors.
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Audio Diary Portrait:
Surface Life:
Silas Kilroy was born in Emporia, Kansas to a family of Irish Protestant impoverished farmers in March of 1937. Life was difficult for the family, and when the second world war erupted his father Hezekiah served in the U.S. Military, flying a bomber to attack Axis targets. He was shot down during a crucial mission and taken prisoner, his subsequent extensive interrogation and torture deeply traumatized him, changing him for life. At first, Hezekiah waited with hope that his government and fellow soldiers would save him. As the war dragged on, he slowly began to lose hope of rescue and came to realize that the only person who cared about his survival and well being would have to be himself. Organizing a riot with his fellow prisoners, he was wounded but managed to escape and return to Allied lines.
By the time Hezekiah was discharged from the hospital, the war was nearing its end. Returning to the United States, he was offered a large sum of money by a corporation named Ryan Oil after it was discovered on his farm property. He counter offered with the additional stipulation of a offer of employment at Ryan Security, a subsidiary of Ryan Industries, using his service in World War II as a qualification. Andrew Ryan accepted the deal, and he was introduced to its Head of Security, Sullivan. Hezekiah was working under Sullivan aboard Ryan's ship the Olympian as a bodyguard when Ryan discovered the location for his city. When work began on constructing Rapture, he was assigned with maintaining it's operational security and secrecy. Hezekiah became one of Ryan's truest ideological believers in the Great Chain and bet everything upon the man's dream. Because of this, he and his family were one of the first waves of people allowed to descend beneath the waves and permanently inhabit the city in January of 1947.
Construction (1945-1950):
Upon arrival in Rapture, the first place the star struck family stopped to eat was the famous Kashmir Restaurant in the Welcome Pavillion, enjoying a delicious and memorable meal together. Silas was soon enrolled at Ryan the Lion Preparatory Academy as a child and sang Rise, Rapture, Rise with his classmates every morning in a show of solidarity to Ryan. Young Silas also had his birthday at Ryan Amusements, coming to embrace the ideals of the Great Chain like his father. Hezekiah, meanwhile, used the money he had received from selling his property to Ryan Oil and the wages he had saved working for Ryan Security to manage to carve out his own little slice of Rapture in Olympus Heights, in Athena's Glory. The apartment was complete with connection to the city-wide pneumo system, Ryan Security home turret's (discounted as a perk of his employment with them), a personal Bathysphere and even a panic room to retreat to in case 'the Parasites get past the turrets'.
In 1949, Hezekiah spoke to a drinking buddy of his that he frequented The Fighting McDonagh's Tavern with about managing to secure a job for his 12 year-old son Silas working for him. The drinking buddy was named Buck Raleigh, and Silas would work in one of Buck's alcohol distilleries. Silas was thrilled with his own opportunity to lay his hands on the Great Chain and begin generating income of his own. For a while, things went well and Mr. Raleigh took good care of Silas, viewing him as a kind of protege. The business continued to thrive and grow and as it did Silas was slowly but surely given more responsibility, and pay. Silas used the money that he earned working for Raleigh to buy his very own Air Grabber, allowing him and other youths of the city to ride the pneumo system.
Everything changed in 1950 when Fontaine Futuristics began to explode in popularity selling Plasmids created from ADAM. They took the city by storm, granting powers and abilities previously thought unimaginable. Hezekiah became suspicious of them due to their connection to Frank Fontaine, who despite Ryan's reassurances he knew was one of the primary suspects for smuggling in Rapture. He forbid Silas from partaking in them while living under his roof. Around this time Silas mother, Helena, began to suffer from serious anxiety and depression due to lack of sunlight and claustrophobic confinement in the underwater city. Due to these feelings she started spending time at Dionysus Park and seeing Dr. Sofia Lamb at her clinic. Over time Helena slowly began to embrace Lamb's collectivist philosophy.
Rise and Fall (1951-1958)
By 1951 Silas witnessed great conflict and turmoil at home between his mother and father as they began having debates that were eerily similar to those that Andrew Ryan would publicly have with Dr. Sofia Lamb. At the age of 14, and as he grew older, his own adolescent rebelliousness began to take hold. Silas began to increasingly take notice of the disparity between the social classes, and wondering if the poor unfortunates he regularly witnessed down at Pauper's Drop and Apollo Square truly were all lazy parasites.
This culminated in Andrew Ryan imprisoning Dr. Sofia Lamb and her burgeoning Rapture Family, including Silas' mother Helena, in Persephone. Silas reacted strongly to this, spending nearly all of his time at Poseidon Plaza in Fort Frolic, beginning to regularly gamble at Sir Prize and watch dancers at Eve's Garden. Likewise, Hezekiah felt torn between his loyalty to his ideology and his loyalty to his wife, and it was only through the intervention of longtime friends Sullivan and Bill McDonagh that kept him from resigning from his job at Ryan Security.
With the threat of collectivism seemingly defeated, Andrew Ryan increasingly turned his attention towards stopping smugglers in 1952, and Hezekiah threw himself into his work in an attempt to stay too busy to think about Helena languishing in Persephone. He became one of Sullivan, and by extension Ryan's, top agents. His attempts to find evidence to connect Fontaine to the smuggling rings required him to interrogate and torture people in much the same way he had been while in the prisoner of war camps during the war, retraumatizing him further. This lead to Hezekiah drinking heavily. Meanwhile, Silas was only growing more distant from his belief in the Great Chain, beginning to regularly associate with Fontaine's men. They began gifting Silas many illegal and smuggled goods from the surface. This resulted in many strained conversations between the two reminiscent to the ones had between Hezekiah and Helena only a year prior.
Associating with Fontaine's men only increased the social pressure to use plasmids, something many of the poor considered to be essential if they were to overthrow Andrew Ryan's oppressive regime. In order to fully gain the trust of his new companions, he was required to be the guinea pig of a experimental plasmid to be sold in Fontaine's Department Store, at Jack Frost's Village. Agreeing to try the new drinkable plasmid known as Old Man Winter, Silas consumed it and gained its advertised powers without issue. When Hezekiah found out, he kicked Silas out of their family apartment in Athena's Glory because of his newfound 'parasite' friends and having begun Splicing.
He was then forced to rent a room at the Sinclair Deluxe in Pauper's Drop. Silas also began drinking excessively at the Le Marquis D'Epoque, and was fired by Buck Raleigh from his job at the distillery. Becoming nearly destitute, he was forced to search desperately for work. Fontaine discovered him in Neptune's Bounty and offered him a under the table job as a smuggler of contraband working at the Smuggler's Hideout and a public job working at Fontaine Fisheries under Zigo Acosta, which Silas agreed to. For a brief time, things went well and he began making more money than he ever had before. Using the money he earned, he left the Sinclair Deluxe and managed to get his own apartment in Apollo's Square at the Artemis Suites.
As the crackdown on smuggling began to apply more and more pressure on Fontaine's smuggling operation, the risk and reward for contraband soared ever higher. Because of the fifteen-year old Silas' inexperience, he was frequently used for the most dangerous of operations, and had been selected by Fontaine to be a fall guy for more valuable members of the smuggling ring such as Silas' boss Peach Wilkins. Things culminated in December of 1952 when Hezekiah finally caught hard evidence of one of Fontaine's smugglers in the act. He was horrified to discover the smuggler to be his own son, who he now had to choose between his loyalty to Ryan and his loyalty to his family. Knowing that the penalty for smuggling was death, Hezekiah destroyed the evidence and did not report the encounter, lying to Sullivan that he had failed to apprehend the smuggler.
After the incident Silas quit his job at Fontaine Fisheries and stopped being a smuggler, angering Fontaine greatly. He threatened to betray Fontaine and his operation if they attempted retaliation against him for quitting, and Fontaine decided against pursuing Silas due to knowing that Silas' father was Hezekiah, a close friend of Sullivan who would bring much more heat and attention on his operation than was worth it.
