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Thank you for taking the time to answer my question but there seems to be a misunderstanding. The Industrial revolution game was a flash puzzle game that was given as a preorder bonus for Infinite.

As you progress you are given newspapers. Either the Voice or The Minuteman, depending on your choices. The papers focus on the same events but heavily twist the story to be either pro Vox or pro Founders. The game itself wasn’t great, but I enjoyed comparing the papers.

 Also the art from the board game is great :)

Did you ever play the industrial revolution game or read through the news articles from it?

Thanks for being so patient, I've been busy lately :)

Regarding the game, I've never played it! I'm not huge on boardgames in general, not a mind large campaign games. It has mainly positive reviews however, I do appreciate the games art however.

It's really detailed and I use some of it as reference for Daisy to replace her lack of in-game appearances :)

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Happy Saturnalia!

Lore on the Saturnine cult.

The Saturnine cult are active in Arcadia. They have taken a liking to the Greek and Roman gods that have areas of the city named after them. Saturn was the roman god of time and the harvest among other things. He is often portrayed with scythe or sickle and is the namesake of both the planet Saturn and Saturday. Historically Saturnalia takes place on December 17th, but can last multiple days. A strong theme of saturnalia is the reversal of roles and power. The crowd appoints someone to be “King for a day” and the wealthy citizens serve wine and fruits to the poorer ones. There is little lore on the Saturnine cult in Bioshock, the only character to mention them is Julie Langford, and to put it bluntly she isn't a fan. We know that they mix plasmids, blood and possibly alcohol and call it ambrosia. They are all Houdini splicers and several of their secret grottos are only accessible via teleportation. They are mostly male, this is commented on by Julie Langford calling them “Frat boys” and all but one of their in game models are male. They wear wicker face masks and red clothes with white markings painted on. Their grottos are filled with wicker effigies that they burn. It isn't clear weather they worship the Greek and Roman deities or if they believe themselves to be gods, but it is probably the latter considering the themes of Bioshock.

Head cannons: They are mainly made up of wealthier citizens that can afford large amounts of plasmids and the workers of Arcadia who know all the hidden spaces of the gardens. Most don't have strong familial ties. They have extremely fetishized ceremonies, cobbled together from what pieces of ancient lore they can remember and things they have seen in media. This includes but is not limited to, a large cauldron filled with ambrosia, burning a dozen wicker idols at once, and even animal sacrifice. The saturnine started as a small group that just met up in Arcadia to get wasted with a nice view. Most citizens know not to go to Arcadia on Saturnalia and there is a semi official lockdown organised by well connected Saturnine members. This takes the form of claiming dangerous chemicals are being used and everyone must stay away. Andrew Ryan has a complete hatred for the modern religion, but ancient mythology is one of his guilty pleasures and he has some soft sympathies for the Saturnine. The Saturnine rose to prominence as the civil war took hold and even allowed more members to join as long as they were spliced enough. Between BioShock's the cult is wiped out as the Rapture family takes power. Only a small fraction of them decide to join the family while the others try to overthrow Sofia.

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My head cannons: As they age the bond between them and the slug weakens so it produces less ADAM. Little sisters make all the ADAM they need and any harvested is surplus while big sisters start to make less as they age. Eventually a big sister will need to find extra ADAM just to keep herself "healthy".

Little sisters would continue to walk around with their big daddies, they can easily see the difference between ADAM infused blood and normal blood and would just not drink normal blood, instead going for regular food and drink. 

Big sisters on the other hand cannot see "The light in the angels" as clearly anymore, and they don't have Mr. Bubbles looking over their shoulders, so they will start to drink blood just to test it. They start to figure out how to tell if a corpse/person might have ADAM, like the tell tale flesh lumps or plasmid use. A few of them developed a taste for it, however these sisters are more violent and will take their helmets off to drink the blood where they find it, which can lead to them getting shot. These few bloodthirsty big sisters have been known to pick off members of the family if they catch them alone in secluded areas. 

If they cannot find ADAM then they will search for it as long as they can. They might try venturing out to hunt wild slugs or try to steal it from their sisters. But they will perish if they cannot get enough.

