From the introduction: The year is 1912 and you are in the floating city of Columbia. Columbia was finished in 1893, made possible by the work of the genius of Rosalind Lutece, and put under the control of the politician Zachary Hale Comstock. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, upon learning that the Chinese had taken Americans hostage, Comstock ordered that Columbia (a highly advanced aerial battleship) fire on the Chinese. This caused an international incident and the U.S. government called for Columbia’s landing and subsequent decommission. Comstock saw this as a great betrayal and instead led Columbia to secede and remain floating independently.