Cornelius Slate

"That man has never seen the savage face of war.....but he will."

- Cornelius Slate referring to Comstock's fake soldier past.

Captain Cornelius Slate is a citizen in Columbia, whose view on the military is based on both elaborate expectations, along with his real experience of being a soldier.

History
A military man, Cornelius Slate had served in the United States military and participated in the Battle of Wounded Knee. It is there that he became acquainted with Booker DeWitt (who Cornelius refers to as "Corporal DeWitt"). Some undetermined time later, Slate became a follower of Zachary Hale Comstock and becoming a citizen of Columbia. In 1901, Slate participated in Columbia's role in the Boxer Rebellion (during this time, he lost his left eye and 30 soldiers to the Boxers). But over time, Slate became disillusioned with Comstock after he was angered by Comstock's false war past. When he called Comstock out on it, Slate was stripped of his solider rank and marked as a liar. In response, Slate leads a rabble of soldiers who have holed up in the Hall of Heroes.

BioShock Infinite
Fighting against the Founders who aim to imprison or kill Slate. After learning about Comstock's mechanical soldiers, they desperately seek to die "as soldiers" at the hands of a real soldier, and Slate considers Booker DeWitt the man for the job. DeWitt, along with Elizabeth, traveled to the Hall of Heroes solely to obtain the Shock Jockey Vigor. Slate leads DeWitt to two exhibits of Comstock's false war past: Wounded Knee and The Boxer Rebellion. He sends waves of men to be killed as soldiers. As Booker kills his men, Slate then continually tests to see if Booker truly is a real soldier by having him destroy Comstock's Motorized Patriots. Once Booker reaches Slate and retrieves Shock Jockey, he has a choice of fulfilling Slate's wish by shooting him or letting him live.

If Booker choose to kill Slate, his last remarks are about Booker not changing and still being a soldier. If spared, he angrily yells at Booker calling him a "Tin Man". Subsequently, Slate is captured by Columbian authorities and imprisoned at the Columbian Police Station, where he is found to be a catatonic state from being tortured.

Personality
Slate's personality is that of a stereotypical soldier. He holds very high expectations of those within the military due to his own experience as a soldier. He also seems to be very sensitive when it comes to the battles he fought in. As shown by his anger at Comstock for lying about the battles that he fought. He seems to care very much about recieving "a soldier's death". He apparently seems to believe that any soldier of any kind deserves a true soldier's death by another soldier. This is shown by refusing to alow Comstock's Motorized Patriots to kill his men. Instead, he allows Booker to kill them since he respects him for fighting at Wounded Knee. Slate overall seems to care very much for the battles he fought in and the life as a soldier.

Voxophones

 * Hall of Heroes
 * Never Seen the Face
 * A Final Stand
 * Comrades of Necessity
 * A Soldier's Death


 * Fink Manufacturing
 * Seed of a Lie

Behind the scenes

 * Ken Levine mentions how this was inspired by the pathologizing of soldiers in war: You read newspapers that talk about “the fallen,” rather than the dead young men? There’s a lot of pathologizing in our culture. Obviously it’s important, but it’s also a disservice to the real experience. I mean, when you sanitize that experience—the Pat Tillman notion. His family’s saying “look, we honor him by telling the truth about him, about who he really was.” Obviously the military is very important to them too, just not turning people into wax works.
 * If you spare Slate, you will later run into him in the Shantytown prison, where you can choose to kill him.
 * If you kill Slate after sparing him, Elizabeth might say "I guess that's what he wanted."
 * Captain Cornelius Slate is voiced by Keith Szarabajka (also voiced the Ur-Didact in Halo 4, the Reaper Harbinger in Mass Effect 2, Herschel Biggs in L.A Noire, Russman from Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Joshua Graham from Fallout: New Vegas, and many other video game characters).
 * Slate has some small fragments of Shock Jockey crystals on the right side of his head, which might be the side effect of the said vigor.
 * Slate's fate and his words about either choice of sparing him or killing him are a foreshadowing to Booker's baptism, with his thanks for killing him calling Booker a soldier, and calling him a "tin man", with either choice reflecting the lifestyle Booker/Comstock chose after choosing/denying the baptism.
 * Slate may also be seen as a symbolic representation of Booker's military past and the guilt he feels in relation to it. The phrase "wipe the slate clean" may have something to do with this, reflecting Booker's choice to kill/spare Slate and deny/accept baptism.