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| “ | Family isn't who you born with, it's who you'd die for. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln Clay. |
| “ | This ain't about bringing them back, or even exacting some street justice. It's about making that bastard feel what it's like to lose everything. Watch as I take it all away from him. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln explaining his revenge plans to Father James. |
Lincoln J. Clay is the tritagonist of 2K's Mafia franchise, serving is the main protagonist of the 2016 video game Mafia III as well as its DLCs: Faster, Baby!, Stones Unturned, and Sign of the Times.
He is a Vietnam War veteran who plans to start a new life and set up his own criminal empire to enact his revenge on the Marcano crime family for killing his foster family. Depending on the player's choice, Lincoln can go on to rule New Bordeaux as a mafia boss, be killed by Father James for his treachery of killing his allies, or become a drifter and leave New Bordeaux.
He was voiced and motion captured by Alex Hernandez, who also voiced David García in Telltale's The Walking Dead: A New Frontier.
Biography[]
Early life[]
According to Father James, Lincoln Clay was born around February of 1945, to a Dominican mother and possibly to an Italian father. He grew up in Saint Michelle's orphanage in New Bordeaux. However, the orphanage closed down when he was still young, and he was taken in by the Robinson family, who ran the Black Mob. Lincoln began to see them like family and worked with the Black Mob, also being a bartender and mechanic. When he came of age, he joined the United States Army, seeing combat in the Vietnam War and befriending CIA agent John Donovan. Clay was trained by the CIA in psychological warfare, something that would come in handy later on.
The Marcano's Betrayal[]
Upon being discharged from the Army, Lincoln returned to New Bordeaux and was picked up by his foster brother Ellis Robinson. The day afterward, Lincoln overhears Ellis, and his father, Sammy Robinson, arguing, learning that the Haitian Mob have opposed Sammy and that he owes Sal Marcano money. Lincoln aids his family on dealing with the Haitians, killing their leader Baka and robbing the federal reserve with Giorgi Marcano, Danny Burke, and Ellis. In Sammy's Bar, Lincoln is betrayed by the Marcanos, witnessing Sammy, Ellis, and Danny's death as he is left for dead.
Getting Revenge[]
Saved by Father James Ballard, Lincoln was treated for months whilst Father James called in John Donavan. Left with a scar, Lincoln decides to have revenge on the Marcanos by destroying their crime rackets and killing them.
Lincoln gains the alliance of Italian boss Vito Scaletta, Haitian boss Cassandra, and Irish mob boss Thomas Burke to destroy the Marcano Crime Family. Decisions on who gets what districts and gaining/killing Marcano's allies are based on the player, who can gain information.
In addition, Lincoln also aids the Laveau Movement to stop Walter "Slim" Beaumont, stop Donavon's old friend Connor Aldridge from using a warhead, and dissolved the Ensanglante and its leader Bonnie Harless.
By October/November 1968, Lincoln had killed all of the Marcano Crime Family members, assets, and associates. After Sal's death at the casino, he is greeted by Leo Galante, who urges Lincoln to end his crusade and as long as he gets the 20% he was promised, he will be happy. Returning to Father James and Donovan, Lincoln is given three choices for his next move: walk away from New Bordeaux to leave his life of crime behind on advice from Father James, seize power of the city by killing all his underbosses under advise from Donovan, or rule New Bordeaux together with his underbosses.
Lincoln's Fate[]
Rule Together[]
If Lincoln chooses to rule New Bordeaux with his underbosses, he expands his criminal empire across the southern and southwestern United States and becomes a well known philanthropist. Despite being smart with his money, Lincoln gave into anything that made him money (e.g. drugs) and lost the only person who cared for him; Father James, who openly despises what Lincoln has become.
Rule Alone[]
If Lincoln chooses to rule New Bordeaux alone, he murders the underbosses, prompting Father James, who now realizes that Lincoln is no different than Sal, to immediately murder Lincoln by planting a bomb underneath his car. James states he has no regrets for killing him. Johnathan Maguire, a CIA agent who investigated Lincoln's rampage throughout 1968, remarks in a documentary that he feels that Lincoln's spirit is watching him, often stating he hears heavy boots go on the stairs and waiting to take what left of his life.
Leave New Bordeaux[]
If Lincoln leaves New Bordeaux, he effectively disappears from public life, only occasionally sending postcards to Father James from various parts of the world.
