Father Comstock

Zachary Hale Comstock
"One man goes into the waters of baptism. A different man comes out, born again."
Vital Statistics
Title(s)	Columbia's Prophet
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Faction	Lords of Midnight
Relatives	Elizabeth Comstock - Daughter, currently missing.
Alignment	-4
Level	1
Status	Active

Hailed as the Prophet, Zachary Hale Comstock is the leader of the flying city of Columbia, and the primary antagonist of Bioshock Infinite. Once a man driven by fear and guilt, these emotions have twisted him into a religious and jingoistic maniac. Representing everything wrong with America during the Gilded Age, Comstock and his city believe that they are above all other forms of life, and are obsessed with "cleansing" the world of these lesser races.

Comstock's player also plays such characters as the Uber Ethereal and Parsee Mizuhashi, and is the first to pick up Comstock.

Beware: Major spoilers for Bioshock Infinite are abound in this wiki page and Comstock's topics on the board.

Background

Born as Booker DeWitt on April 19, 1874, Comstock's early life is incredibly unclear. For whatever reason, he joined the army at an early age, and found himself in the U.S. Army's 7th Calvary Regiment while as young as sixteen. His unit was sent to fight the Native Americans in the Western U.S. during this time. There, his partial Native American ancestor was discovered, and a sergeant verbally attacked Booker in front of his comrades for this. Fearful of being rejected by his brothers in arms, Booker became a brutal participant in the Battle of Wounded Knee, scalping his kills and burning Sioux women and children in their teepees.

His gruesome actions, and against the tribe his family descended from no less, left DeWitt with a crippling sense of guilt. After leaving the army, he sought out any chance to redeem himself and seek forgiveness for his actions. Naturally, this eventually turned him to Christianity. Perhaps the most pivotal event in his life was his riverside baptism. Later in life, he would fondly recount how the water washed away his sins like they were nothing more than a dirty stain, and his cleanliness marked God's forgiveness of him. Turning a new leaf, Booker changed his name to Zachary Hale Comstock, entered religion and U.S. politics, and began his descent into insanity.

Scoring a seat in Congress, Comstock's religious and political careers made him very popular with much of the U.S. population. He implored the importance of God and many conservative views -- many which, by today's standards, were cruel and unjust -- while still pushing for America's growth and advancement. This won him support of the majority of the country's populace, and soon, he was one of the most influential men in Washington.

In this time frame, Comstock met a scientist named Rosalind Lutece. Her unique and revolutionary research in quantum physics led to the creation of her "Lutece Fields", which could lock atoms at fixed positions in space. This would allow her to suspend objects in the air for indefinite periods of time. Items as small as an apple...or, in theory, as large as a city. Seeing incredible value in this, Comstock managed to get financial support from the government in order to further Lutece's research, with the end goal of creating a flying city.

Construction of this city was completed in 1893. Christened Columbia by Comstock, it was launched into the skies during the same year and became a symbol of America's power. Comstock, made into the city's first mayor, led the city on a world-round tour, showing off his nation's power and ingenuity to the rest of the Earth. Despite being an American territory, there was no way for the government to truly watch over Columbia.

This isolation gave Comstock a perfect opportunity to start transforming his citizens into a city-wide cult. Deciding that this city would be his "New Eden", he began preaching that all non-Caucasian races were inferior and born to be servants of the white man, and that Columbia's citizens were even more "pure" than other American citizens. He also began his own religion, a twisted bastardy of Christianity and American history. The Founding Fathers, most of all Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, were regarded as religious characters. Abraham Lincoln was demonized for outlawing slavery, and John Wilkes Booth was hailed as a saint and martyr. And above all, Comstock declared that he was God's messenger in this day and age. A modern day amalgamation of Noah, Moses, and Jesus, leading true humanity to purge the Sodom Below. Despite the absurdity of it all, Comstock's support went through the roof, and he had more than enough supporters that were willing to silence any political enemies.

As Columbia became a nightmare city personifying America's faults, Rosalind made a shocking discovery during her experiments: She could communicate with an alternate universe. She managed to make contact with Robert Lutece, a gender-flipped alternate version of herself who was undergoing the same experiments. Backed financially by Comstock, the alternate selves managed to develop a machine that could create inter-dimensional Tears, allowing Robert to enter their universe.

Against the Lutece's advice, Comstock began to use the Tear machine extensively, peering into alternate universes as well as the future in order to further Columbia. The city's lead businessman, robber baron Jeremiah Fink, was also shown the machine. Using it, he observed and plagiarized products from the future, and his company began to churn out weapons and machinery that was decades advanced to anything else in the world.

{WIP, finishing later.}

Involvement

Shortly after Columbia entered the Multiverse, flying over Infected Earth, it was visited by one Michael Wilson. Learning that their visitor was a U.S. President, Comstock and Columbia initially greeted him with open arms...until he was exposed to the true nature of the city and called them out on it. Enraged, Father Comstock labeled Michael as an example of the Sodom Below, and ordered him to be murdered. But with Columbia Authority still fresh from the Drain, even their sheer numbers made them no match for the experienced president and his Metal Wolf. Only the mighty Songbird could match him.

After a bloody struggle that caused incredibly damage to a portion of the city, Michael gained the upperhand against Songbird. In the end, the Lamb's guardian was smashed through Monument Isle -- destroying both Songbird and the Lamb's sanctuary. The Lamb was lost in the confusion, with no trace of her to be found -- indicating that she had escaped. But he did not let Michael know this, and instead accused him of not only murdering dozens of his citizens and his people's protector, but slaughtering the Lamb as well. He allowed Michael safe passage out of the city, but used this tragedy as a rallying force. At the same time, he realized that he would be unable to impact the Multiverse without outside support.

That support came in the form of the Lords of Midnight, who quickly grew interested in the flying city, especially after Comstock publicly denounced the Celestial Guardians because of Wilson's connection to them. The Lords quickly established relations with Comstock, who enthusiastically joined their ranks. Although he hates most of its members on the basis of many of them not being white, and many of them not even being human, he is willing to hide it in the name of pragmatism, and teaches his flock to do the same.

Comstock rapidly established himself as a worthy member of the Lords. Along with a decent-sized, if weakened, military and efficient factories out of Finkton, they got a man who is more than willing to risk he and his men for their goals. During the ongoing Celestial Upheaval, Comstock aided the Lords on two notable fronts. In Demon's Ascent, a rebellion started by Fawful was brought to a swift and resounding end, in large part because of a strike team assembled by Columbia Authority. Later, when Ivalice was isolated from other CG worlds by the Shift, Comstock saw an opportunity to raid a Guardian's-owned magicite mine. Personally leading the assault, Comstock oversaw a strike team of his own men, supported by Dr. Eggman. Along the way, they came across a disguised Mima, who also wanted to attack the mines. Together, the three of them worked together to fell the SOLDIERs guarding the mines and make it out with as much magicite as possible.

Powers and Capabilities

(Peh, lazy, will do later.)

Followers / Summons (remove if not applicable)

Name 1

(Peh, lazy, will do later.)

Name 2

(See above.)

Quotes

• "The Lord forgives everyone, but I am just a Prophet...so I don't have to. Amen." - Comstock casually announcing that he's better than anyone else.

External links

• Comstock House - Comstock's storage topic.
• on the Bioshock wiki Comstock on the Bioshock wiki