Ruben Victoriano - also known as "Ruvik" - is the primary antagonist of the survival-horror game The Evil Within. He is a ghoulish, slender and burnt man who created the twisted world the game mostly takes place in and the nightmarish creatures within it are all products of his own damaged psyche. Over the course of the game, it is revealed that Ruvik was a scientific prodigy who had made great advances in the field of psychotherapy, but the experiments he carried out were inhumane and he would torture many of his subjects for his own amusement as well as progressing his research.
Biography[]
Youth[]
Ruben Victoriano was an intellectual child, though mentally unstable. He had a strained relationship with his deeply religious father, though he was very close to his sister Laura. Ruben lived in a family estate alongside his sister and parents, and his family was known to Doctor Marcelo Jimenez for their frequent and hefty donations to Beacon Mental Hospital.
At some point a young Ruben met and talked with the doctor, who had discovered the young boy's research facility, and assured the troubled boy that he was no monster, and that he, too had done things some would consider 'distasteful' in the name of progress. Beyond this, his father was evidently involved in a religious organization of some sort, donating to the church frequently and ignoring the various scandals faced by the institution, something that Ruben frowned upon.
One fateful day, a group of men arrived on the Victoriano property, seeking revenge against Ruben's parents who had bought their land out from under them. These men set fire to the Victoriano's barn, unaware that Ruben and Laura were playing inside. Laura helped Ruben escape from the barn via a small window, but was unable to get out herself. Laura perished in the fire while Ruben was left horribly scarred, both physically and mentally.
Ruben's father took to hiding his disfigured son in the basement of their manor, apparently without Ruben's mother's knowledge of his survival. Left psychologically broken after his sister's death and his own terrible injuries, Ruben descended into a state of vengeful fury against his parents for imprisoning him. He would eventually become strong enough to free himself and murdered his parents as they slept, removing all evidence of his involvement so as to claim the family fortune for himself. He continued to 'donate' to Beacon Mental Hospital in exchange for test subjects for his various experiments, and at some point took to working directly with Doctor Jimenez. From that point onward, Ruben Victoriano became known as "Ruvik".
Creation of the STEM[]
Ruvik continued his experiments on the human psyche and mind for a great while until coming into conflict with his long-term partner, Jimenez, for the latter having published Ruvik's experiments and findings under his own name. The doctor refuted Ruvik's anger over the matter, revealing that Ruvik, though brilliant, was never formally trained and thus would be unable to ever publish material under his own name. Their relationship becoming more and more strained, Ruvik is eventually betrayed by Doctor Jimenez upon the near completion of their primary project, STEM. Several men brought in by the doctor corner and restrain Ruvik, forcing him to become the primary test subject for the STEM-- a project meant to unite minds, feelings, consciousness, and so on into one, felt and experienced by all those linked to the machine. Ruvik's brain was manipulated, probed, and sampled in the same ways he had done to his prior test subjects. His body was then disassembled until nothing but his still-living brain was left, which was then sealed in a container. Recordings made by Ruvik--presumably after this betrayal and the events thereafter-- indicate that he suspected Jimenez of planning this betrayal for a good while, as without Jimenez's help, the agents would never have been able to survive Ruvik's various traps.
In his mental scape, Ruvik contemplated and searched for a means to escape his imprisonment, eventually finding that the Beacon Mental Hospital patient, and Doctor Jimenez's own patient, Leslie Withers, would somehow be the means to return to the physical world. Records and notes left behind by Ruvik indicate that he was perhaps searching for a brain that he could transfer his consciousness into via the STEM. Notes from staff at the hospital involved in the STEM project find that those involved with the project--ranging from patients to those working the machine--eventually slip into a coma, and those who attempt to flee find themselves unable to do so.
Eventually, though it is never quite shown how, Ruvik managed to manifest himself at Beacon Mental Hospital and massacred those within, including police called on scene, as he searched for Leslie. It is this incident that brings Detective Sebastian Castellanos and his partners to the scene.
The Evil Within[]
After ambushing Sebastian and several others, he brings them into his own mindscape through the STEM somehow, with the world and all its terrors that Sebastian is forced to face all a manifestation of Ruvik's own tormented psyche. Though interfering little with Sebastian's progress early on, later chapters find Ruvik making direct contact with the detective, hunting him through the memory of his family's manor. It is here that Ruvik hints that through his connections with Joseph Oda and Sebastian's own mind that he knows full well of Sebastian's own past and motivations. Remarking that it is unfortunate that Sebastian was involved, he nevertheless states his intentions to make use of the detective for his own means.