During 1953 and 1954 Silas found the work he needed so badly in employment from Jack McClendon of McClendon Robotics, learning much from the man (including how to hack machines and computers) by assisting him in his failed endeavor and development of Robotic Little Sisters to replace the living ones at the request of Andrew Ryan, hoping the robotic girls would be more efficient and productive at harvesting ADAM. McClendon tried desperately to fulfill the contract but was eventually forced to close the project and lay off Silas as he couldn't afford to continue investment in the endeavor, compensating Silas by giving him one of the failed robotic little sisters instead of paying him.
Silas used the knowledge and experience he had gained working at McClendon Robotics to attempt to get one of the most exclusive jobs in all of Rapture; working for Rapture Central Computing in Minerva's Den on The Thinker as an assistant technician under Reed Wahl. He was rejected due to his past ties working in Fontaine Fisheries, who was known to want their technology for Fontaine Futuristics and in desperation he was forced to turn to his father Hezekiah to assist him. Hezekiah managed to successfully secure the job for his son, but warned him that if he betrayed Rapture Hezekiah would kill Silas himself. In truth Silas didn't want to work at Rapture Central Computing to benefit Fontaine, but because he believed it could help him in freeing his mother Helena from Persephone.
From 1955 through 1956 Silas worked diligently at his new job in Central Computing, earning the trust and respect of his colleagues and focusing his energy on his rescue attempt. Eventually discovering that Mr. Wahl had begun using the Thinker inappropriately in order to win at gambling, Silas demanded a bribe in order to not reveal the information to his Co-Founder Charles Milton Porter. Reed payed the bribe, reasoning he could easily generate more income from the Thinker, and then promptly fired Silas for threatening him. In retaliation, Silas revealed the information to Charles Porter anyway before moving on with the bribe money to continue his own scheme.
He used the money to pay Fontaine Futuristics to help him with his scheme, hoping to customize a Bathysphere to be able to save Helena from Persephone and escape to the surface. Eventually Hezekiah discovered this plan, and was once again deeply divided between his loyalty to Ryan and his loyalty to his family. Hezekiah sided with his family and began helping Silas with his secret project. Specifically, Hezekiah began weapons and combat training with Silas, teaching him how to properly handle firearms and how to box, sparring with him at the Fighting McDonagh's Tavern.
By the end of 1957 the duo had acquired a vital Signal Beacon, necessary to scramble the location of the bathysphere so that torpedoes could not target it. Although neither Silas nor Hezekiah could gain access to the beacon themselves, Silas used the repurposed robotic Little Sister to crawl through vents to acquire it. Not only this, but they also managed to pay for extensive modifications meant to disrupt and disable electromagnetic underwater mines designed to be attracted to Bathyspheres. Unfortunately the upgrades at Fontaine Futuristics attracted the attention of its proprietor, and once Fontaine learned about Silas plan to break into Persephone and rescue his mother, he decided to use the plan for his own benefit.
Fontaine had his men secretly modify the Bathysphere to allow him to remotely take control of it, as well as tasking Silas with going to Persephone and either convincing Dr. Sofia Lamb and her Rapture Family to ally with Fontaine, or killing her if she refused. Silas reluctantly agreed, seeing no alternative to be able to save Helena.
Societal Collapse (1958-1960)
Taking the bathysphere to Persephone in early September of 1958, Silas arrived at Outer Persephone during a time of turmoil and upheaval. Riots in the penal colony had escalated to the point of an open rebellion, with inmates fighting viciously against a divided staff that were split between loyalty to Dr. Sofia Lamb and Augustus Sinclair. Silas was forced to kill both deranged inmates and bloodthirsty security staff, fighting his way deep into the heart of the facility. Reaching Inner Persephone as Dr. Sofia Lamb took complete control of the complex, he found his mother had become one of her most devoted followers and a lieutenant in her family. Not only this, but he learned that she was one of the members of the family who had been sacrificed to save the rest, having been used extensively in Plasmid experimentation and testing while at the facility. She had also spent years studying psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Edward Grimes, and had managed to retain a surprising amount of lucidity and sanity.
Silas asked Lamb to ally herself with Fontaine, but she rejected the proposal, claiming that Fontaine was a thug and a mobster who had only his own self-interest in mind no different than Ryan. When Silas informed her that Fontaine had made clear to him that if she rejected the offer he was to kill her and her Rapture Family, Helena offered to leave Persephone with Silas in order to locate Eleanor Lamb. Sofia reluctantly agreed to the proposal, allowing the duo to leave together.
Returning to the Bathysphere and leaving, it was immediately taken control of by Fontaine who radioed Silas and asked how the mission to Persephone was resolved. Silas told Fontaine that things had taken an unexpected turn, with Lamb having taken complete control of Persephone. He told Fontaine that Lamb had refused to ally with him because she knew what Silas had learned the hard way; Fontaine's Homes for the Poor were a scheme and scam meant to manipulate the vulnerable and needy. While angering the mobster on the radio, he managed to hack the Bathysphere's navigation system to override Fontaine's remote control, rerouting it away from Fontaine's Fisheries to instead deliver them to Hezekiah's apartment in Athena's Glory. Fontaine reacted with a mix of being angered, shocked, and impressed by the youths tenacity. He promised Silas that he would pay dearly for his actions, but took his words to heart coming to believe that Fontaine's reputation was too sullied to rally the support needed to defeat Ryan, beginning to consider the alias of Atlas.
The reunion in Athena's Glory was a mixed one, with Hezekiah and Helena still having large ideological differences but having missed one another terribly in the years apart from one another. They agreed to set their differences aside for the sake of their family, renouncing loyalty to Lamb, Fontaine, Ryan, or anyone else outside the Kilroy family. Instead they focused all of their attention on their escape, knowing that a failed attempt could cost all of them their lives. Hezekiah spoke to his close friends the Chief of Security Sullivan and City Councilman Bill McDonagh, hoping that they would agree with his assessment that Rapture was on the precipice of full blown Civil War.
While his companions did agree that Fontaine had become a ever growing threat to the city's stability, they believe he wouldn't be a problem for much longer. Bill McDonagh shared with Hezekiah that they had finally acquired enough evidence to formally convict Fontaine in court for his smuggling ring, and wanted to know if Silas would testify against Fontaine in exchange for immunity for his own part in the operations. Sullivan asked Hezekiah if he would be one of the agents who would attempt to arrest Frank Fontaine, to which he agreed. After telling Silas about it, he volunteered as well, wanting to see the look on Fontaine's face when he was arrested.
Despite the protests of Hezekiah, Silas decided to splice himself with a second plasmid in preparation for the arrest of Fontaine, injecting himself with Electro Bolt. On September 12th, the arrest attempt on Fontaine went as poorly as could be expected and resulted in a massive shoot out that resulted in the death of Fontaine and the wounding of Hezekiah protecting Silas. In the aftermath of the failed arrest, Fontaine's surviving loyalists were rounded up into his Department store and their future was a hot topic of debate among the citizens.
Helena and Hezekiah grew much closer together while he was recovering from his wounds, rekindling the spark of their relationship. For a time, things seemed like they were genuinely improving. Order briefly returned to Rapture with Fontaine no longer opposing Ryan, though when Ryan nationalized all of Fontaine's business and assets it caused a level of uproar that threatened the newfound peace. In November of 1958, Ryan made the decision to disconnect and sink Fontaine's Department Store with his imprisoned supporters. He also decided that Anna Culpepper needed to be silenced for her Anti-Ryan artistic works, yet another betrayal of his own philosophy. Sullivan asked Hezekiah to accompany him on the hit, having him stand guard outside her apartment while Sullivan murdered her. This act deeply shook both men, causing them to decide to finally betray Ryan.