Personality[]
Not much is yet known of Clay's personality other than that he is a fairly serious man who values those he refers to as family. Having grown up in Saint Michelle's orphanage, he has never had a conventional family. Thus, he looks to the black mob as a source of support and love. He is extremely protective of those he views as family due to having lost his "family" 2 times in his life: the first time when the orphanage he grew up in closed down, and the second time when the Marcanos murdered the black mob. He clearly despises the Marcanos for what they have done to his family, as evidenced by the way he speaks to a Mafioso he is about to execute; in particular, he feels their concept of a family based solely on blood ties and surnames is a mockery of what a family is supposed to be.
After being betrayed and losing his family, Lincoln showed the darker side of his personality. He became lethal, bloodthirsty, and vengeful, wanting Sal Marcano to watch as he takes everything from him. His bloodthirst for revenge lead him to often leave his victims in public to scare people who opposed him.
Despite his bloodthirsty behavior, Lincoln is calm and keeps his emotions in check despite being a time of prejudice. He is kind, caring, grateful, and open minded towards his friends and allies. An example is accepting Nikki Burke, a woman who is attracted to the same sex despite her father's disapproval. He is outgoing and compassionate, willing to make friends with those of the opposite color. In addition, Lincoln has a moral code, refusing to kill a Vietnamese woman who attempted to kill several U.S. soldiers, as Donovan stated in trial. He didn't kill Olivia Marcano, knowing that she would be killed by an associate.
Lincoln truly suffered from not having an identity, feeling he didn't belong in the world, thus explaining why he joined the army. The only thing his experience in Vietnam gave him were nightmares and unspeakable carnage, giving him PTSD and making unable to sleep peacefully. This would cause him to try to find his purpose in life, as he notes in his journal that he wanted to move to California with a welding gig upon his return from Vietnam.
Abilities[]
- Peak Human Conditioning: Lincoln is a man who keeps himself in very great shape and maintains a strict level of training. His strength, speed, reflexes, agility, durability, and stamina are in top conditioning, for a man of his age.
- Great Durability: Considering his physical condition, Lincoln's body is also very durable as he was able to survive (Despite being critically injured) from being shot in the head at point-blank range.
- Honed Reflexes: During Lincoln's successful attempt to raid and kill a mob boss, he dodges an RPG rocket only a few yards away. Without his fast reflexes, he would have possibly died.
- Extreme Stamina: Lincoln has a tremendous amount of stamina which allows him to run for great distance and fight for a considerable amount of time with multiple skilled opponents a walk away victorious. Even after being injured and tired, Lincoln needs a minimal break only to recover and can move a fight again. He can fight at his peak until he falls from wounds or complete exhaustion.
- Indomitable Will: Lincoln wields great willpower, being greatly determined to destroy the Marcano Crime Family, no matter what it takes. He can also sustain torture from long periods of time. Despite his mastery of martial arts and firearms, Lincoln is injured frequently but rarely notices beyond checking his wounds for bleeding.
- Extensive Military Training: Lincoln joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 223rd Infantry Unit to fight into the Vietnam War, and was highly trained in the arts of unarmed combat, marksmanship, tactics, strategies, protocols, tracking, operations, unorthodox methods, guerilla, unconventional, and psychological warfare. His ability in these skills further improved when he joined the U.S Army's 5th Special Forces Group and later joint-operated with the CIA.
- Master Combatant: As a former U.S Soldier, Clay is a highly skilled, efficient and lethal armed hand to hand combatant. He is highly trained in unarmed combat, unorthodox methods and in the use of improvised weapons.
- Master Marksmanship: Lincoln shows himself to be an master marksman due to being a former soldier in the U.S Army 223rd Infantry Unit, 5th Special Forces Group and later the CIA. Clay has tremendous expertise in handling any firearms, including pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, automatic rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers. He can accurately and precisely gun down multiple enemies in a timely manner while rarely missing his target.
- Knife Mastery: Lincoln is dangerously lethal with his knife, being able to kill his enemies in stealth. When clearing outpost, he will brutally murder criminals with ease, often leading them to be cover in blood.
- Master Tactician & Strategist: As an experienced crime boss, Lincoln is highly capable of casing out, planning and executing assassinations. He is also very spatially aware in combat situations, making use of the environment, weapons held by dead enemies
- High Intelligence: Lincoln was shown to be a very intelligent and wise man who could think about various things even in the critical moments and can easily make his ways out of most problems..
