Where did the Conduits in InFamous Second Son come from?
As I understood the story to play out, at the end of Infamous 2;
Good-Cole kills every conduit on the planet, himself included.
If I'm understanding this correctly, how does InFamous Second Son work around this plot event?
5 Answers
This is covered in the conduit awareness quiz and associated information. The short answer is that only some died (~90%) around the world and the official story is that there is no known reason for this inconsistency.
Where do conduits come from?
There is a conduit gene that, when activated, gives powers. There are reports and rumours about how conduits genes are activated and so there is no definitive reason for why there are activated conduits. They don't go into where the conduit gene itself comes from, but possibilities may include evolution, mutation, and genetic manipulation.
The primary factor that differentiates conduits from other humans is a special gene. Unless this gene has been activated, there is no difference between a normal human being and a conduit. Most of the carriers of the Conduit Gene are dormant and appear no different than normal humans.
...
While Ray Field Radiation is known to play a part in the expression of the Conduit Gene and the use of conduit powers, there are numerous reports and rumors of conduits being activated in a variety of ways, including genetic experimentation and contact with Activated Conduits. Consequently, we do not definitively know how they are activated.
What happened to conduits following the events of New Marais?
Approximately 90% of conduits all over the world died and why some died and some didn't is unknown.
Approximately 90% of conduits all over the world died when The Beast was destroyed in New Marais. The deaths were so widespread that conduits were believed to have experienced an extinction event. But in the following months it became evident that some conduits managed to survive—even some who were present at New Marais at the time of The Beast’s destruction. To this day, we do not know why some perished and others survived, but we suspect some kind of Ray Field Radiation event occurred.
From the events of the very first inFamous game, we know that Kessler is...
Cole MacGrath from the future.
Unlike Cole, who became a Conduit after Kessler's package (a Ray Sphere) exploded, Kessler's powers evolved naturally, without any noticeable influence from outside.
How exactly the first Conduits came to be remains unknown, but the second generation of Conduits were likely "born" the same way.
It seems that Cole's death only affected people who would have gooten their powers from him. His Ray Sphere like powers allowed him to activate dormant conduits, and because the bulk of these powers came from the beast he gained the burden of the people tje beast turned. So when Cole died the source of power for these conduits seemed to have died off. Natural Prime Conduits never had any relation to cole and therefore could remain unaffected.
1I had a theory.... it was the Vampires in Festival of Blood that caused it.
In inFAMOUS Festival of Blood, the Vampires had the ability of transforming into a swarm of bats, blood, or a bolt of what appeared to be blue electricity/light to fly/teleoprt.
And guess what else had the same abilities? Basically everyone that had powers in Second Son. Delsin Rowe can transform into a puff of smoke/ a streak of light/ a large boulder to travel around, and his Video powers causes his body to transform into pixels when used. so did the origins of said powers-- Abrigil Walker as in inFAMOUS: First Light, Eugene Sims. Henry Daughtry. Even Brooke Augustine and her Enforcers had the ability of transforming themselves into Concrete, disassembling in one location and reappearing in another.
And as it was shown in the end of Festival of Blood, and in one of the UGC missions in inFAMOUS 2, Vampires DO exist in the Canon Timeline. and they have existed at least 1000 years before the Ray Sphere or the Canonical Conduits in inFAMOUS 1-- which means that they activated their powers spontaneously, or at least as a part of their transmission process. And guess who else had the same activation mechanism? Every known Conduit in inFAMOUS 2.
Also, it appeared that in Second Son there were apparently so many Conduits roaming out there that special Checkpoints have to be set up to meticulously screen everyone for possible "Rogue" powers. And the post-RFI world have somehow wind up with more Prime Conduits than even before the RFI went off, which should have reduced their population to at least less than the amount we met in the first two games-- There were allegedly more than 25 captured "Bioterrorists" within Seattle even right now during the playthrough of inFAMOUS Second Son, a number nearly twice that of what we have ever seen in the entire United States in the first two games. and it was implied in the beginning of Second Son that the Seattle Detaining Facility regularly ships OUT captured Prime Conduits to somewhere else for detainment.
The DUP's enforcers, a kind of Forced Conduit, was of unlimited supply in Second Son, implying that Conduit Powers in Second Son can be transmitted to people without the special gene-- and guess what else could produce Forced Conduits from normal Humans? The Vampires. Which could even produce a form of pathogen that turned nearly everyone in New Marais into a lesser Vampire (which you can't suck the blood out of, and must kill with a stake through the heart) in the climax of Festival of Blood.
It also appeared that the Vampire Infection can co-exist with the original Conduit Gene-- Cole Macgrath gets to keep his electricity powers and regeneration mechanism even after he was turned into a Vampire and obtained Vampire Powers as well (including the transforming-in-to-element flight ability and Healing by sucking blood ability of the Vampires. even Vampire Vision (Totally not a copycat of the Infected Vision ability from the [PROTOTYPE] series).) which means that the Vampire Infection, or Vampire Conduit Gene was in parallel toward the Ray Field Conduit Gene-- enabling it to survive the RFI blast.
So this is my theory-- the RFI's blast in deed eradicated every Conduit, dormant or active, as in the two first games. However, the process have also caused the Vampire Conduit Gene to mutate-- It was still highly contagious, as demonstrated by the need for a total quarantine after an active one popped up somewhere by the DUP. And it was still capable of spontaneous activation-- again how everyone got their powers in Second Son.
However, the RFI seems to have greatly reduced it's transmissibility-- instead of spontaneously creating Forced Conduits through biting and even air transmission, it can only transmit very slowly and create Prime Conduits sparingly, after what was implied to be an incubation period. And it appeared that it's power set have also been severely damaged-- although the basic mechanism of Using-Powers-Through-Transforming-Into-Elements and the ability to create Forced Conduits (the DUP Enforcers) from normal people remained, what's left of the Vampire Conduit Gene have completely lost it's original set of elements, and instead chose random elements upon activation.
However, it still appeared that, even in this severely damaged and weakened state, the Vampire Conduit Gene is still capable of causing a lot of mayham-- and recreate the conditions where superpowers popped out from nowhere causing fear and unrest in Second Son just like in the first inFAMOUS game.
The narrator mentioned that Kessler was the first conduit and that he was planning on this. He knew that Cole McGrath had the conduit gene.
