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The article or section below may contain minor to major plot spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

"I know what you crave, what you fear..."
―Ruvik to Sebastian.


Ruben Victoriano, better known as Ruvik, is the main antagonist of The Evil Within, the secondary antagonist of The Assignment and The Consequence, and a minor character in The Evil Within 2.

He is a thin, sharp-featured man who is heavily disfigured with various burns and scars, giving him the appearance of a walking corpse. Seemingly unrestrained by the laws of physical reality, he is capable of teleportation, superhuman speed, and invulnerability to the majority of all physical assaults. Fueled in equal parts by a seeming desire for revenge and his own madness, Ruvik torments all those who come into contact with him.

Cut off from the outside world, Ruvik continued his research alone. Vicious burns have left his skin senseless and useless for regulating his body temperature. Ravaged by ceaseless headaches and physical and mental seizures, he was known for being close to the physical limits of his body.

Appearance

Childhood

Young Ruben TEW Wikia

As a child, Ruvik was slightly tall for his age. He was presented in a neatened style. He wore formal clothing consisting of black dress pants, a white shirt, a black waist coat and a red tie, and brown shoes. He was pale, had a large forehead, and possessed short blonde hair. His eyebrows were such a light blond, that they were difficult to see. His actual eyes possessed blue irises. At this time in his youth, his skin was clear and free of any scarring or blemishes. Like his sister Laura, he too resembled one of his parents, he himself resembling his father.

Young Adult

Coming of age, Ruvik grew to be fairly tall. During this time he was still working alongside Jimenez and continued to wear formal clothing, consisting of; a plain white shirt which was slightly unbuttoned around the neck, dark gray dress pants and brown shoes. He also supported heavy bandaging for his wounds around his hands and head (covering the majority of it. Due to his horrific injuries, he lacked any hair, and eyebrows. His eyes even had changed, his sclera turned more yellowish instead of white, and his irises became more transparent/gray. He was of average, if not slightly thin, build.

Present

During the events of The Evil Within, Ruvik wore a tattered white robe that appeared to be burnt at its ends (including sleeve endings). Apart from this, the only other piece of clothing he wore light grey pants that showed evident burns, resulting in them ending at his knees. Various burns covered his body, particularly his torso and face, leaving him heavily scarred. The remainder of unburnt skin was left a sickly pale tone, giving him the appearance of a walking cadaver. The top right half of his cranium has been removed and replaced with a clear artificial skull, exposing his brain. Various holes are evidence in the artificial skull, a possible implication of self-experimentation.

Personality

Ruben Victoriano was a child prodigy but also mentally disturbed. Despite his young age, he made strong advancements in the fields of psychotherapy though his methods, as Jimenez states were inhumane in doing so. Regardless of his severely strained relationship with his father and anti-social, often twisted behavior, Ruvik loved his sister dearly. The fire that killed her and horrendously scarred him caused his psyche to completely warp. After the accident he was locked away from society by his father and plagued by schizophrenic hallucinations of Laura. His hatred and madness eventually consumed him until he murdered his parents to claim their fortune and further boost his research.

Due to being cut off from society, Ruvik, whilst retaining his original brilliance also lost all humanity and became a complete sadist. The Administrator even describes him as “a serial killer masquerading as a scientist“ on account of his love for torture, traps and assuring that his victims were fully aware of the horrible experiments he committed on them. Nevertheless, Ruvik still has the same love for his sister and his reasoning for creating the STEM system was so he could live out his days with Laura with his own skin. However, Jimenez implies that Ruvik’s love for her was “incestuous“ or at least bordered on that.

Somewhat understandably, Ruvik developed a strong hatred of MOBIUS due to using his machine, betraying him and also stripping away his flesh leaving him as a brain. Even The Administrator showed a fear if Ruvik was ever able to escape due to the vengeance he would reap on the organisation because of his lack of morality and restraints. Whilst trapped within STEM even though Ruvik hated his imprisonment he also enjoyed his conscious influence over reality and lack of restraints which caused him to become more smug and confident as he believed that people within his own mind were nothing but his own playthings to toy with, Sebastian, Joseph, and Kidman in particular because of their vain attempts to stop him.

