Merged

The Merged was an early concept for BioShock Infinite. Some Citizens of Columbia would appear severely deformed after being exposed to Tears.

The concept of the Merged deals with Infinite's themes of and quantum physics, similar to the way BioShock's Splicers are used to examine ADAM and advanced genetics.

Concept
According to The Art of BioShock Infinite, Citizens would have crossed opened Tears, either to see an alternate world or their alternate selves. The long term effects of these Tears caused Citizens to mutate, either having Art Nouveau styled scars from merging realities, or being merged with their alternate selves. Examples of the latter category include an older man's face merged with his infant self or another citizen having a horizontally extended body. Although this never appeared in the finished game, the artwork reveals that most of their clothing appeared on the finished game's Citizen models. There were also early sketches that revealed the Handyman would be included in this concept, from the early "Claw Daddy" exoskeleton concept sketch to a sketch of a unique designed Handyman featured in Pax East 2012, which only the head appears along with these Merged Citizen sketches in the artbook.

Bioshock Infinite
None of the physical mutations represented in the concept are seen in the final game. However, after crossing Tears Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth may observe individuals who have had their minds merged. In one reality these citizens were killed and they now remember their death. The trauma of these events leaves them in a shattered state were they cannot behave normally. Chen Lin, a woman in Harper's Grocery, Booker DeWiitt, and various Soldiers exhibit these symptoms that Merges would having.

Booker had a bleeding nose like all other Merged's meaning that he was partially a Merged.