Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?
When Andrew Ryan asked that question, the man in Washington answered “no, it belongs
to the poor”, the man in the Vatican answered “no, it belongs to god” and the man in
Moscow answered “no, it belongs to everyone”.
But Andrew Ryan rejected those answers and in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic
he instead chose something different, something impossible.
Thousands of feet below the surface of the water a city was constructed, a haven where
the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty
morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small.
A city known as Rapture.
It is said that all roads in Rapture lead to Ryan, a man whose escape from the Soviet
Union and rise as an industrial mogul in the United States soured his perception of unions,
collectivists, religion, and altruism.
He labeled such concepts “parasites” and as the world powers pursued a global atomic
arms race, he began making plans for a true utopia, a closed-off society where those who
believed in the empowerment of the individual could survive the inevitable death of humanity.
In late 1945, Ryan and a cabal of like minded individuals began construction of their underwater
utopia.
Materials were submerged and prefabricated buildings anchored to the sea floor.
The first residents arrived in 1946 and by 1951 construction was largely complete.
Rapture was an engineering marvel, a completely self-sufficient metropolis accessible from
the surface only by a system of bathyspheres deployed from a solitary lighthouse.
The city raised its own crops, farmed the surrounding sea life and utilized geothermal
power to create almost limitless energy.
Its residents had access to every amenity; shopping centers, entertainment venues, laboratories,
manufacturing plants, medical facilities, and other common services necessitated by
a functional, modern city.
Tens of thousands lived in enormous underwater skyscrapers, linked together by walkways and
tunnels.
Trains and bathyspheres provided a sy stem of mass transit.
Not only functional, Rapture was the pinnacle of aesthetic design, marked by a distinct
Art Deco motif that transformed the city into an unprecedented work of art.
For a time, Rapture truly lived up to its promise as a utopian paradise where individuals
were free to pursue their own dreams no matter where it led them.
Self interest and free markets united the city forward in progress.
Scientific breakthroughs brought about an advanced automated security system, portable
recording devices, automatic doors and vocal biometric machines.
The greatest discovery however was ADAM, a strange type of stem cell harvested from a
species of a previously unknown sea slug.
ADAM could be utilized to splice genetic material into an individual's DNA, granting them enhanced
health, intellect and bestowing extraordinary powers to the human body that bordered on
supernatural.
Refined into “Plasmids” and Gene Tonics, the population of Rapture indulged themselves
on ADAM which quickly spiraled into a city wide addiction.
Physical deformities and mental instability manifested themselves in the “Splicers”
who used ADAM habitually and with any outside regulation expressly prohibited by Andrew
Ryan, the damage done to the general populace was severe.
The experimentation continued, and when it was discovered that sea slugs embedded in
the stomach of a human host could yield twenty to thirty times the usable ADAM, dozens of
orphaned young girls were transformed into so called “Little Sisters”, living factories
conditioned to reclaim ADAM from the corpses of splicers.
Their protection became the duty of “Big Daddies”, genetically enhanced human beings
encased in an armoured diving suit and stripped of their capacity for higher reasoning.
The city persisted in a downward spiral into addiction and insanity until on December 31st
1958, a massive working class uprising led by a mysterious individual known only as Atlas
sparked a series of riots across Rapture.
This quickly grew into a full scale civil war as Ryan’s followers clashed with Atlas’
in the streets.
Both sides quickly used the devastating effects of ADAM until the majority of the population
had either devolved into splicers or been killed off by them.
Amidst suicide and starvation, society in Rapture came to an end.
Since then, the city has deteriorated.
Leaks have sprung in every corner as Rapture’s infrastructure has started to collapse due
to neglect.
Entire sections have been flooded and everywhere Splicers roam the remaining hallways, looting
and killing.
Only automated systems and Big Daddies have kept the city from falling apart, but it is
now only a matter of time.
Eventually the structural supports will fail, the buildings will collapse and the dream
of Andrew Ryan will become a mass grave for all those who believed in his vision.
But there is always a lighthouse, a man… a city.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.
In Atlas, the Templin Institute investigates the most storied places from across alternate
worlds.
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