Ruvik‘s incredible psychological genius gives him great introspection into his victims desires and how he can manipulate this inside of them for his own amusement to see them suffer further. He claimed to Sebastian that he knew what he “craved“ and “feared” and Ivan Diaz claims that Ruvik knew he had to know the truth about STEM and this is what led to his death by the latter. Despite his sharp memory of his previous life, Ruvik's memories are greatly distorted by his hatred, sadism and madness. He regards the area they did experiments on him as a gruesome torture chamber, the STEM system as his own brain and the Victoriano mansion is explicitly with the areas he performed his experiment.

Past

Viewed through various flashbacks, it is learned that Ruvik (Ruben Victoriano) was a very intellectually gifted, but perhaps mentally unstable child; despite this and notes indicating a strained, though respectful, relationship with his father, he was quite 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.

The Fire

While playing in a barn on their family's property, several men approached and set fire to the building as an act of vengeance against their parents, who had evidently been buying and managing large amounts of land in the area. Laura saved Ruben by pushing him through a small window in the barn, but was unable to get out of the barn herself; Ruben was horrifically disfigured from his burns.

His father then took to hiding the disfigured and mentally traumatized Ruben into the basement of the family manor, apparently without Ruben's mother's knowledge of his survival. She later mentions in a frantic note that despite her husband's assurances that both children died in the blaze, she feels that Ruben was still alive, and claims to have heard his cries coming from the basement. Voices heard as well as a diary entry found in the manor later in the game show she grieved quite deeply over the apparent deaths of her two children. Ruben himself was haunted and deeply disturbed over Laura's death as well as the pain and disfigurement he himself suffered as a result of the blaze.

Becoming Ruvik

Some time after the loss of Laura, his own terrible burning, and his essential imprisonment at the hands of his father, Ruben eventually killed both of his parents in their bedroom. Taking control of the manor funds, 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. Henceforth, he seems to be known strictly as 'Ruvik' as opposed to Ruben.

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.

Escape

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 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 Julie 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 to escape.

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.

Final Encounter

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 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 Ruvik had become through a rocket launcher left by a corpse nearby. Ruvik then shifts into the mouth of the creature and attempts to devour Sebastian whole, but a final bullet stops him at last, shoving Sebastian into what appears to be the actual STEM machine room.

Fate

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, putting an evident end to his existence. 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, a sudden headache causes him to lose focus, by the time he regains his composure, Leslie has vanished.

The Assignment

Ruvik first appears in the Assignment when Juli walks down some stairs. He appears in a sealed off room. If you get close enough, he disappears.

Later he appears behind Juli inside the Water Chamber. He tells her that she's expendable, just like he was, and like how Sebastian and Joseph are. He then lifts his hand up to her face and she falls out of the chamber.

She has another brief encounter with him when enters a room with a spike trap. Grey brain waves will move through the room. When she tries to leave, Ruvik appears there standing and facing towards her, if she approaches he'll turn around and a wall will appear. After this Juli has to take another route in order to get back to place she has to go.

There is an unexpected, very short encounter with him, which happens when Leslie and Juli are heading to the church. Leslie starts to point and when Juli approaches him, Ruvik appears and reaches out to grab her. But he disappears and Leslie is standing where he was.

Ruvik finally appears in this DLC at the end, when she and Leslie are in Cedar Hill Church. Leslie will scream "He's here!!" before pointing at him and Juli will turn around and aim her gun at him. She backs away as Ruvik moves towards them. He explains to her, how he will also benefit from her bringing Leslie out of STEM. Ruvik then takes control of Leslie and has him repeat everything he says as well as do what he wants him to do. When Juli tells Ruvik to stop, he makes Leslie choke her. She gets out of his grasp, then Ruvik lies to her and tells her MOBIUS can see what they're doing. She's about to shoot Leslie when both Ruvik and Leslie disappear into black smoke.