- Expert Driver: Lincoln is a expert driver, being able to outrun the police and his enemies during intense high-speed pursuits. He keeps his skills behind the wheel sharp allowing him to kill enemies with vehicles, delivering sideswipes, reverses and head-on collisions to deal devastating damage.
- Master of Stealth: Lincoln is extremely skilled at breaking into secure locations and escaping without being noticed and he is able to memorize complicated architectural layouts easily.
- Master of Torture/Interrogation: Lincoln is very skilled of forcing people to talk even if uses his bare hands or as usual, his combat knife to either make people work for him or extracting information. He can also knockout his suspects with little to no ease just with one punch. He can also take torture for hours and is extremely difficult to make him spill details of information due to his undying will and his escape tactics.
Murders committed by Lincoln[]
- Baka
- Merle Jackson
- Ritchie Doucet
- Frank Pagani
- Tony Derazio
- Mason Carter
- Chester Moreau
- Remy Duvall
- Tommy Marcano
- Nino Santangelo
- Cornelius Holden
- Walter Jacobs
- Lou Marcano
- Giorgi Marcano
- Sal Marcano (player-determined)
- High Priest
- Dozens of civilians (indirectly)
- Dozens of police officers
- Hundreds of mob enforcers
Endings[]
Ruling Together[]
Following Sal Marcano's death, Lincoln and his lieutenants took over New Bordeaux's criminal underworld, expanding across the rest of the Southeastern United States. He would end up spreading money appropriately.
As boss, he was very benevolent, rebuilding Delray Hollow, purchasing Frisco Fields, and even reopening Baron Saturday's Fun Park. He donated to charities, schools, and hospitals. However, Lincoln succumbed to anything that could make him money, which included things such as drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. Lincoln's decision to remain in New Bordeaux and take over Sal Marcano's criminal empire came at the expense of losing Father James, the one person who truly cared for him.
Ruling Alone[]
Lincoln abandons Eaglehurst Plantation after shooting his underbosses. As he gets into his car and turns the key, it catches fire and explodes, killing him instantly. Father James planted a car bomb under his car after realizing he was no different than Sal Marcano in regards to the fact that he killed those he worked with. Father James has no regrets about killing him; because of what Lincoln had done and who he had become, he carved his own path.
Agent Maguire believed that a car bomb was too quick and too clean; after everything he had done and everyone he had killed, he deserved far worse. Father James identified Lincoln's body, which raised some questions in Maguire's mind. Years later, he swears he hears footsteps upstairs that sound like combat boots, but he knows it's just the creaking and moaning of the old house; still, when it happens, he can't help but wonder if Lincoln Clay is about to take what's left of his life.
Leave New Bordeaux[]
According to Agent Maguire's account, Lincoln Clay vanished after Sal Marcano died. The FBI de-prioritized the case into him, but Agent Maguire maintained an active file. In 1971, he tracked Lincoln down to a shipyard in California, where he was working under an assumed name. However, by the time Maguire arrived, Lincoln had left. Maguire assumed he was dead when the trail went cold in '77 or '78. But then he received a report that someone matching his description was working with the Columbians. Every few years since then, he has been spotted again. Maguire promises that Lincoln will eventually tire of running or make a mistake, and he will wait.
In accordance with Father James' story, Lincoln traveled to California and spent a few years working at the shipyards. He met a woman, and it appeared that they were about to marry, but then everything fell apart. He began traveling after that, visiting Alaska, New York, South America, and even Vietnam. Father James still receives postcards from Lincoln and believes he was unable to accept the world or his place in it.
Cassandra Rules New Bordeaux[]
If the player chooses to leave New Bordeaux while all districts are under Cassandra's control, Cassandra takes control of the city; no crime boss from Boston to Miami respected her claim. As a result, the Commission, Colombians, and Cubans all pursued her. They realized too late that they didn't know who they were fighting.
Johnny Galante had his throat slit while watching Deep Throat at a pornographic theater. Manny Moreno was set on fire outside of his daughter's quinceanera. Severo Garcia was buried alive on the beach and drowned as the tide came in. Anton Bagrov was beaten to death with crowbars in the Briar Patch parking lot.
After that, the real criminals came after her. The governor declared martial law and deployed the National Guard, so Cassandra shot him in the head on the capitol steps. After that, everyone received the message: Cassandra owned the city. However, the government is like a rogue elephant. It is murderous, patient, and will never forget. As a result, the state cut funding for schools, city maintenance, and other programs. If they couldn't get Cassandra, they'd strangle the city until it handed her over.