In the absence of Frank Fontaine and while Ryan was consolidating power, whispers of a new working class hero named Atlas began to spread through the weary city. A terrifying package arrived at the Kilroy home through the pneumo network in December of 1958, including a cryptic and threatening note with a blue butterfly pin attached, demanding Helena find Eleanor Lamb or suffer the consequences of the Rapture Family. Knowing they could no longer rely on a increasingly erratic Ryan for protection, the Kilroy family decided the best course of action was to indeed find Eleanor. While Helena and Silas searched Rapture for the girl, Hezekiah was approached by Bill McDonagh who asked him if he'd be willing to attempt to assassinate Ryan, to which Hezekiah agreed.
While searching for Eleanor Lamb, Silas traveled to Dionysus Park and met Stanley Poole who had been left in charge of the area while Sofia Lamb was imprisoned. Upon informing Stanley of Lamb taking control of Persephone, he informed Silas that Eleanor had been given to Grace Holloway for safekeeping. After Silas left for Pauper's Drop to find Grace, Stanley began plotting to destroy Dionysus Park to prevent the recently freed Sofia Lamb from discovering his treachery both in his poor and selfish handling of Dionysus Park and his selling of Eleanor to a Little Sister's Orphanage in Plaza Hedone.
Upon arriving in Siren Alley, he found the area had fallen from its prestigious roots into crime and poverty, as had much of the city. He immediately traveled to and and searched at the Orphanage for Eleanor, but was unable to locate her among the other orphan girls.
While continuing his search and investigation, Silas decided to get a room at the infamous hotel turned brothel known as the Pink Pearl in Little Eden Plaza. While staying there, he met the socialite turned lady of the night Mlle Blanche de Glace. After developing a romantic and sexual relationship with her, she informed him that she had overheard her boss and pimp Daniel Wales say that a man named Dr. Gilbert Alexander was taking the orphan girls for a mysterious experiment. Concerned that Eleanor had been abducted by Dr. Alexander, Silas set out to find the doctor.
It was during this time that he was contacted by the legendary scientist and innovator Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum who had come to learn that Silas was looking to free Eleanor. She made a deal with him to free a number of Little Sisters, and in trade she would provide the location of Eleanor and do what she could to help him free her. Agreeing to her deal, Silas knew he would need additional plasmids to attempt such a feat. Using what money he still had from the bribe he had recieved from Reed Wahl, he purchased and used his 3rd plasmid, Telekinesis.
Silas stalks and hunts the Alpha Series with great success, taking multiple of the Little Sisters to Tenenbaum. In return, she fulfilled her part of the bargain and informed Silas about the hidden Fontaine's Plasmid Research and Development where Dr. Alexander was hiding. She wasn't able to provide a way into the facility, but Silas relied on his Robotic Little Sister to crawl through air ducts and open the door for him.
Silas fought his way through the facility and found the doctor, threatening him. Dr. Alexander revealed the location of Eleanor and Subject Delta at the Adonis Luxury Resort.
Leaving the facility, he decided to return home to the Kilroy Residence to inform them that he had discovered Eleanor's location. Upon arriving however, he discovered the situation with his family was dire. His mothers lucidity due to the massive amounts of plasmids that had been experimented on with had only further deteriorated, with her no longer sane or operating in reality. As a result Hezekiah had to keep her in a locked room in their home as she was a danger and no longer able to behave in public. His father had become an alcoholic as well as having ironically begun splicing himself. He had fully dedicated himself to his plot to kill Andrew Ryan, who he ultimately blamed for all of their problems and for the ruination of their lives. Specifically, he had begun collaborating with his longtime friend Bill McDonagh as well as having taken a new lover with the would-be assassin Anya Andersdotter.
After informing Sophia about Eleanor's location and how she had been turned into a Little Sister and bonded with Subject Delta, Silas decided to investigate the rising star and proletariat hero known as Atlas. Silas had become relatively jaded after all he had experienced, but couldn't help but think that someone like Atlas was exactly what Rapture needed. He felt it needed a salt of the earth common man to remind the elites of Rapture who they relied on and who had actually built this city. Ultimately Silas made the decision that he would join up with Atlas in the hopes of overthrowing Ryan and making the city a better place.
On New Years Eve of 1958 Silas managed to convince both of his parents to attend the New Years Ball, and to have a meal at the Kashmir Restaurant just as they had done when they first arrived in Rapture all those years ago. Hezekiah agreed if only to keep up appearances and keep Ryan's suspicion off of him. It went surprisingly well, with Hezekiah managing to attend sober and Helena remaining more lucid than expected. For once they felt like a normal family again, and Silas allowed himself to hope that things could go back to the way they were, and that they could live together happily. During this meal Hezekiah would reveal that he had managed to illicitly secure a Genetic Key to one of if not the most heavily guarded locations in Rapture; Rapture Central Control from where Ryan ruled his city from his office.
It was at that moment that an explosive inferno consumed the restaurant, slaughtering many of Rapture's socialites and Ryan's loyalists, officially starting Rapture's Civil War. The explosions killed both Hezekiah and Helena, as well as destroying the illicit access card to Rapture Central Control. Silas was heavily wounded, and was only saved from death by being saved by Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters that he had had saved earlier. They nursed him back to health, and while physically he recovered his psyche was fractured by the sudden death of his parents as well as the toll that the splicing had on him. Now he heard the disembodied voices of his parents, guiding him and advising him whenever he had a decision to make. In general his father advised him to act more pragmatically, while his mother advised him to act more idealistically.
After recovering from his wounds and leaving Tenenbaum's, he swore off aiding Atlas as it was his bombs that had ruined his life. He returned to his home and retrieved the copy of the access card to Rapture Central Control his father had left in their family safe. Shortly thereafter the Rapture Bank Crash occurred and the city slipped even further chaos, with Silas struggling with his deteriorating sanity. He began tagging various areas of the city with his new signature and referring to himself as Kilroy rather than Silas.
He vowed vengeance against both Ryan and Atlas, though as time went on he slowly forgot the reason why with only a unexplainable hatred for both remaining. He preyed upon either faction whenever possible, looting and scavenging for necessities. As he grew more experienced he began to lure the factions into each other to incite battles between them, once one side won he would pick off the survivors and loot both sides. Kilroy, like the rest of the city, became aware of the crash of Apollo Airways Flight DF-0301 and the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
Events of BioShock (1960)
Kilroy thought about preying upon the new mysterious stranger, but once he discovered that Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum was also using him for her own purposes he decided to leave him alone out for respect for her saving his life. As the dollar collapsed he focused on his revenge, and to prepare himself to try and kill two of the most powerful men in the city he attained a fourth plasmid.
Kilroy bitterly discovered that both Ryan and Atlas were killed by the newly arrived son of Ryan before he could find a way to reach either one. Shortly after the end of the Rapture Civil War, Jack left as suddenly and mysteriously as he had arrived. Many in the city had come to revere him, and they mourned his absence. The city settled into a relative slumber without him, with people attempting to merely survive, stabilize the economy, and restore order. Unfortunately the city struggled to recover from both the civil war and the loss of its leadership. It was during this time that Kilroy considered leaving the dying city for the surface world, but realized he was now too heavily spliced to ever be able to fit in to normal society.
Sophia Lamb returned to the city at large, with the numbers for her Rapture Family swelling to become a majority of the remaining citizens. Having become disillusioned from Andrew Ryan and having been tricked by Fontaine into embracing Atlas, he was too jaded and refused Sophia and her Rapture Family. Instead he used his experience and plasmids to prey upon Lamb's Family much as he had done against both Ryan and Atlas. Unfortunately he was caught off guard by the creation of the Big Sisters who managed to capture him and deliver him to Sophia. She was aware of his custom made Bathosphyere, and needed more little girls to create Little Sisters. She made a deal with Kilroy that she would let him live and let him go in return for having him use his Bathosphyere to kidnap little girls from the surface world and deliver them to her.