The Consequence

Ruvik first appears in the second DLC, when he turns Sebastian into a haunted. Juli almost shoots Seb, but when she sees Ruvik she shoots him instead. When she does, Ruvik teleports away.

Later, there is a scene that was included in the main game but not the DLC, where Juli is driving a school bus, and Ruvik appears standing in the middle of the road. He lifts his hand and causes the bus to lift off the ground and crash into nearby buildings, but that's the second time she sees him.

Then when she gets up after the bus crash, she finds multiple paintings of him. They repeat things that he's already said. And they spread his influence around through floating red droplets. Juli can use fire to burn them and stop him from spreading his influence through the building and try to control Leslie.

After she deals with them, her and Leslie go out into a park. Leslie begins to flash into Ruvik continentally. She tries to shoot him but is stopped by Sebastian.

After that Ruvik is finally seen in the climax, when Leslie approaches Ruvik and Ruvik liquefies him.

A New STEM

MOBIUS took Ruvik's research as well as the knowledge gained from the Beacon incident to refine and build a new version of STEM. Within it, they created a small town called Union. From the incident, they had learned that psychopathic personalities were capable of massive power within STEM, and that Ruvik being at the core lead to it being very unstable. It was because of this that MOBIUS sought after a different kind of core. They also began extensively screening the subjects who volunteered to be placed within Union to prevent another massacre.

The Evil Within 2

Several conversations between Sebastian and Juli Kidman do mention him occasionally, with the latter stating there was no telling what he might have done had Sebastian not stopped him, however his ultimate fate is still unconfirmed.

He makes several non-physical appearances, appearing on the walls as Sebastian's memories of Beacon flash on the wall during the final Anima encounter.

He appears as a shootable target in the gallery mode of the Shooting Gallery, having the ability to teleport to different spots in the gallery.

Gameplay

Though appearing early on as a ghostly image, Ruvik does not become a direct threat until Chapter 9, the Manor. During these encounters, the world will take on a cold blue hue, the music will shift, and Ruvik will appear and walk towards Sebastian, occasionally teleporting around. After reaching the player, Ruvik will extend his arm and cause Sebastian's head to explode, resulting in instant death. Ruvik is immune to all attacks at that time, so the player is forced to flee. Ruvik will disappear if the player breaks the line of sight with him for a while, either by entering a hiding place without Ruvik noticing, or by running away as fast as possible. The latter option is more risky because Ruvik's erratic teleporting can put him right in front of the player's running path.

As a final boss, Ruvik seemingly merges into the skull of a horrific, mutated beast that can easily kill Sebastian with a single swipe of a giant claw. Hunting down the detective, one can only flee until eventually landing on the previously used armored vehicle, in which one must attack specific areas of Ruvik's monstrous body in order to progress and eventually defeat the boss. A well-aimed final bullet puts an end to Ruvik's horror.

Death Animations

  • Before his merging with the Amalgam in the final chapter, Ruvik possesses rather straightforward kill animations for when he catches up to Sebastian.
    • If Sebastian runs into him in the staircase at the end of Chapter 4, or in the manor halls, Ruvik will raise his hand and explode his head.
    • If he sees Sebastian hiding in a dresser, Ruvik will throw the doors open violently and, in a first person perspective, explodes Sebastian's head.
    • If Ruvik catches the player hiding under a bed or the dining table, he will pause for a few seconds, then raises his arm, causing Sebastian to explode in a burst of gore.

Killed Victims

A list of victims Ruvik has killed:

Powers & Abilites

  • Manifestion: Ruvik can manifest in lapses in reality that allows him to access his powers
  • Teleportation: Ruvik can teleport to places within sightline that looks similar to super-speed.
  • Omniscience: Ruvik can see anything going on within his domain at any time and inside the minds of those connected to STEM to varying degrees depending on their willpower.
  • Hive Mind: Ruvik can control all the creatures that reside in STEM.
  • Conversion: Ruvik can convert people connected to STEM into monsters.

