is set in 1912 and takes place in a floating steampunk city-state in the sky called "Columbia", named for the female personification of the United States. The city of Columbia was founded by self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock, and funded by the American government as a floating world's fair and display of American exceptionalism. Tensions rose between Columbia and the US government after the city intervened in the Boxer Rebellion, and Columbia ultimately seceded from the United States and disappeared into the clouds. Comstock transforms the city into a theocratic police state, with Comstock worshipped as a prophet, and the Founding Fathers of the United States venerated as religious icons. Institutional racism and elitism are widespread in the city, with minorities serving as a labor underclass of Columbia. By the events of the game, Columbia is on the verge of civil war between the Founders (the leaders of Columbia) and the Vox Populi, a resistance group led by Daisy Fitzroy who fight for the rights of the marginalized. Columbia is also home to "Tears" in the fabric of space-time. These Tears reveal alternate universes, and allow for interaction with them. Some individuals have exploited the insight offered by them to create radically new weapons and technologies, while several others have replicated futuristic music and songs heard from the Tears, bringing anachronistic elements into Columbia. The player controls protagonist Booker DeWitt, a disgraced member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency emotionally scarred from the acts of violence he committed at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Faced with mounting gambling debts, he is sent to Columbia to find Elizabeth, who has the ability to open Tears. Elizabeth has been confined since childhood in the city and guarded by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who has been both her friend and her warden. Two individuals, Robert and Rosalind Lutece, direct Booker to Columbia and appear throughout his travels. Though they appear as twins, they are revealed to be the same person from two different realities, having managed to figure out how to communicate through and subsequently cross realities. Plot In July 1912, Booker DeWitt arrives in Columbia. In the city, he is pursued by Columbia's authorities, who recognize him as a prophesied "False Shepherd" who will corrupt Elizabeth and overthrow Columbia. Freeing Elizabeth from her tower, Booker narrowly evades Songbird. Commandeering an airship, Booker promises to take Elizabeth to Paris; when she