theevilwithin

The STEM system is a machine capable of linking together the brains of human beings, completely immersing them in a shared mental world. Connected subjects' brains are also used as additional memory and processing power, with each connected person making STEM more powerful.

The simulated environment within STEM is a dream-like world, molded by the minds connected to it. More powerful or aberrant minds (e.g. psychopaths) hold greater control over STEM, and may even develop abnormal abilities, such as rapid movement, control over time, reshaping the environment, etc.

STEM is the brainchild of genius scientist Ruben Victoriano, and a key element of MOBIUS' plan of total world domination.

History

Ruvik created STEM with the intention of using it to create a reality of his own design, so that he could be with his deceased sister Laura Victoriano.

Dr. Marcelo Jimenez, a long time friend of Ruvik, decided to help Ruvik out and provided him with materials and mental patients to be used as test subjects. Around this time, MOBIUS had made Jimenez a member and had him share his work with them. After Jimenez published Ruvik's work, MOBIUS became interested in it and wanted to be involved. Mobius ended up putting Ruvik in a tight situation; either he finished the project, or they would remove him from the equation. The relationship between MOBIUS and Ruvik only became worse and worse over time.

Intial STEM prototypes required subjects be physically connected to the system via a cord. Ruvik refined the early system with a wireless connection, induced via high-frequency waves. He also modified the STEM prototype so that only he could operate it - the system would only respond to his brainwaves. In an attempt to circumvent this, MOBIUS made efforts to find someone who had similar brain waves as Ruvik: Leslie Withers. As the brain sync was derived from experiencing specific trauma: Ruvik had lost his sister and murdered his parents, while Leslie had lost his whole family.

After this, The Administrator demanded that Ruvik fix the changes he had put in place so that capturing/using the unstable Leslie would not be necessary. When Ruvik refused, they had no other choice but to take what they needed from him and do it themselves. They killed Ruvik and took his brain, which they then placed within the center of the STEM system to act as a core, attempting to then resume testing. However, Ruvik's lingering consciousness was slowly taking over STEM. He had turned the majority of the STEM system itself into a hellish landscape of various levels, with each subject who was attached to it having some subconscious dream-like influence, but only Ruvik was in total control of his influence. He then began to kill anyone who was sent into STEM.

Once MOBIUS realized this they had his brain removed from the core. Though they thought they had gotten rid of him, they soon learned that Ruvik's consciousness was still present within STEM - its state as a hellscape persisted. Jimenez and The Administrator together devised a plan: they would send a group of people into STEM - the more "sane" individuals amongst those sent in would be used to cleanse the system and to neutralize Ruvik. They planned to send Juli Kidman in, who was already undercover as a Junior Detective, to complete this task. They also planned to send her with her two colleagues Sebastian Castellanos and Joseph Oda. They saw Sebastian as a threat due to him getting closer to the truth and finding out about them, and sent Joseph to ensure that they left no loose ends.

Jimenez wanted to prove himself useful by defying his orders and attempting to complete the task himself - desperately craving to make Mobius see his worth, letting him potentially rise higher in their ranks. He activated the wireless STEM connection himself when the police, including the detectives, arrived at Beacon Mental Hospital at the start of The Evil Within. Turning on the wireless machine caused everyone in the area to be dragged into STEM. However, the effect was slow in fully taking effect. Seizing the opportunity, Ruvik used the small period where reality and the mindscape blurred: he manifested in the hospital and killed the entire police squad before wounding Jimenez. Within STEM already (though obviously failing to realise this), the detectives found the doctor and desperately attempted to escape from the hospital in an ambulance. It was too late, however, as STEM had overcome the delay and had fully taken effect, dragging everyone into the mindscape beyond. They were all trapped inside of STEM.

(In the DLC, it shows the sinister application of the system in controlling human's subconsciousness through a high-pitched frequency emitting from the system.)

Design

Terminus

The STEM system as it appeared in the series is composed of several bathtub-like ports called Terminus. A would-be STEM occupant will then be seated in one such port, whereupon an electrically-induced coma will knock them out and create a mental projection in their image within the connected world.

While the earlier iterations of STEM utilize physical jacks plugged into a person's cranium to inject them into its worlds, more advanced versions of the device rely on wireless signals instead, which eliminates the need for a physical Terminus and can potentially work on a global scale.

Core

All Terminus ports are then connected to a central Core processor. This Core in itself is a biologically-living component, being comprised of a whole person or their brain, whose mental patterns are then used as a map to project a virtual world in which other plugged-in subjects can inhabit.