Relationships

Laura Victoriano

"Laura, of course you couldn't be dead."
―A sentence from a note written by Ruvik

Laura was Ruvik's sister and the only person who understood him. They clearly had a very close relationship and cared for each other. After Laura has perished in a fire, Ruvik became depressed and finally snapped. He even went as far as to killing his parents, blaming them for everything that happened to him.

Beatriz Victoriano

"I still hear my darling boy's voice."
―Beatriz in a written note

Ruvik's relationship with his mother is greatly unexplored. But after her initial claims that she feels that her son is still alive, it can be implied that she cared for him as any mother would for their child. However, after the fire and Ernesto hiding a traumatized and disfigured Ruben Victoriano, Ruvik condemned them both to death.

Ernesto Victoriano

"Oh, father, if you only knew how satisfying that look on your face is."
―Ruvik to his dead father

Ruvik expressed a deep hatred towards his father and prior the incident, their relationship was described as being quite a strained one. The reasons for this were never explored however according to one of Ruvik's notes, it is implied that this was due to the closeness of his children. Despite this, the young Ruben held high respect towards his father and once thought of him as quite intelligent. After the blaze incident, their relationship was destroyed as Ernesto took to hiding his traumatized son in their family manor basement. They began having more conflicting perceptions, including religion, to which Ruben looked down upon his father for his hefty donations to the church despite the scandals in the media. Eventually, Ruben grew to deeply loathe his own father, resulting in him murdering both his parents in their bedroom.

Marcelo Jimenez

"How dare you come into my house and threaten me."
―Ruvik to Jimenez

Ruvik and Dr. Jimenez have known each other for many years. They first met, when Ruvik was still a child. Jimenez wanted Ruvik to share his research with him. After that Jimenez considered Ruvik an apprentice, however Ruvik never thought of them that close. Jimenez provided Ruvik with equipment and test subjects in Ruvik's late teen years after the fire. This was around the time when Ruvik started creating STEM.

Jimenez needed to continue to provide new research in order to continue to have his position as the head of Beacon, so he began publishing Ruvik's work. Ruvik wasn't credited though, so he became sour towards Jimenez. However MOBIUS became extremely interested in Ruvik's work and started funding to do more experiments.

Eventually The Administrator wanted to meet with Ruvik despite Jimenez's warning, after this Jimenez was stuck in the middle of conflict. He tried to keep both The Administrator and Ruvik on neutral terms. However he failed and to his horror, MOBIUS tortured and killed Ruvik. They removed his brain and placed it in a container. Jimenez was disgusted by this and furious. However he soon became curious and let it go.

After this Jimenez sees and recognizes Ruvik inside STEM. Then later before Jimenez dies, he realizes that Ruvik wants to escape STEM.

The Administrator

"You need me and there's no way around it."
―Ruvik to the Administrator

Ruvik at one point worked for MOBIUS when he created STEM. He became largely mistrustful of MOBIUS and changed STEM to only work with his brain waves. The Administrator had Ruvik taken apart and had his brain put into STEM to keep it running.

Sebastian Castellanos

"Who do you think you are? I know who you are, Seb."
―Ruvik to Sebastian

Both Sebastian and his wife, Myra, were involved in the investigations of an increasingly large amount of missing person's cases; it is hinted that these people were used in the STEM project after Ruvik's mind was forced into it, including patients at Beacon Mental Hospital such as Leslie.

When Myra herself goes missing, she leaves Sebastian several notes indicating that the fire that claimed their daughter was no accident, but perhaps either a warning or direct attempt on their lives for their investigations into the missing people of Krimson City.

It is to note, that Ruvik said he that Sebastian shouldn't have been dragged into this, but now he was going to make Sebastian do something horrible. (Allowing him to absorb Leslie into his conciseness thus reaching his goals to escape.) Also it is interesting to note that Ruvik sees that the two have shared similar experiences and losses as a result of building fires, Sebastian supposedly losing his daughter and Ruvik losing his sister.

