This is the primer for all Profane Blood readers who aren't familiar with Bioshock or Bioshock 2. I hope this answers any questions you may have but, if after reading it, you still find yourself confused when reading Profane Blood then feel free to ask questions either here or on whatever chapter of Profane Blood you become confused on. I will be happy to clear things up for you! The story this primer goes with can be found HERE
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Eleanor Lamb - Darcy Lewis' birth name in this universe. Eleanor Lamb was born in the underwater dystopia of Rapture around 1953. When she was six years old she was kidnapped and sold to the Little Sister's Orphanage which was secretly a front for human experimentation on adolescent girls. A bio-luminescent sea slug capable of producing a substance called ADAM was implanted inside her, basically making her a human ADAM factory. As a result she had super human healing and later, as a teenager, developed the ability to use and control Plasmid powers. She was brainwashed, mentally reprogrammed, and pair-bonded with a brainwashed and enslaved adult protector called a Big Daddy, code name Subject Delta, to keep her safe while gathering ADAM rich blood from corpses, drinking it, and later regurgitating the newly purified ADAM for Fontaine Futuristic's scientists. She and Delta, while not actually related, view each other as father and daughter thanks to the mental bond they share.
Eleanor was genetically engineered to have genius level intellect and really shines at computers and engineering.
Passive Abilities: Enhance healing and strength
Powers: Enhanced speed, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis and, in dire situations, Teleportation.
Use of her Plasmid powers consumes the ADAM in her blood naturally made by system. Therefore, she cannot just endlessly spam her abilities. If she runs out of ADAM her powers won't work until she's either recovered it naturally via sleep and food or has received a booster shot of ADAM called EVE. Teleportation is an emergency only, last defense kind of power as it will completely wipe out her ADAM levels and leave her exhausted and defenseless with only her enhanced strength and healing.
Subject Delta - An explorer named Jack Darcy who accidentally found Rapture while investigating the large number of ship and plane disappearances in the area. He was imprisoned in Rapture, experimented on, and later brainwashed, reprogrammed, and enslaved as a Big Daddy. He was chosen to be Eleanor's protector and the two were pairbonded. He was murdered by Eleanor's mother Sophia Lamb but later resurrected thanks to Eleanor and Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum. He fought Sophia Lamb's cult followers across Rapture to save Eleanor. He later died of his wounds having succeeding in rescuing his daughter and getting her to the surface. He allowed her to absorb his consciousness via transfusion of all his ADAM rich blood while he was still alive and is now always with her, speaking to her in her mind. In Profane Blood I have given him the name Jack Darcy (For obvious reasons), he has no known official name in canon.
Pairbond - A mental link between two people forged via an unknown combination of drugs, ADAM, and machinery. In the game a device somewhat similar to the chair Bucky is reprogrammed in seen.
Rapture - A city created by Andrew Ryan underneath the ocean based on the ideals of free enterprise, meritocracy, and little government or religious interference in scientific or artistic progress. In practice a city with no laws constraining science or business or protecting the poor or consumers lead to rampant corruption and the sale of ADAM based Plasmids which their creators knew caused mental and physical degeneration with long term use but lied about and sold anyway. Ryan's dictatorial leadership, the insanity caused by ADAM, and the lack of protections for common citizens in favor of big business led to a civil war and societal breakdown.
ADAM - A chemical capable of altering human DNA produced by a bio-luminescent, parasitic sea slug. Scientific research on the slug and the ADAM it produced resulted in injectible Plasmids which allowed users to "splice" new DNA into their genetic code. This meant a person could change their looks ala plastic surgery, or even go so far as to completely change their sex or race. It could increase a person's intelligence, strength, speed, or even give someone super powers such as telekinesis, pyrokinesis(called Incinerate), cryokinesis (called Winter Blast), electrokinesis (called Electrobolt),and even teleportation. Kept secret from the public that used them, though, is that long term, repeated use of ADAM causes genetic breakdown, resulting in insanity, extremely violent temperament, and cancerous growths. It is also highly addictive.
Plasmids - Specialized doses of ADAM most commonly delivered via syringes that, when injected, will re-write sections of the user's DNA. This can result in Super Powers such as the aforementioned telekinesis, pyrokinesis (called Incinerate), cryokinesis (called Winter Blast), electrokinesis (called Electrobolt),and even teleportation.
Little Sisters - Unable to keep up demand for more ADAM and Plasmids with the small amounts produced naturally by the sea slugs scientists turned to human experimentation in an effort to implant the slug inside a human host, making them essentially a human ADAM factory. The only test subjects capable of surviving the procedure for some unknown reason, however, were adolescent girls between the ages of 4 and 12. Fontaine Industries opened The Little Sister's Orphanage and secretly experimented on the girls left there. Once implanted with the ADAM slug the child's body began producing ADAM at an accelerated rate, these massive ADAM levels resulted in super human healing levels, grayish skin, glowing yellow eyes, and a hollow, echoing voice. The girls were then brainwashed and programmed to seek out corpses and ingest the ADAM rich blood. Their bodies would then process the ADAM and they would later regurgitate the now pure ADAM for the scientists to make into new Plasmids or EVE injections.
Big Sisters - Little Sisters who survived to mature into teenagers. Their bodies ADAM production has slowed down significantly, resulting in the loss of the gray skin, glowing eyes, and echoing voice but the girls developed extremely powerful Plasmid-like abilities, enhanced strength, speed, and healing due to their developing bodies having been subjected to such high doses of ADAM in adolescence. If left in place, the mental conditioning they underwent as children shattered their minds. They are hyper aggressive to any but their former protectors the Big Daddies, their fellow Big Sisters, and the new Little Sisters. They are extremely protective of the Little Sisters. Eleanor is the only known Big Sister to maintain her sanity. This is due to the extensive therapy and de-programing she went through from ages 7-16.