As Sebastian progresses, Ruvik begins to make himself more and more known, frequently warning the detective through eerie messages to cease his interference, and his intent to make the man suffer. Sebastian is not the only one to come into odds with Ruvik; though it is never seen, it is hinted that Juli Kidman has encountered Ruvik before, and knows more about him than she is willing to say, going so far as to realize Ruvik's plans to use Leslie Winters to escape from the STEM.
At one point, Sebastian is led to the scene of the murders he had initially seen on the screen prior to being ambushed by Ruvik. He confronts Ruvik but is easily disarmed and held in a choke hold. Using his lantern, he sets Ruvik aflame similar to his initial burning in the barn all those years ago, forcing the man to finally drop him, and revealing his weakness to fire.
The Amalgam
Eventually, Sebastian and Leslie find themselves in Ruvik's mental version of the STEM, a huge, pulsating brain connected with a variety of tubes and surrounded by an odd liquid. Despite Sebastian's urging, Leslie approaches Ruvik, and is subsequently turned into the same liquid surrounding the mutated STEM. A horrific, giant monster then emerges, with Ruvik seemingly merged into the forehead of the beast inside a plexiglass as if acting as its brain, and engages Sebastian in a final fight. Eventually getting impaling on a spike, Sebastian manages to greatly weaken the beast by destroying the glass and damaging Ruvik inside of the creature he created with a rocket launcher left by the corpse of the same Sadist Sebastian fought earlier. Ruvik then shifts into the mouth of the creature and attempts to devour Sebastian whole, but a final bullet stops him at last, Sebastian wakes through his other body in what appears to be the actual STEM machine room.
Sebastian witnesses one final vision of Ruvik before disconnecting Ruvik's own disembodied brain from the STEM and violently stomping on it with his foot, destroying Ruvik's world once and for all. However, as Sebastian awakens and eventually leaves the hospital, he sees what appears to be Leslie walking away in the distance, the boy's usual shuffling gait gone and replaced by slow, ominous pacing. Before Sebastian can react, the world again flickers, and the boy vanishes. Leaving the fate of Ruvik's conciseness unknown.
Personality[]
Ruvik was a child prodigy in the field of psychotherapy, but was also mentally unhinged. In his youth, he had a strained relationship with his father and was deeply antisocial, the only company he enjoyed being that of his sister Laura. After his sister died and he was left disfigured, Ruvik's already questionable mental state would soon deteriorate further. He developed a complete lack of empathy and humanity, becoming cruel and sadistic.
Ruvik would take great pleasure from his experiments, not so much for scientific progress but for the suffering he inflicted upon his test subjects. In creating the STEM device, he hoped to develop his own private world where he could live out the rest of his days with the one person he truly cared for, his sister Laura. His obsession with Laura can be possibly viewed as borderline incestuous. Apart from this, Ruvik also enjoyed using the STEM to delve inside the psyches of his subjects, discovering their desires and fears and restructuring the STEM mindscape to reflect them.
Abilities[]
In the real world[]
- Genius Intellect - Ruvik was remarkably intelligent and possessed a high level of knowledge on human psychology and physiology. He was a skilled inventor, having co-developed the original STEM machine with Dr. Jimenez, and was known to perform surgical procedures on his subjects.
In the STEM[]
- Reality Manipulation - Within the mental landscape of the STEM, Ruvik is practically a god. He can alter the structure of the STEM environment at will and break and reconstruct those who are also connected to the STEM, resulting in the monstrous manifestations such as the Haunted and other creatures. Because this is his world, everything in it must obey his law of reality, he demonstrates the ability to be able to destroy everything by simply pointing at it, not to mention Sebastian should he be caught. This is most likely the same process when the human brain can to destroy thoughts by blocking them out.
- Mental Invasion - Ruvik is capable of looking into the consciousnesses of other STEM subjects, manipulating what they see and hear. He can even imprint his own consciousness over anyone within the system.
- Teleportation - Whenever Ruvik manifests within the game, he instantly teleports whenever Sebastian tries to attack him. If shot at, he will teleport closer to Sebastian and will kill him instantly when he comes face-to-face with him.