Ramon Salazar

Ramon Salazar is a villainous character who appears in ''Resident Evil 4. ''The eighth Castellan of a castle presiding over a small village in rural Spain, Salazar is also a leading member of the religious cult Los Illuminados. Twisted by the power of Las Plagas, he holds power over the Ganados that make up the cult's ranks.

While Salazar may have the stature of a small child, the Plaga infesting his body has left him with the complexion of an elderly man. In truth, he was only twenty years old during the events of RE4.

Indoctrination
Ramon, the Eighth Castellan of the Salazar Castle, lived alone with his butler and had no immediate family since childhood. This left him vulnerable to Osmund Saddler's influence, who succeeded in indoctrinating Salazar into becoming a fervent believer in Los Iluminados' teachings. Salazar became convinced that he had to undo the seal of the Plaga in order to atone for the "sins" of his ancestor, the First Castellan. Once the excavation of the Plaga had begun, he was injected with one of the parasites. This would give him power over the Ganado, most of the Los Iluminados' cultists, and two fearsome, mutated bodyguards known as Verdugos. Eventually, he was completely taken over by the power of the parasites. Salazar became a recluse in his castle, as he no longer cared for anything but the survival and domination of Los Iluminados, which led to his assistance in the kidnapping of the U.S. President's daughter Ashley Graham in 2004. Only his butler knew the truth of his full spiritual incapacitation.

The Kennedy Report
In 2004, Leon S. Kennedy was dispatched to rural Spain to rescue Ashley Graham. He found her inside a church in the village controlled by the Illuminados and the pair attempted to escape, but the cult thwarted them and cut them off from any outside assistance. Leon and Ashley were forced to take shelter inside the nearby castle, unaware of the dangers within.

Salazar commanded legions of Illuminados zealots to do his bidding and was also able to jam Leon's communications with his contacts at US SOCOM, jacking the line so that he could taunt Leon personally. Despite his castle being laden with death-traps and B.O.W.'s, Salazar was infuriated by Leon's stubborn will to survive. Leon would catch up to Salazar inside a tower adjacent to the castle where the Illuminados conducted some form of ritual before sending the re-captured Ashley to Saddler's island. Face-to-face with the American agent at last, Salazar allowed himself and his surviving Verdugo bodyguard to merge with the Queen Plaga, mutating into a plant-like parasitic creature that took the whole second story wall with two large and dangerous tentacles, one on each side. The Verdugo became a long thick neck with a large head, with a swollen eye on the left that serves as a weak point and when damaged enough, exposes the real weak point: Salazar himself, who is now fused with the neck. After a long, arduous battle, Leon defeated Salazar; the hideous, mutated creature shriveled up and died, ending the reign of the eighth castellan, as well as the Salazar bloodline.