Big Daddies - Adults who have been brainwashed, re-programmed, experimented on to give them enhanced strength, healing(and in some, Plasmid powers) and sealed in large armored diving suits. They are mentally bonded to the Little Sisters and serve as their protectors. The first Big Daddies were pair-bonded to specific Little Sisters, such as with Eleanor and Delta who were the first successfully bonded pair. This prove to be too costly as pair-bonded Big Daddies who lost their Little Sister either died from the shock of the snapped bond, killed themselves in grief, or went insane. Later Big Daddies are in an open bond with all Little Sisters so that if one of the pair is killed, another steps up to take their place. Due to brainwashing, both the Little Sister and Big Daddy tend to believe they were mistaken about their bonded partner's death and are unaware that their new partner is a different person.
EVE - Booster doses of ADAM meant to be injected into a person's body to give them the ADAM necessary for using Plasmid powers.
Splicers - People who have used ADAM to "splice" their DNA. Long term use of ADAM has lead to the breakdown of their DNA, causing cancerous tumors to erupt across their bodies, violent insanity, as well as an addiction to ADAM.
Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum - The discoverer of the ADAM sea slug, and main researcher on ADAM, it's capabilities, the development of Plasmids, and the creation of the Little Sisters. She later grew a conscience and developed a cure that can safely kill the ADAM parasite inside of the adolescent Little Sisters, rendering them mostly human, once more. She helped Jack Ryan take down the corrupt dictator of Rapture, Andrew Ryan, in order to save him and the Little Sisters. 10 years later she returned to Rapture to help save the new set of Little Sisters created by Sophia Lamb. She aided Eleanor in reviving Subject Delta without the Big Daddy programming that had essentially rendered him a slave.
Andrew Ryan - Creator and dictator of Rapture. Fear of losing control of the city led to him becoming everything he'd created Rapture to escape from.
Jack Ryan - Protagonist of the first game and secretly Andrew Ryan's biological son. He was genetically engineered and raised by Frank Fontaine, Dr. Tenenbaum, and other Fontaine Futuristic scientists. They turned to the mental programming used on the Little Sisters and Big Daddies to implant code phrases Jack would unknowingly obey without question. He was intended to be a secret weapon that would help Frank Fontaine to take control of Rapture but Jack's own strong will, Dr. Tenenbaum, and the Little Sisters managed to overcome and remove the programming. He ended up killing both Andrew Ryan and, with the help of the Little Sisters, Frank Fontaine before taking several Little Sisters he'd saved and cured and returning to the surface, intent on raising them as his daughters.
Frank Fontaine - A sociopathic crime lord and owner of Fontaine Futuristics. He was the first to recognize the potential of Dr. Tenenbaum's discovery and subsequently funded the research into ADAM. It was his company that created the Plasmids, Little Sisters, and Big Daddies. The Civil War and resulting societal breakdown were a direct result to the fight for control of Rapture and ADAM between him and Andrew Ryan. He ordered the development of project W-Y-K, which was the creation and programming of Jack Ryan in a bid to take control of the city and kill Andrew Ryan. After briefly taking control of Rapture he was killed by Jack Ryan with the help of the five Little Sisters that would eventually be Jack's daughters.
Genetic Memory - ADAM that has been taken from a corpse contains traces of fragmented memory from the dead person's DNA that is attached to the ADAM. Even once it has been processed by a Little Sister and made into a new Plasmid or EVE it still contains those memories. The people who inject themselves with this ADAM will often experience ghost like apparitions as the memories of the previous owner randomly play in places or situations that spark the borrowed memory. If all the ADAM rich blood is absorbed from a living person then a complete copy of that person's consciousness will take up residence in the absorber's head. This is how Eleanor has Delta in her mind, she absorbed his consciousness into her when he lay dying so they would never be parted ever again.
The Rapture Family - Dr. Sophia Lamb's sycophantic cult dedicated to creating "Utopia", the merging of all humanity's minds into one ADAM enhanced body that has been brainwashed and mentally programmed to only ever act selflessly and in humanity's interest. Eleanor Lamb was eventually chosen by Sophia Lamb due to her status as a Little Sister giving her immunity to the genetic damage, physical mutations, and mental instability usually caused heavy ADAM usage.
Dr. Sophia Lamb - Eleanor's mother, Sophia is a psychiatrist brought to Rapture by Andrew Ryan due to the trouble people were having adjusting to life under the ocean. From day one she was a vocal political opponent and advocate for the rights of the poor and working class. Eventually Ryan had her thrown in prison on trumped up charges due to her growing influence with the citizens of Rapture becoming a threat to his continued authority. While imprisoned her daughter, Eleanor was kidnapped from the home of Sophia close friend and client Grace Holloway and sold to Fontaine's Little Sister Orphanage. After the civil war broke out Lamb was determined to reclaim her daughter, who she learned had been made into a Little Sister. She murdered Subject Delta, Eleanor's Big Daddy and the person she considered a father, right in front of her daughter's horrified eyes. Over time Lamb's popularity grew to the point she took control of Rapture. Her philosophy, meanwhile, had evolved into the idea of using ADAM and mental programming to transfer the consciousness of every human into the body of one immortal person that had been mentally conditioned to be selfless and act only in humanity's interest, thus doing away with anger, jealousy, greed, and ever other ill of humanity. After her first test subject succumbed to ADAM's degenerative effect she decided Eleanor was a better candidate since her status as a Little Sister made her immune to the damage.