Whooo, did Exilo ever hate Bioshock Infinite. While I didn’t hate it as much as he, I certainly saw problems, between the Emperor’s New Clothes storyline, the either one-dimensional characterization or total lack of, or their adamant fear of actually having a black woman as an enemy.

Still, if there was one saving grace of that game, it was the introduction of a multiverse. Exilo loves multiverses, if you didn’t know. After Bioshock 2, Exilo and I came up with several OCs who lived within Rapture, but it was fairly basic. Exilo was a Big Daddy, I had a Big Sister, and our other characters had various mooks. It… wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special, and Exilo was close to simply scrapping the characters entirely.

It wasn’t until the introduction of an in-canon Multiverse that Exilo really came up with something brilliant, if I do say so myself.

Exilo adores philosophy, and he came up with six characters, each living in a city that was built on a single ideal. The six philosophies are: Individuality, Community, Knowledge, Passion, Order, and Freedom. These two characters are from the City of Individuality (the underground city of Romulus), and the City of Community (the flying city of Tomyris).

PHEW! Uh… s-sorry, sometimes I give into lore porn. Working around Exi tends to have that effect…

Anyway, some background information:

The taller, masculine character on the right is Subject Nine of the Romulus Centurions. Romulus has some similarities to Rapture, mostly because its Exilo’s personal city, and he has some beliefs leaning towards libertarian, meritocracy, and laissez-faire economy. Romulus was a city built with the idea of individuality and self-sufficiency. A man was what he had, and had what he deserved. Needless to say… this didn’t end well. Quite literally, everyone was only in it for themselves. Everyone was eager to stomp someone else down if it meant rising just a bit higher.

The Centurion line were originally built to expand the borders of the City of Romulus, hence Nine having a massive drill attached to his right arm. Originally simply men and women who were hired to fulfill the service, and wearing heavily armored suits / powered armor (but still suits nonetheless), the line was eventually retooled into heavily armored shock troops whose sole purpose was protecting the city. Nine was one of the earliest successes of this line. At the same time, due to them not yet perfecting the brainwashing process, Nine’s sapience eventually returned… only for him to continue protecting the city, simply because that is what he believes in and wants to do.

The Centurion line, though somewhat slow and lumbering, are insanely powerful. Nine is fully capable of knocking down a building with his bare hands, lifting cars over his head with one hand, and crushing a man’s skull between his fingers. Nine’s main weapon is his drill, which, designed to bore through solid rock, is more than enough to penetrate armor. Nine can survive at extreme depth beneath the earth, survive in an oxygen purge area for approximately three hours due to his gasmask, and endure countless gunshots due to his thick armor.

The shorter, feminine character on the left, is Subject Eight of the Tomyris Seraphims. Tomyris was founded by a woman who, seeing all the cruelty in the world, sought something better. She founded a city in the sky, similar to Columbia, that would serve as something inspirational and beautiful for all the world to know. The City of Tomyris was founded with various Socialist/Communist ideas, with the greatest emphasis being on community rather than individual achievement. The government was borderline fascist, but overall benevolent, with the government genuinely believing they are doing what is best in keeping selfishness at bay. Unfortunately, this simply lead to the populace growing lazy and lethargic, and lacking any real desire to achieve because they are sure the government will handle them.

So… Well, I do certainly believe in socialist programs and helping the downtrodden, but… well… yeah…

Unlike the Centurion line, who were originally built for heavy lifting and mining, but moved into soldiers, the Seraphim were originally Cherubim, young girls who were able to process ADAM (think of them as expys of the Little Sisters from the original Bioshock game). As the Cherubim grew, they were converted into Seraphim, who would serve as both a police force, and an attempt at creating something inspirational to keep the masses at bay. Eight never lost her sapience, though being raised in Tomyris has left her with a strong sense of sapience.

Due to the design of Tomyris, being very wide, open, and airy, the Seraphim are built for speed. The extremely powerful muscles in Eight’s legs allows her to jump several dozen feet into the air, she can run around 60 mph without risk of harming herself, and she has enough agility to deflects bullets with her saw arm (though this is somewhat difficult and she can’t keep it up for long). The buzz saw attachment on Eight’s left hand has its origins in the early Seraphim line. The designers attempted to incorporate some sort of propeller that would allow them to fly. However, due to the weight of the Seraphim, the only propellers they could use proved too large and cumbersome for the otherwise very mobile units. However, an early version of Eight used the propeller as a makeshift weapon, and based on that design, the designers eventually incorporated the buzz saw into the units.

O-OK… end of the lore porn, I promise.

So, I gave the artist a whole ton of lore to work with, and much to my delight, the artist went so far and above and beyond what I asked for. Among other things: the number on each characters shoulder was the artist’s original thought, but I think it’s so utterly brilliant I’ve incorporated it into the official lore. Eight originally had a much more simplistic body suit, being predominately red with a white chest. The artist colored her with the white in her boots, and the white finger tips, which I think looks great. Most of all though, the artist really did great work with their builds. Nine was originally somewhere between a Big Daddy and an Alpha Series Big Daddy in terms of build: utterly hulking and somewhat… no longer human. The artist, though, made a build that while massive, also is still clearly man underneath. Nine can remove most of his armor (he no longer has a right hand, but he can take the drill off). Same thing with Eight. She has no left hand, but she can remove the attachment.

I just really love how these two came out. And Eight having such a developed lower body is a new reference I plan to use with some other characters of mine.

I hope you enjoy, and if you enjoy the lore, Exilo wrote a fic taking place in his personal Bioshock Multiverse.

Link: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13335974/

Nine belongs to  MrExilo

Eight belongs to  MsUzira

Artwork was done by the ever brilliant  Diadorin