Kilroy is forced to agree, and does her bidding which traumatizes him greatly. He brings the Big Sister to the surface who kidnaps Cindy Meltzer thus leading to Mark Meltzer discovering the city. After delivering sufficient Little Sisters, he is betrayed by Sophia who praises Jack's lack of self determination due to psychological conditioning. She decides to experiment upon Silas, turning him into a Alpha Series similar to Subject Delta.
Events of BioShock 2 (1968)
Kilroy awakens and is now known as Subject Psi. Before he goes through the bonding process with a Little Sister, Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum returns to Rapture manages to save him and break much of the brainwashing before the process is completed. He is freed at the same time that Tenenbaum also frees Subject Sigma.
Released into the city, he is given a mission from Tenenbaum to gather ADAM Plants as well as the Lazarus Vector for her to study. This causes him to have to spend the majority of his time either on the outskirts of the city or in areas that have been flooded. Now rather than only hearing the disembodied voice of his parents, Subject Psi visually sees them as well. During his assignment he is attacked by both a heavily mutated shark as well as a heavily mutated squid.
He learns that Subject Delta has succeeded at reuniting with Eleanor as well as Subject Sigma succeeding at retrieving the Thinker's Codes, and is offered by Tenenbaum to return to the surface with her. He nearly accepts, but his delusions convince him that his work is not yet done in Rapture. Tenenbaum leaves him with the task of learning about the mysterious Luminescent Biomass. After being left alone, he uses Tenenbaum's research with the Lazarus Vector and ADAM Plants to develop a unique plasmid that allows him to withstand intense amounts of radiation, which the Luminescent Biomass emits. This allows Subject Psi to properly approach the Biomass without risk of damage.
Bioshock: Whalefall
Subject Psi is forced to fight his way through the remains of the city, as by this point only crazed splicers remain in the city. The city has devolved into warring factions of splicers which fight over dwindling amounts of ADAM. The three largest factions are the Rapture Family as well as the remnants of Ryan and Atlas loyalists. The Rapture Family is lead by Father Simon Wales, who had survived his encounter with Subject Delta and now without Sophia to restrain him had turned the Family into a religious cult full of devoted fanatics. He has renamed them to the ADAM Family, as that is what they now worship. They believe in a prophecy that Jack will return to the city and bring infinite ADAM for everyone with him for the faithful, as well as worshiping a strange creature from the Deep they refer to as the Light in the Dark.
The remaining diehard Ryan loyalists had fallen under the employ of a man named Robert House who was one of if not the only men in the city who still remained unspliced. He had been comparable in wealth and power to the likes of Sinclair before the Civil War, and had only further profited during it as his company primarily sold firearms and munitions. Because of that, he had stoked the flames of war believing he could make a profit, and now was desperate to save the city so that he may succeed where Ryan had failed. Though House is a believer in certain values of Ryan's Great Chain philsophy such as the importance of ambition in great individuals and competition breeding innovation, House believed more in a chess board type approach and is more authoritarian, disregarding Ryan's libertarian view of laissez-faire free markets not needing regulation. Declaring himself Chariman of the City Council, he has control over what is left of any Government systems.
Lastly the remaining communists and revolutionaries from Atlas's cause have banded together under the name of the Fifth International Union, demanding that the power be given to the people. Made up of blue-collar workers, guerilla fighters, insurgents, tradesmen, and more they all work together in the hope that under the sea and away from the corrupting influence of capitalism from the surface, they can establish a communal paradise. They seek to seize the means of production and turn the city into a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Subject Psi discovers that each of the three factions possess something that he requires in order to gain further progress learning about the Luminescent Biomass. Either through cooperation and diplomacy, he sets out on a new quest. He learns that ADAM Family have a special 'Fruit of the Gods' that Subject Psi eats allowing his body to adapt to holding as much ADAM as it does, restoring his sanity and reversing the effects of Splicing on his mind and body. Fifth International Union know the path to reach the weakest and the least irradiated point of the Biomass from which it needs to be approached. Lastly the Rapture City Council have a special cutting laser that is needed to cut into the impossibly thick hide of the Biomass to gain access within it.
After completing these tasks and approaching the Biomass, Subject Psi is surprised to encounter Dr. Gilbert Alexander. Gil has become a giant anglerfish, with his human body now glowing and floating ominously out in the depths. He can somehow speak but his personality has been fully warped, becoming an abomination with little thought other than hunger for ADAM and flesh. He jealously guards the entrance to the Biomass and is a boss that must be defeated after attaining what is needed from the 3 factions. After defeating the creature and gaining access to the Biomass, Subject Psi discovers a variety of mutated and deadly crustaceans. Fighting his way ever deeper to the center, he discovers a pulsating heart like organ that he manages to take a sample of. He sends the sample and relevant data to Tenenbaum before succumbing to the intense radiation in the central chamber of the Luminescent Biomass.
Epilogue
Tenenbaum discovers that the Luminescent Biomass is/was a prehistoric organism that has survived and remained undetected due to living exclusively within the deepest depths of the worlds oceans. The creature has been altered due to the radiation involved during World War II, and has developed cancerous growths upon its flesh. The source of the light emitting from the creature is Cherenkov radiation. The creature is terminally ill and crashed to the ocean floor resulting in a Whale fall. The intense radiation emitting from the creature has resulted in Foster's Rule which has caused Adaptive radiation. This is what has caused the creation of the ADAM plants and by extension the sea slugs and everything else.
Subject Psi awakens in the Sea of Doors.
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Name: Silas Kilroy President/Prophet John Henry Eden
Voxophone Portrait:
Pre-Baptism: Silas Kilroy was born in what would become Emporia, Kansas to a family of Irish Protestant impoverished farmers in March of 1837. Their farmstead as well as their neighbors were regularly threatened and their crops stolen or destroyed by Native Americans who were irritated at their settling in their lands. Hezekiah Kilroy, Silas' father, who was a veteran of various American Indian Wars joined a local militia aimed at combating the local Native Americans. Tensions continued to intensify until a skirmish occurred between the militia and the Native Americans that caused sufficient death and destruction that the U.S. Military was forced to intervene, but not before their family farm was destroyed during the fighting. It was during these clashes between the militia and the Native Americans that the young Silas witnessed the act of scalping, something that horrified and enraged the young boy.
These early experiences were formative for the young Silas who grew to both fear and hate the Native American. The family was nearly destitute from the loss of their farm to the Native Americans, and were forced to move in order live with wealthy extended family members that owned a Slave plantationin Missouri in 1844. Hezekiah became a overseer for his in-laws plantation, and decided that he wished to take up the slave plantation lifestyle himself in Kansas. He also voted for James K. Polk in the 1844 Presidential Election, as Polk was a strong believer in Manifest Destiny, something that Hezekiah was attracted to and preached the virtues of to his son.
In 1846 the Mexican-American War occurred as Polk made good on his promises of American Expansionism, taking by force lands that were previously held by Mexico. Hezekiah decided to reenlist in the military, but also insisted on taking the nine year old Silas Kilroy along with him to aid in the war effort. The boy was allowed to accompany his father, albeit he only allowed to assist in non-combat roles. Silas was enthusiastic about his position, thinking of himself as being like the squire to his father being a knight. During the war he was further influenced by both his father and his fathers fellow soldiers. They instilled within him a sense of superiority over Hispanics and foreigners altogether.