When the hurricane struck New Bordeaux, the locals dubbed it Hurricane Cassandra. Nobody expected the damage to be so severe that the levees would fail completely, that the flooding would destroy half of the city and force the other half to flee, and that the city would become the ghost town it is today. It's difficult to believe that a major American city could be left to rot like that.
Some claim Cassandra was one of the thousands who drowned in the flood. Others claim she escaped into the swamps and still rules what remains of the city's underworld from the bayou. Regardless, she's a ghost who hasn't been seen in years.
Thomas Burke Rules New Bordeaux[]
If the player chooses to leave New Bordeaux while all districts are under Thomas Burke's control, he takes control of the city. His daughter Nicki explains that his liver was cancerous and he should have only lived for six months, but Burke used the money Lincoln left him to travel to Mexico and receive a black market transplant, allowing him to live an additional sixteen years. He flooded the city with alcohol before expanding into drugs, first heroin and then cocaine. He used the same infrastructure he'd set up for moonshining, and within a year or so, the majority of cocaine entering the country passed through New Bordeaux.
Burke became one of the most wealthy men in the southern United States. He bought himself a seat on the city council and legally changed the township's name to Bourbon City. However, the cocaine only attracted more criminals, and Burke went to war with a Cuban gang. There were shootouts in the streets, car bombs, and a brothel that burned down. When the Cubans summoned him, Burke arrived armed with an M-60 and grenades. He killed eight men before being executed. That was 1984, and no one has sat on the throne for more than a few months. New Bordeaux remains a lawless fool's paradise.
Vito Scaletta Rules New Bordeaux[]
If the player chooses to leave New Bordeaux while all districts are under Vito Scaletta's control, Scaletta will take control of the city and spit on Sal Marcano's grave one last time by completing the Paradiso Hotel & Casino, which Marcano was unable to do. Two years later, Vito opened another casino, sparking a wave of development that included hotels, arenas, and a new convention center. Today, New Bordeaux is known as the "Las Vegas of the South." Vito still lives in the penthouse at the top of the Paradiso, overlooking the city he owns.
Quotes[]
| “ | You people speak of family. Like you know what that word means. But you were born into yours. You never had to go looking for some place to belong. Never had to bleed in a jungle just to find your real brothers. Never had to turn your back on God just so someone would finally treat you like a son. Family. To you it's just a goddamned last name. If you knew what family really meant... you never would have f**ked with mine. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln in the reveal trailer. |
| “ | You can pray on the way up. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to Ritchie before killing him. |
| “ | You are who you are and there's no point in arguing with yourself about it. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to Tommy Marcano. |
| “ | Have it your way. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to Remy before killing him. |
| “ | My name is Lincoln Clay mother****** | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to Nino. |
| “ | We're livin' proof that the ways of Marcano — the lyin', the backstabbin', the cheatin'... don't need to run in that direction. Those ways are as dead as he is. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to his underbosses. |
| “ | We're not here 'cause of anything I did, or 'cause of what Y'ALL did. We're here because we stood together. And as long as we stay strong, ain't no one ever gonna f-ck with us. | „ |
| ~ Lincoln to his underbosses in the rule together ending. |
Trivia[]
- He is the first non-white protagonist in the series.
- He is the only main protagonist in the series to not narrate the events of the game.
- According to his dog tags given with the collector's edition of the game, his middle name begins with J.
- Lincoln's movement and combat animations during gameplay were motion-captured by retired mixed martial artist Kyle Kingsbury.
- Additionally, because Hernandez was not the right physical match for Lincoln, many cutscenes were motion-captured by different actors, with Hernandez providing only the voice and facial motion-capture.
- Like Vito Scaletta, Lincoln is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal for battlefield heroism presented by the United States.
- He is one of the several characters in media to have his forename and surname in the wrong order, such as Carter Blake from Deep Blue Sea and Carter Blake from Heavy Rain.
- Lincoln has a few rules for murdering people: no women or children unless it's completely necessary to; if a suspect is completely honest and helpful he might let them go; if he kills a person with intentional purposes, he must have a reason.
- His FBI wanted poster gives some info on Lincoln.
- Lincoln is 6'4" and 210 pounds.
- He is wanted by the FBI for murder, attempted murder, and extortion.
- In addition to his military service, Lincoln worked as a bartender and a mechanic.
See also[]
- Lincoln Clay on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Lincoln Clay on the Villains Wiki
- Lincoln Clay on the Villainous Benchmark Wiki
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "Lincoln Clay" article on the Mafia Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.