Normal blood does not contain memories. But ADAM rich blood contains small amounts of plasmids, which is fine with little sisters but as the bond with the slug weakens the big sisters find their hands suddenly catching fire or freezing while they are drinking. (Like the side effects of Lot 192). While drinking a plasmid would make its use come naturally to the user, obtaining it from blood leaves them unaware exactly how they did it and often unable to make their hands return to normal for several minutes.

So how do y’all think Big & Little Sisters would handle their compulsive blood harvesting when there’s no ADAM users available? Would they simply gather the unmutated blood and be unsatisfied? Search for ADAM endlessly? Would there be any memories in the normal white blood cells to transfer to them?

My head canon is that even without the presence of ADAM, both will be compelled to harvest normal human blood, even though it lacks the same taste/smell as it’s spliced counterpart. In addition the slug aiding in their digestion of this standard DNA would still allow them to pull memories from the blood but with much less clarity/useful information. Think of it as trying to recall a film studied intentionally versus trying to recall a conversation overheard while falling asleep. That’s my take, anyway.

Thoughts?

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The good, the bad and the sad.

GIFs from the ending of Bioshock 2

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Delta and Topside

I’m going to preface this with the disclaimer that 2K Marin clearly intended subject Delta to be Johnny topside and many of the cut audio logs go into more detail, even having Johnny topside be Eleanor's biological father.

However in the released game the only person that tells us Johnny Topside is Subject Delta is Stanley Poole. He has no way of knowing who in Persephone is turned into a big daddy, let alone which alpha series is which. An audio log reveals that Poole had followed Johnny while he was exploring the city and wished that he was more like Johnny. Perhaps Stanley thinks Delta is more likely to spare him if he believes he is Johnny Topside.

Its odd that Sinclair never comments on it as he may actually know if Delta is/was Johnny. There is no information on Johnny inside Fontaine Futuristics or Persephone. We get some info on Delta but nothing more to prove his connection to Johnny Topside.

Since he is a silent protagonist and the player does not experience any flashbacks or exposition, I assume that Delta does not remember his life before becoming a big daddy.

I like the idea that Delta could be someone else entirely, although that has two meanings. The first is that someone else was chosen to be subject delta, maybe a smuggler or just someone who spoke out against Ryan. The second is that Subject delta is no longer who he was before, so it doesn't matter since he is a new person.

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Going outside

Throughout BioShock 2 we see rooms with diving suits around each airlock. Persephone even requires you to access it from outside as it is not connected to bathysphere or rail travel. Here are some of my head cannons related to going outside.

 Although big daddies can repair damage to structures and excavate areas for construction, they can’t do everything. There are not enough big daddies with many of them becoming protectors and some tasks that are impossible with a drill for a hand.

When it comes to things like burials at sea or removing barnacles and starfish then it is time to someone to suit up. Its much more hazardous than most people think, the massive change in pressure means trips would be very limited in length. In addition it can be tiring to walk underwater and difficult to see as your movement disturbs the sediment. Also the gear is expensive and those who can afford are wealthy enough to hire someone else to use it for them rather than go out themselves.

People with access to diving equipment are all suspected of smuggling,  although very few of them actually do retrieve smuggled goods. Packages are either sunk from the surface or floated up from Rapture.  Ryan industries is very careful with who it gives access to the suits, although of course anyone who can afford their own is welcome to take a walk outside.

Diving equipment was distinct from big daddy equipment to begin with but as time went on they started to use some of the same pieces such as helmets and boots with minor modifications.

Burials at sea are conducted in view of a ground floor window, with either a burial or urn being placed before a headstone. Twilight fields owns some patches of land for graves but many are buried in no mans land areas, in view of the city but at risk of being buried under a new building. The remains are placed in the air lock with the diver(s) and taken out for burial. Coffins have to be weighted or flooded to stop them from floating up to the surface, which has probably happened before.

Placing advertisements on the outside of windows is a popular but more expensive practice, which often leaves them there for months before being removed or replaced. Corporate espionage is also rampant, with defacement of ads or damage to external pipes to cause blockages or leaks that cause areas to be unusable.

People simply no longer expect anyone to be looking in through their windows and so a swim by with a camera can capture shots of schematics or scandals. Some people even hire divers to spy on their spouses if they suspect they are cheating on them.

Picture of diving suits outside the air lock in Fontaine Futuristics.