Hezekiah and Silas returned victorious in March of 1848 with the boy now eleven. The family had saved enough money to return to their former home, and began rebuilding their farm into a slavery plantation. It was in the following years that Hezekiah joined the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, an organization that shared his disdain for foreigners and Catholics, believing they were ruining the country. Silas looked up to his father and this would later go on to influence his own joining of the Fraternal Order of the Raven. Once the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, large amounts of people began to pour in to both Nebraska and Kansas in order to vote on whether slavery should be allowed in the states. The seventeen year old Silas became quick friends with many people that had moved there that he had known during the families time living in Missouri nearly a decade ago.
With the Native Americans largely either subjected or relocated, militias began to form of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery citizens. Both Hezekiah and Silas joined the pro-slavery Kansas militia and also allied with many Border ruffians in the area at the time. They also skirmished with the anti-slavery miltia of Kansas known as the Jayhawkers, and it is noteworthy that during this time Silas killed his first person during the Sacking of Lawrence. Tensions continued to build until they reached a period known as the Bleeding Kansas period, a prelude to the coming American Civil War.
By Spring of 1861, the now twenty four year old Silas and his father decided to travel back to Missouri for the sole purpose of joining the Confederate Army to help repel the Northern Anti-Slavery forces once and for all. They left with the same self-assured confidence that they had when they left for the Mexican-American War, but this time fate would not be as kind to them. The two served under General Sterling Price of Missouri and fought in several battles, some of which even being victories, but everything change for the father and son pair during the Battle of Westport otherwise known as the 'Gettysburg of the West'. Silas would be wounded in the battle, suffering lifelong scars. Hezekiah himself would be slain, psychologically scarring the youth.
Silas was taken prisoner by Union forces, and would be released only after the end of the war in 1865 at the age of twenty eight. Upon returning home, he would discover that his mother had been killed by freed slaves during his absence. This would cement his hatred for Native Americans, foreigners, racial minorities, and Catholics. Still, he was able to rejoice thoroughly when he discovered that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated by who he considered to be the Great American Patriot John Wilkes Booth. Silas even went so far as to get the words Sic Semper Tyrannis tattooed upon him.
Becoming a lonesome drifter for the next several years, Silas would find himself drawn to and joining the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan, comprised mostly of former Confederates like himself. It was during this time he would also join the Know Nothing political party. Despite these organizations, Silas felt that he had little to no purpose, not to mention a lack of steady income. He started to fall into alcoholism, and his rage festered at how those he deemed inferior had ruined his life. In 1870 he joined the recently established Pinkerton Detective Agency, working for them for five years to help suppress workers right activists and laborers, specifically seeking assignments to subdue and subjugate striking freed slaves.
In 1875, Silas Kilroy formally enrolled in the U.S. Military, desperate to vent his rage against Native Americans by helping to participate in the wars against them. He rose to prominence in 1876 and 1877 during the Black Hills War as a ruthless soldier who was brutal to Native Americans, combatant or not. During this time Silas would meet the legendary George Custer, coming to idolize the man. Silas would go on to fight in the Battle of Little Bighorn at the age of thirty nine, and would curse the Native Americans upon learning of their slaying his Hero Custer.
By 1890 Silas had risen in rank to the official rank of Colonel Kilroy when the Native Americans began both a Ghost Dance and Sun Dance ritual that was deemed necessary to be stopped. Ultimately this would result in the Massacre at
Wounded Knee, during which Silas would meet both Cornelius Slate and Booker DeWitt. Silas would be impressed by Booker DeWitt's display of savagery during the battle, and was responsible for personally murdering Chief Spotted Elk himself, deeming it justice for the death of Custer.
Shortly thereafter Silas decided to leave the military and to follow DeWitt, getting baptized by Preacher Witting alongside him. Like DeWitt, Silas also decided to take a new name for his new life, renaming himself as John Henry Eden.
Post-Baptism: John Henry Eden became one of Zachary Hale Comstock's staunchest allies and earliest supporters, as well as being one of the very few to know the man before his transformation. He traveled with Comstock to Washington D.C. when Comstock was asked to present his case for the creation of Columbia, as well as attended Comstock's marriage to Lady Comstock as one of the groomsmen. John became fully committed to the cause, and began diligently working on a fraternal organization that could help protect, nurture and guide this fledgling city. As such he would become not only of the Founders of Columbia as a whole, but one of the Founders of the Fraternal Order of the Raven. By the time of Comstock's disappearance, Eden had reached the rank of First Zealot.
Creation of Columbia (1890- 1893)
In 1893 the City of Columbia was officially launched during the World's Fair in Chicago, with John Henry Eden being the Guest of Honor at a celebration festival being held in Emporia, Kansas while the Preacher Comstock was busy overseeing the launch in Chicago. To much fanfare and celebration, John boarded one of the very first Pilgrim Rockets at age fifty six and was delivered heavenward to Columbia along with his fellow true believers while it made its maiden voyage on its set route through the United States.
Upon arriving in Columbia, John spent much of his time overseeing the organization and construction of his pride and joy in the city; Emporia, determined to make the district fit for even a Preacher of Comstock's prestige. In specific he was mostly involved with the creation of Emporia Towers on Harmony Lane. The district became one of the finest in the city, with even Comstock House being located there.
John Henry Eden was introduced to Robert and Rosalind Lutece by the Prophet Comstock. Unlike Comstock, Eden was incredibly skeptical of the scientists and considered their work to be near witchcraft. Nonetheless, his respect for Comstock was so great that he held his tongue on the matter. He also had to admit that their city in the sky never would have been possible without them. Still, John was shocked and suspicious when his friend and leader Comstock began to age drastically. Comstock excused it as the price of bearing the mantle of such awesome responsibility, but John couldn't help but suspect that it was due to some satanic witchcraft of the scientists.
The city's glorious golden age of peace and prosperity continued, with the first political faction of the city being created by The Founders shortly after Columbia took to the sky. With the new city serving as the U.S. Governments intended example of democratic patriotism and American exceptionalism. The Preacher known as Zachary Comstock continued his ascent among the people of the city as the Prophet, as he began to deliver visions unto the people that always came true. Not only this, but their level of technological advancement began to accelerate drastically. The Founders attributed these benefits to being the natural result of a society being ruled by its rightful betters of white Anglo-Saxon protestant men. During these initial halcyon days he also met and became close friends with the Founders politician Henry Saltonstall.
Tragedy struck when the Prophet Comstock made a speech to his fellow Founders about how the city needed an heir of his bloodline to truly prosper, but shortly thereafter in October of 1983 he disappeared without a trace. Not only this, but so did the Scientists. Their strange device was heavily damaged, and leadership of the city fell into disarray. Because Preacher Witting had been the one to initially baptize the Prophet, many turned to him as to who his successor should be. Witting chose John Eden, as he considered him to be one of The Prophet's closest Apostles.
Columbia's Golden Age and Beginning of the Civil War (1893 - 1902)
In 1894 at the age of fifty seven, John Henry Eden won the election to become the First President of Columbia, with Henry Saltonstall serving as Vice President. The inauguration was closer to a coronation, being a day of unparalleled splendor. The event was similar to a Church Sermon, and during it Eden was re baptized by Preacher Witting while the song Down to the River to Pray played throughout the city and was performed by the Columbia City Choir.
The renowned industrialist and entrepreneur Jeremiah Fink was selected to serve in Eden's Cabinet, and was placed in charge of finding a way to fix the strange machine. It was also during this time that Jeremiah Fink informed the President about Columbia's greatest secret; the nature of the Tears and how they can serve as a doorway to alternate realities. Eden began to wonder if Comstock had entered into one of these alternate realities and somehow gotten stuck or become stranded, possibly through the sabotage of the Lutece's who he always suspected to be Satanists. Wanting to rescue his friend if possible, President Eden ordered Trans Dimensional Machine repaired at any cost.
