Columbia



Columbia is a floating city in the sky and is the setting of BioShock Infinite. It is composed of neoclassical buildings constructed on giant reactors and self-sustaining balloons to make the city literally fly over the clouds.

History
Constructed by the American government and originally conceived as a floating symbol of American ideals at a time when the United States was emerging as a world power, Columbia was dispatched to distant shores with great fanfare by a captivated public. However, what began as a brand new endeavor of hope turned drastically wrong: in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, Columbia fired upon a group of Chinese civilians. This event revealed to the citizens of Columbia and the world the true nature of their floating city: that it was essentially a heavily armed aerial battleship. The event in question created problems between leadership in Columbia and the United States, causing the city to disappear into the clouds.

The city itself is composed of several districts; currently, Finkton, Emporia Towers (which is in fact a sub-district within the larger Emporia Heights district), Battleship Bay, and the district that houses the Hall of Heroes, Soldier's Field Hotel, Monument Island, and the First Lady's Aerodrome. The other areas of the city remain unknown.

Some time after the city's disappearance, its inhabitants began a bloody civil war over drastically opposed ideologies. One faction, The Founders, supported ideals of American exceptionalism and Aryan values. The other, the Vox Populi, was passionately in favor of equal treatment for all races and economic status but with marxist/communist ideals. Both of these factions wished to use Elizabeth, a young woman with extraordinary abilities who had been captive within the city for 15 years, for their own ends.

In 1912, a former Pinkerton agent named Booker DeWitt was sent to the city to bring Elizabeth to New York.

Behind the Scenes

 * The name Columbia refers to the female personification of the United States used in various forms of patriotic symbolism in the 19th century.
 * Early in development, Columbia was meant to be much darker than it currently is. Ken Levine mentioned at a press conference that the concept looked like "Rapture in the sky".
 * Columbia's entry is a mirror of Rapture's: both journeys start at a lighthouse, but whereas the journey to Rapture is a descent to a bathysphere, that to Columbia is an ascension to an airborne capsule. As when a whale comes into view when the player descends down to Rapture, a zeppelin comes into view when the player is launched up to Columbia.
 * In BioShock Infinite, the citizens of Columbia view the foundation of America as a religion and worship the founding fathers as well as Comstock, who is referred to as the city's Prophet. Much of the city is also concerned with Columbia's "purity," leading to rampant racism from many of its citizens. Upon entering Columbia, Booker wins a raffle giving him the opportunity to throw a baseball at an interracial couple. An entire section of the city is dedicated to John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln.
 * Events of Bioshock Infinite are placed near the 4th of July, while in Rapture it was New Year's Eve 1958.
 * Columbia appears in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Here, it makes two appearances: once, in the background of the Uncharted stage, Stowaways, and again as its very own stage, which is invaded by the Twisted Metal character, Dollface.