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Corpse Disposal in Rapture

A continuation of a fascination discussion with @batslime​!

Like all things in Rapture, corpse disposal and funeral arrangements are sharply divided by class. From lowest income to the one percenters, these are my headcanons regarding the handling of dead in the city. 

Poorer citizens opt for the “crush and flush” method (aka cremation & disposal at sea) without a showing to avoid the waste of burial clothes and the cost of urns. it’s more common for poorer citizens to have a private visitation around a memorial shrine. You even see one of these shrines in Pauper’s Drop!

Middle class citizens tend towards urns, as they can usually afford them and are typically priced out of the alternatives accessible to the wealthiest citizens. However, families of the deceased have a few options regarding where to store their loved ones remains. The first one is, of course, at home- be it with immediate family or extended relatives. However, space is tight and with Rapture’s emphasis on rationality over sentimentality, I feel there would be an alternative offsite storage location for those who want to pay respects but not bring the grief home with them. My proposal is this: for those who want to keep the ashes of their loved ones can store them in “burial vault”- essentially a storage facility of safe deposit drawers. Inside each one there is a single urn, and attached to the face of the storage is a small glass display shelf, where mourners can leave flowers, notes or unlit candles. Middle shelves are the most expensive as their eye level height is easier to access, and prices go lower the further up or down you deviate from the center.

In addition, those who can afford it can opt for viewings before the cremation proper. The burning of the coffin along with the body costs extra, of course, and in Rapture renting coffins for a viewing is fairly common. As such there are rental aka “show” coffins used only for wakes which are then emptied and returned to the dealer. To streamline the use of these rental coffins, most have a hinge at the bottom panel by the feet. When sprung, the coffin bottom swings open and lets the “guest” slide out into the incinerator or on much rarer occasions, the grave.

And last but not least, those with the money to spare can afford to cover a real, honest-to-god soil burial. The elites of Rapture can choose to bury their loved ones in Arcadia. Due to high demand however, those who are interested have to pay to enter the lottery then pay again if they want to secure the grave site. That’s why there’s so few headstones in the park- it suffers from limited space and even more so limited access.

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Do you have any head cannons for what songbird does when he's not with Elizabeth?

Songbird Headcanons

NOTE: For all his viciousness and ferocity, Songbird is still a thinking being- not near standard human intelligence obviously, but instead somewhere around the Average Work/Obedience Intelligence level on the Stanley Coren scale of dog intelligence. While my headcanon is that Songbird is made from human tissues (much like a Big Daddy but sourced from multiple test subjects), I feel that Songbird’s capacity is lower than not only humans but also Big Daddies, as the combined brain tissue was slightly damaged by the crude transplant methods used by Finkton Labs. (For context, on the scale of intelligence mass-produced Big Daddies measures in at Above Average Working Intelligence with Alpha series at Excellent Working Intelligence)

While the game only shows him flying around, occasionally Songbird is grounded for maintenance- because of his strength however, as well as his capacity for daily maintenance via preening and other comfort behaviour it’s been done only when he is injured beyond his physical limits, though this has only happened a handful of times, usually after accidental encounters with outside forces. 

Strange as it seems, Songbird loves to play. When Elizabeth was younger the two would play indoor/outdoor catch, with Elizabeth throwing a rubber ball out the library window for Songbird to catch. Now that she’s distanced herself however, Songbird has to find his own amusements elsewhere- swooping at nearby fish and birds, rolling in the snow (on sturdy structures only because he’s Learned his Lesson) and making enormous crude nests of scrap metal and rubble. 

Is occasionally adopted by other flocks of birds. While too large and intimidating to have a permanent flock, its not unseen for a procession of smaller migratory birds to hang around Songbird for protection, nesting near Elizabeth’s tower or even sitting on his head. He’s essentially a bird capybara.

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Plot twist.

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Don't even get her started on how the Saturnine controls the city council.

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Ryan doesn`t want people to leave the city so they can discover the truth!

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Somewhere in New York, 1945

Ryan: So we build it at the bottom of the ocean, in total secrecy.

Sullivan: Okay.

Ryan: We make it completely self sustaining, no links to the surface at all.

Sullivan: Good Idea.

Ryan: And just to make sure no one ever finds it, we build a giant lighthouse right on top of it.

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