Following the disappearance of the Prophet, various forms of air travel began to increase in popularity such as Gunships and Security Zeppelins. Indeed, President Eden himself would receive the Hand of the Prophet, originally intended for Comstock. President Eden would also go on to comfort the grieving widow of Lady Comstock, and somewhat scandalously married her in 1895. Unfortunately on their wedding day she was assassinated by Daisy Fitzroy as the nefarious Vox Populi revealed themselves to the city at large.
During the following years the war between the factions would only worsen, and in 1898 at the age of sixty one, President Eden was reelected to his second term. Though Fink was able to glean small amounts of knowledge through unstable and spontaneous Tears that would appear throughout the city, he struggled to repair the device to being functional enough to stabilize them or create them at whim. It was only once he fortuitously made contact with Yi Suchong of Rapture through one of these Tears did he begin to make significant advances in repairing it.
Meanwhile in 1901, President Eden intervened in the Boxer Rebellion on behalf of the United States, decimating the Chinese with overwhelming aerial firepower. The United States was furious and demanded the city return to Washington and for President Eden to be relieved of command, which coincided with the Columbia Election for President. The President called a meeting with his staff and ordered a general election as to if the People of Columbia wished to comply. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Secession as well as voting President Eden in to a third term of office. Being an Ex-Confederate himself, President Eden was more than happy with complying. On July 6th 1902, Columbia officially seceded and disappeared into the clouds.
Civil War of Columbia (1902 - 1911)
Now free from the 'Sodom and Gommoroh below', the city began embracing a kind of Neo-Confederate culture, with many believing that the Union was a corrupted bastardization of the United States that the original Founding Fathers had envisioned, with the Confederacy being the truer successor. As such the people began to take the old rebel phrase 'The South Will Rise Again!' in a literal fashion, living in their flying city. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Vox Populi also began to become increasingly militant, with clashes with police and security forces becoming more common and violent. Some Founders aligned citizens even began to discuss the idea of re-instituting slavery, and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy becomes part of the cultural fabric of Columbia.
In 1903, a strange apparition appeared, with reports of a lumbering and mysterious 'man of iron' being discovered reaching the Presidents desk. Upon arresting the man and bringing him to the President, John Eden realizes the man is some strange but undeniable parallel of himself. The man attempts to kill the President, but fails. Giving the man to Jeremiah Fink, he uses the man to create the infamous Songbird. This Songbird would go on to become the Protector of not just the President, but the city as a whole. So long as it lived, the Vox Populi lived in constant terror.
In 1904, Columbia's Congress unanimously passes a law that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee are canonized as Saints of Columbia. The science of phrenology becomes widely practiced and accepted within Columbia.
In 1906 President Eden was reelected to his fourth term, and Congress declared him Primus Inter Pares (First Among Equals) and President Inperpetuity. Later that year, the Chief of Police Jefferson Poole was assassinated by the Vox Populi, with his replacement being a even more hardline and brutal man named Harrison Thacker. This event lead President Eden to declare a renewed and focused war on the Vox Populi.
In 1908, the official anthem of Columbia is voted on and accepted as I Wish I Was In Dixie Land. The official flag of Columbia is voted on and accepted as a Confederate flag. President Eden witnesses the horrors of World War I in a unstable and naturally occurring Tear, this leads him to decide to strike the United States and reform the Confederacy once the United States is weakened and distracted by the war. He declares his plan as a prophecy to the people of Columbia, and is heralded as the New Prophet, and considered analogous to being the Peter to Comstock's Jesus.
The war against the Vox Populi slowly but surely grinds the rebels down, until it culminates with their leaders arrest in 1909 through the use of a double agent. Unfortunately, Daisy Fitzroy is able to escape due to the naivety and treachery of Dr. Francis Pinchot, further encouraging a distrust of intellectualism and education in The Prophet Eden. Deciding that the city needed a protector that could be mass produced (unlike Songbird), in 1911 the Motorized Patriot is revealed to the populace.
In January of 1912, The Prophet Eden and his Cabinet begin to formulate plans to foment rebellion in the South to aid them once they eventually reignite the Civil War and use their aerial firepower to devastate Washington D.C. The Prophet John Eden begins to doubt if he wants to find his friend and mentor Comstock, as this would mean relinquishing his power and control of Columbia.
On July 6th 1912, the 10 year anniversary of the secession from the Union, the events of BioShock: Confederacy of Clouds takes place.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BioShock: Confederacy of Clouds
Subject Psi meets Robert and Rosalind Lutece who tell him about the City of Columbia, and how it is the other side of the coin to the Rapture that is has always known. They consider it to be a form of cosmic joke and acknowledge the irony of their request at needing to use the same trick twice, but inform Subject Psi that they need his help with a assassination mission, the target actually being himself in a parallel universe. Explaining that in the only remaining version of Columbia that wasn't erased due to it's Comstock having abandoned it, Silas Kilroy renamed himself and was now known as the Prophet Eden, and had took over leadership of the city.
The Prophet Eden was picking up where Comstock had left off, and he was growing increasingly close to managing to open up tears himself by attempting to recreate the research and experimentation of the Lutece's with the assistance of Jeremiah Fink. This was something that concerned the Lutece's and wanted foiled.
Unfortunately due to the level of security around him having succeeded as the Prophet that Columbia needed, they struggled to find a way to stop him. This was when they discovered Subject Psi within the core of the Luminescent Biomass, and decided to save him from sacrificing himself by opening a tear and taking him to the Sea of Doors. Hoping to use him as the tool to end the Prophet Eden of this reality. Subject Psi agrees with the stipulation that he 'wants to go somewhere nice' afterwards, to which the pair of them recommend Paris to him.
Before sending him through the necessary Door to his assigned version of Columbia, he is informed he will likely experience heavy amnesia. Because of this they give him a note with clear instructions; "SLAY THE PROPHET, SAVE THE GIRL." Stepping through the tear, he arrives at the Garden of New Eden and loses both his memories and consciousness.
He is discovered by the Columbia Police Authority, who are unsure who he is or what to do with him. They decide that he is some kind of freak, and decide to place him in an exhibit at the Columbia Zoo as none of the Police cells can contain him.
The general public marvel at Subject Psi, having never seen an Alpha Series before. Eventually he is visited by Jeremiah Fink, who recognizes his similarities to the Handyman that his corporation Fink Manufacturing produces and decides he wants to further study Subject Psi to hopefully improve upon his own models.
Purchasing Subject Psi from the Zoo, he takes him to the Surgical Suite in Finkton to experiment upon him. Upon arriving, he is kept under guard by Motorized Patriots. While he is there, Subject Psi witnesses how Fink treats his employees poorly and overhears him demean and degrade them. Witnessing the behavior vaguely jogs his memory of having seen it before, but unable to remember where, when, or who. Fink manages to reverse engineer several components, including his drill.
---------------------------------------------------------
Voxophone Portrait:
Pre-Baptism: Silas Kilroy was born in what would become Emporia, Kansas to a family of Irish Protestant impoverished farmers in March of 1837. Their farmstead as well as their neighbors were regularly threatened and their crops stolen or destroyed by Native Americans who were irritated at their settling in their lands. Hezekiah Kilroy, Silas' father, who was a veteran of various American Indian Wars joined a local militia aimed at combating the local Native Americans. Tensions continued to intensify until a skirmish occurred between the militia and the Native Americans that caused sufficient death and destruction that the U.S. Military was forced to intervene, but not before their family farm was destroyed during the fighting. It was during these clashes between the militia and the Native Americans that the young Silas witnessed the act of scalping, something that horrified and enraged the young boy.
These early experiences were formative for the young Silas who grew to both fear and hate the Native American. The family was nearly destitute from the loss of their farm to the Native Americans, and were forced to move in order live with wealthy extended family members that owned a Slave plantationin Missouri in 1844. Hezekiah became a overseer for his in-laws plantation, and decided that he wished to take up the slave plantation lifestyle himself in Kansas. He also voted for James K. Polk in the 1844 Presidential Election, as Polk was a strong believer in Manifest Destiny, something that Hezekiah was attracted to and preached the virtues of to his son.