Juli Kidman

"Mobius... so they sent you to take the boy back. And you trust them? Don't kid yourself..."
―Ruvik talking to Kidman

Their relationship has been shown to be a similar one to the one Ruvik shares with Sebastian, in the fact that he tries to connect with her in a way, tries to find something they have in common. That for the both of them, was them working for Mobius. He shows her over the course of the two DLC's that Mobius sees her as expendable just like everyone else they do business with. And that they will easily eliminate people who go against them, Ruvik using himself as an example. So she ends up changing her mind and secretly is no longer loyal to Mobius.

It has been shown that she doesn't experience the dubbed "Ruvik headaches" nor does she ever become a haunted during the game or the DLCs. The reason for this is unknown but Ruvik seems to know this though and instead uses different tatics to deal with her. He says that Juli is as expendable as her "partners" and as he was himself. He then says "We'll see how loyal you are when you know the truth."

Then through the rest of the story, the truth is slowly revealed that she was being used by Mobius and that they saw her as expendable. Ruvik writes two letters and rips them into pieces. You find each one in both DLC's. Ruvik's second letter is specifically written to Juli and it confirms that the Administrator got the Mobius mark on his hand the same as her for going inside STEM and leaving alive. The Administrator we see in The Assignment and The Consequence is a representation of Juli's innermost fears, not the man himself, hence, "None of this is real. You aren't real!" Ruvik was playing her, trying to fool her into believing she was being watched by Mobius when it was actually just him messing with her head. Also hence, "All right, but we've got word he wants a debriefing as soon as you get back." So it's shown that while Ruvik can not attack her as easily as Sebastian and Joseph, he still finds a way to scare her and mess with her head.

Leslie Withers

"You need him to get out... ...As do I."
―Ruvik to Kidman

Evidently sometime before while experimenting with the STEM, Jimenez forced Leslie into contact with Ruvik's mind. Amazingly, the mentally disturbed young man survived the encounter and was even capable of returning to reality. This encounter led Ruvik to realize that Leslie, compatible with Ruvik's own mind, would be the key to his escape of the STEM.

The reason being as we learn in The Consequence, is that both shared a similar traumatic experience. Leslie saw his parents murdered in front of him, while Ruvik lost his sister.

Leslie is seemingly both equally terrified yet lured by Ruvik; eventually, Leslie is seen at the steps of the mental Beacon Mental Hospital, oddly calm and composed considering his normal ticks and unsure movements.

At the end, Leslie finds himself before Ruvik and appears to just give in and stop running. Ruvik then liquidates Leslie, absorbing him. It is possible that the Leslie seen at the end of the game is Ruvik whose attempts to escape through Leslie--using Leslie's brain and body--may have been successful after all. Whether this is so or not is unknown.

Trivia

  • Ruvik is voiced by Jackie Earle Haley, best known for his roles as Rorschach in the movie Watchmen and Freddy Krueger in the 2010 reboot of Nightmare On Elm Street. The child version of Ruvik is voiced by Aidan Potter.
  • If one listens closely amid garbled obscenities, during Chapter 9 in the burning barn, young Ruvik can be heard screaming various accusations at Sebastian, seemingly blaming him for the fire, the death of Laura, and Ruvik's own subsequent anguish.
  • The monsters' general weakness to flame is a result of Ruvik's own traumatic experience with fire.
  • According to The Art of The Evil Within, the name Ruvik was a reference to the Rubik's Cube, which was then expanded into "Ruben Victoriano".
    • Ruvik's original design was conceived about a year and a half into the game's concept phase, much later than that of most enemy types. It also differed much from his final appearance. Originally, Shinji Mikami and Ikumi Nakamura intended for him to be a suave, sophisticated psychopath and hence wore dapper outfits, with the only unnatural part of his garb being the bandage that covered much of his head save for his left eye. Eventually, Mikami settled on the hospital-themed design that made it into the final release.
  • One of the flashbacks shows that he can play the piano.

Gallery

Concept Art

Screens

The Evil Within

The Assignment

The Consequence

The Executioner

Other

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