In 1846 the Mexican-American War occurred as Polk made good on his promises of American Expansionism, taking by force lands that were previously held by Mexico. Hezekiah decided to reenlist in the military, but also insisted on taking the nine year old Silas Kilroy along with him to aid in the war effort. The boy was allowed to accompany his father, albeit he only allowed to assist in non-combat roles. Silas was enthusiastic about his position, thinking of himself as being like the squire to his father being a knight. During the war he was further influenced by both his father and his fathers fellow soldiers. They instilled within him a sense of superiority over Hispanics and foreigners altogether.
Hezekiah and Silas returned victorious in March of 1848 with the boy now eleven. The family had saved enough money to return to their former home, and began rebuilding their farm into a slavery plantation. It was in the following years that Hezekiah joined the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, an organization that shared his disdain for foreigners and Catholics, believing they were ruining the country. Silas looked up to his father and this would later go on to influence his own joining of the Fraternal Order of the Raven. Once the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, large amounts of people began to pour in to both Nebraska and Kansas in order to vote on whether slavery should be allowed in the states. The seventeen year old Silas became quick friends with many people that had moved there that he had known during the families time living in Missouri nearly a decade ago.
With the Native Americans largely either subjected or relocated, militias began to form of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery citizens. Both Hezekiah and Silas joined the pro-slavery Kansas militia and also allied with many Border ruffians in the area at the time. They also skirmished with the anti-slavery miltia of Kansas known as the Jayhawkers, and it is noteworthy that during this time Silas killed his first person during the Sacking of Lawrence. Tensions continued to build until they reached a period known as the Bleeding Kansas period, a prelude to the coming American Civil War.
By Spring of 1861, the now twenty four year old Silas and his father decided to travel back to Missouri for the sole purpose of joining the Confederate Army to help repel the Northern Anti-Slavery forces once and for all. They left with the same self-assured confidence that they had when they left for the Mexican-American War, but this time fate would not be as kind to them. The two served under General Sterling Price of Missouri and fought in several battles, some of which even being victories, but everything change for the father and son pair during the Battle of Westport otherwise known as the 'Gettysburg of the West'. Silas would be wounded in the battle, suffering lifelong scars. Hezekiah himself would be slain, psychologically scarring the youth.
Silas was taken prisoner by Union forces, and would be released only after the end of the war in 1865 at the age of twenty eight. Upon returning home, he would discover that his mother had been killed by freed slaves during his absence. This would cement his hatred for Native Americans, foreigners, racial minorities, and Catholics. Still, he was able to rejoice thoroughly when he discovered that Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated by who he considered to be the Great American Patriot John Wilkes Booth. Silas even went so far as to get the words Sic Semper Tyrannis tattooed upon him.
Becoming a lonesome drifter for the next several years, Silas would find himself drawn to and joining the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan, comprised mostly of former Confederates like himself. It was during this time he would also join the Know Nothing political party. Despite these organizations, Silas felt that he had little to no purpose, not to mention a lack of steady income. He started to fall into alcoholism, and his rage festered at how those he deemed inferior had ruined his life. In 1870 he joined the recently established Pinkerton Detective Agency, working for them for five years to help suppress workers right activists and laborers, specifically seeking assignments to subdue and subjugate striking freed slaves.
In 1875, Silas Kilroy formally enrolled in the U.S. Military, desperate to vent his rage against Native Americans by helping to participate in the wars against them. He rose to prominence in 1876 and 1877 during the Black Hills War as a ruthless soldier who was brutal to Native Americans, combatant or not. During this time Silas would meet the legendary George Custer, coming to idolize the man. Silas would go on to fight in the Battle of Little Bighorn at the age of thirty nine, and would curse the Native Americans upon learning of their slaying his Hero Custer.
By 1890 Silas had risen in rank to the official rank of Colonel Kilroy when the Native Americans began both a Ghost Dance and Sun Dance ritual that was deemed necessary to be stopped. Ultimately this would result in the Massacre at
Wounded Knee, during which Silas would meet both Cornelius Slate and Booker DeWitt. Silas would be impressed by Booker DeWitt's display of savagery during the battle, and was responsible for personally murdering Chief Spotted Elk himself, deeming it justice for the death of Custer.
Shortly thereafter Silas decided to leave the military and to follow DeWitt, getting baptized by Preacher Witting alongside him. Like DeWitt, Silas also decided to take a new name for his new life, renaming himself as John Henry Eden.
Post-Baptism: John Henry Eden became one of Zachary Hale Comstock's staunchest allies and earliest supporters, as well as being one of the very few to know the man before his transformation. He traveled with Comstock to Washington D.C. when Comstock was asked to present his case for the creation of Columbia, as well as attended Comstock's marriage to Lady Comstock as one of the groomsmen. John became fully committed to the cause, and began diligently working on a fraternal organization that could help protect, nurture and guide this fledgling city. As such he would become not only of the Founders of Columbia as a whole, but one of the Founders of the Fraternal Order of the Raven. By the time of Comstock's disappearance, Eden had reached the rank of First Zealot.
Creation of Columbia (1890- 1893)
In 1893 the City of Columbia was officially launched during the World's Fair in Chicago, with John Henry Eden being the Guest of Honor at a celebration festival being held in Emporia, Kansas while the Preacher Comstock was busy overseeing the launch in Chicago. To much fanfare and celebration, John boarded one of the very first Pilgrim Rockets at age fifty six and was delivered heavenward to Columbia along with his fellow true believers while it made its maiden voyage on its set route through the United States.
“Five-thousand feet… Ten-thousand feet… Fifteen-thousand feet… Hallelujah.”
― Countdown Voice
Welcome to Columbia!
― Countdown Voice
Welcome to Columbia!
Upon arriving in Columbia, John spent much of his time overseeing the organization and construction of his pride and joy in the city; Emporia, determined to make the district fit for even a Preacher of Comstock's prestige. In specific he was mostly involved with the creation of Emporia Towers on Harmony Lane. The district became one of the finest in the city, with even Comstock House being located there.
John Henry Eden was introduced to Robert and Rosalind Lutece by the Prophet Comstock. Unlike Comstock, Eden was incredibly skeptical of the scientists and considered their work to be near witchcraft. Nonetheless, his respect for Comstock was so great that he held his tongue on the matter. He also had to admit that their city in the sky never would have been possible without them. Still, John was shocked and suspicious when his friend and leader Comstock began to age drastically. Comstock excused it as the price of bearing the mantle of such awesome responsibility, but John couldn't help but suspect that it was due to some satanic witchcraft of the scientists.
The city's glorious golden age of peace and prosperity continued, with the first political faction of the city being created by The Founders shortly after Columbia took to the sky. With the new city serving as the U.S. Governments intended example of democratic patriotism and American exceptionalism. The Preacher known as Zachary Comstock continued his ascent among the people of the city as the Prophet, as he began to deliver visions unto the people that always came true. Not only this, but their level of technological advancement began to accelerate drastically. The Founders attributed these benefits to being the natural result of a society being ruled by its rightful betters of white Anglo-Saxon protestant men. During these initial halcyon days he also met and became close friends with the Founders politician Henry Saltonstall.
Tragedy struck when the Prophet Comstock made a speech to his fellow Founders about how the city needed an heir of his bloodline to truly prosper, but shortly thereafter in October of 1983 he disappeared without a trace. Not only this, but so did the Scientists. Their strange device was heavily damaged, and leadership of the city fell into disarray. Because Preacher Witting had been the one to initially baptize the Prophet, many turned to him as to who his successor should be. Witting chose John Eden, as he considered him to be one of The Prophet's closest Apostles.
Columbia's Golden Age and Beginning of the Civil War (1893 - 1902)
In 1894 at the age of fifty seven, John Henry Eden won the election to become the First President of Columbia, with Henry Saltonstall serving as Vice President. The inauguration was closer to a coronation, being a day of unparalleled splendor. The event was similar to a Church Sermon, and during it Eden was re baptized by Preacher Witting while the song Down to the River to Pray played throughout the city and was performed by the Columbia City Choir.
The renowned industrialist and entrepreneur Jeremiah Fink was selected to serve in Eden's Cabinet, and was placed in charge of finding a way to fix the strange machine. It was also during this time that Jeremiah Fink informed the President about Columbia's greatest secret; the nature of the Tears and how they can serve as a doorway to alternate realities. Eden began to wonder if Comstock had entered into one of these alternate realities and somehow gotten stuck or become stranded, possibly through the sabotage of the Lutece's who he always suspected to be Satanists. Wanting to rescue his friend if possible, President Eden ordered Trans Dimensional Machine repaired at any cost.
Following the disappearance of the Prophet, various forms of air travel began to increase in popularity such as Gunships and Security Zeppelins. Indeed, President Eden himself would receive the Hand of the Prophet, originally intended for Comstock. President Eden would also go on to comfort the grieving widow of Lady Comstock, and somewhat scandalously married her in 1895. Unfortunately on their wedding day she was assassinated by Daisy Fitzroy as the nefarious Vox Populi revealed themselves to the city at large.
During the following years the war between the factions would only worsen, and in 1898 at the age of sixty one, President Eden was reelected to his second term. Though Fink was able to glean small amounts of knowledge through unstable and spontaneous Tears that would appear throughout the city, he struggled to repair the device to being functional enough to stabilize them or create them at whim. It was only once he fortuitously made contact with Yi Suchong of Rapture through one of these Tears did he begin to make significant advances in repairing it.
Meanwhile in 1901, President Eden intervened in the Boxer Rebellion on behalf of the United States, decimating the Chinese with overwhelming aerial firepower. The United States was furious and demanded the city return to Washington and for President Eden to be relieved of command, which coincided with the Columbia Election for President. The President called a meeting with his staff and ordered a general election as to if the People of Columbia wished to comply. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of Secession as well as voting President Eden in to a third term of office. Being an Ex-Confederate himself, President Eden was more than happy with complying. On July 6th 1902, Columbia officially seceded and disappeared into the clouds.
Civil War of Columbia (1902 - 1911)
Now free from the 'Sodom and Gommoroh below', the city began embracing a kind of Neo-Confederate culture, with many believing that the Union was a corrupted bastardization of the United States that the original Founding Fathers had envisioned, with the Confederacy being the truer successor. As such the people began to take the old rebel phrase 'The South Will Rise Again!' in a literal fashion, living in their flying city. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Vox Populi also began to become increasingly militant, with clashes with police and security forces becoming more common and violent. Some Founders aligned citizens even began to discuss the idea of re-instituting slavery, and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy becomes part of the cultural fabric of Columbia.
In 1903, a strange apparition appeared, with reports of a lumbering and mysterious 'man of iron' being discovered reaching the Presidents desk. Upon arresting the man and bringing him to the President, John Eden realizes the man is some strange but undeniable parallel of himself. The man attempts to kill the President, but fails. Giving the man to Jeremiah Fink, he uses the man to create the infamous Songbird. This Songbird would go on to become the Protector of not just the President, but the city as a whole. So long as it lived, the Vox Populi lived in constant terror.
In 1904, Columbia's Congress unanimously passes a law that Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee are canonized as Saints of Columbia. The science of phrenology becomes widely practiced and accepted within Columbia.
In 1906 President Eden was reelected to his fourth term, and Congress declared him Primus Inter Pares (First Among Equals) and President Inperpetuity. Later that year, the Chief of Police Jefferson Poole was assassinated by the Vox Populi, with his replacement being a even more hardline and brutal man named Harrison Thacker. This event lead President Eden to declare a renewed and focused war on the Vox Populi.
In 1908, the official anthem of Columbia is voted on and accepted as I Wish I Was In Dixie Land. The official flag of Columbia is voted on and accepted as a Confederate flag. President Eden witnesses the horrors of World War I in a unstable and naturally occurring Tear, this leads him to decide to strike the United States and reform the Confederacy once the United States is weakened and distracted by the war. He declares his plan as a prophecy to the people of Columbia, and is heralded as the New Prophet, and considered analogous to being the Peter to Comstock's Jesus.
The war against the Vox Populi slowly but surely grinds the rebels down, until it culminates with their leaders arrest in 1909 through the use of a double agent. Unfortunately, Daisy Fitzroy is able to escape due to the naivety and treachery of Dr. Francis Pinchot, further encouraging a distrust of intellectualism and education in The Prophet Eden. Deciding that the city needed a protector that could be mass produced (unlike Songbird), in 1911 the Motorized Patriot is revealed to the populace.
In January of 1912, The Prophet Eden and his Cabinet begin to formulate plans to foment rebellion in the South to aid them once they eventually reignite the Civil War and use their aerial firepower to devastate Washington D.C. The Prophet John Eden begins to doubt if he wants to find his friend and mentor Comstock, as this would mean relinquishing his power and control of Columbia.
On July 6th 1912, the 10 year anniversary of the secession from the Union, the events of BioShock: Confederacy of Clouds takes place.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BioShock: Confederacy of Clouds
Subject Psi meets Robert and Rosalind Lutece who tell him about the City of Columbia, and how it is the other side of the coin to the Rapture that is has always known. They consider it to be a form of cosmic joke and acknowledge the irony of their request at needing to use the same trick twice, but inform Subject Psi that they need his help with a assassination mission, the target actually being himself in a parallel universe. Explaining that in the only remaining version of Columbia that wasn't erased due to it's Comstock having abandoned it, Silas Kilroy renamed himself and was now known as the Prophet Eden, and had took over leadership of the city.
The Prophet Eden was picking up where Comstock had left off, and he was growing increasingly close to managing to open up tears himself by attempting to recreate the research and experimentation of the Lutece's with the assistance of Jeremiah Fink. This was something that concerned the Lutece's and wanted foiled.
Unfortunately due to the level of security around him having succeeded as the Prophet that Columbia needed, they struggled to find a way to stop him. This was when they discovered Subject Psi within the core of the Luminescent Biomass, and decided to save him from sacrificing himself by opening a tear and taking him to the Sea of Doors. Hoping to use him as the tool to end the Prophet Eden of this reality. Subject Psi agrees with the stipulation that he 'wants to go somewhere nice' afterwards, to which the pair of them recommend Paris to him.
Before sending him through the necessary Door to his assigned version of Columbia, he is informed he will likely experience heavy amnesia. Because of this they give him a note with clear instructions; "SLAY THE PROPHET, SAVE THE GIRL." Stepping through the tear, he arrives at the Garden of New Eden and loses both his memories and consciousness.
He is discovered by the Columbia Police Authority, who are unsure who he is or what to do with him. They decide that he is some kind of freak, and decide to place him in an exhibit at the Columbia Zoo as none of the Police cells can contain him.
The general public marvel at Subject Psi, having never seen an Alpha Series before. Eventually he is visited by Jeremiah Fink, who recognizes his similarities to the Handyman that his corporation Fink Manufacturing produces and decides he wants to further study Subject Psi to hopefully improve upon his own models.
Purchasing Subject Psi from the Zoo, he takes him to the Surgical Suite in Finkton to experiment upon him. Upon arriving, he is kept under guard by Motorized Patriots. While he is there, Subject Psi witnesses how Fink treats his employees poorly and overhears him demean and degrade them. Witnessing the behavior vaguely jogs his memory of having seen it before, but unable to remember where, when, or who. Fink manages to reverse engineer several components, including his drill.
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