While MOBIUS' initial Beacon prototype has an exposed Core (essentially Ruvik's brain in a jar), their later revision to the system has a dedicated Core chamber complete with locks and a security terminal.

Connection

Connecting to STEM can be achieved wirelessly via specific frequencies emitted from a source, which deposits the subject into the simulated world immediately without them knowing it. Another, less speedy method is to sit in a STEM pod and be connected via an electrically-induced coma, which gives the pod occupant the sensation of them being pulled down into a large water body, where they will appear to fall before suddenly halting due to synchronization. In its earliest days, an individual must be connected physically into STEM space with a dedicated jack (see above).

Both methods have their pros and cons, as while Ruvik's version of STEM can create instant connections over a wide area without the need for pods, the configuration is limited to simulating an individual's immediate surroundings before slowly bending it to the creator's will. The newer device tested by MOBIUS, while slower and a lot less comfortable jacking into, can deposit the pod occupant into any pre-programmed backdrop without hassle, thus allowing for controlled insertion and extraction if needed.

Function

STEM is a system that allows multiple minds to be brought together and connected. Using a bathtub-like pod called a Terminus, subjects can be connected to one particular mind and experience the memories, and perceptions of the individual. There are two ways to connect the person to the system: through physical connection via plug and through wireless frequency (advanced version).

However, the applications of STEM are numerous. This includes curing people of their mental illnesses, interrogation of criminals and learning people's memories.

In order for the STEM system to work, it requires a main consciousness to act as a core. This would load his/her world as base, for the others to come. According to the Administrator, the core requires a mind to be innocent and pure to support multiple different kinds of personality. As the result, the core must be the mind of a child. However, based on the research of Yukiko Hoffman, the core must have an unfettered ego to interlink the different personalities of people connected to STEM as well as retaining their own personality. In her own words, there are two types of candidates that can serve as a core: a psychopath with egomaniac mind and a child. Due to the event that involves Ruvik in Beacon Hospital, MOBIUS has opted to choose a child rather than a psychopathic individual.

During the events of The Evil Within 2, it is stated in a report that if there are enough people being connected to STEM to serve as processing and memory components to generate 2 million exabytes (1 EB = 1,0246MB), the STEM system would be powerful enough to wirelessly connect to every human on the planet, enabling MOBIUS to control the world.

For MOBIUS members, all of them have a chip implant that connects them to STEM in the real world, even if they are not within the system mentally.

According to Dr. Hoffman, the mind of a psychopath is extremely dangerous to the STEM environment since they can have powerful manipulation over STEM, such as the case with Stefano Valentini.

Corruption

Any given individual connected into STEM space are liable to become dominated by the system's psychological disruptions. This is a gradual process, the rate of which depends mostly on the psychological fortitude of a subject, meaning those who are weaker-willed (e.g. Joseph Oda) are more susceptible to domination than the mentally-hardened ones (e.g. Sebastian Castellanos). This resistance can also be conditioned via specialised training, which is included as part of the standard orientation procedure for MOBIUS personnel. Regardless, there is currently no true defense against psychological erosion from STEM usage, and individuals connected to it will eventually turn at some point, some earlier than others.

As they become more and more subsumed by the domination effects, a subject becomes more and more unstable, the earliest symptoms of which being memory losses or headaches. Their mentality then degrades exponentially over time, which the subject may or may not be aware of. At later stages, an individual may exhibit and repeat unusual behavior (e.g. Valerio Jimenez).

At the height of their domination, the subject either becomes a Haunted or a Lost, depending on the specific STEM space they are connected to, and a fully-dominated subject is irreversibly lost. Certain subjects with special psychological makeup can instead be transfigured into unique creatures like the Sadist or The Keeper, either spontaneously or at the discretion of the Core. These subjects, while not entirely feral, are ruthless, murderous and cannot be reasoned with.

Should a damaged mind be safely disconnected from STEM, the system would leave specific imprints within their psychological makeup that can cause permanent nerve scarring.

STEM Machine Rooms

The main area used to plug people directly and physically into STEM. It is usually a circular room consisting of bathtub-like pods where subjects are placed, and a central area containing the core.

The Beacon Prototype's STEM machine room made multiple appearances inside of STEM visited by both Sebastian Castellanos in the The Evil Within, and Juli Kidman in The Consequence. Multiple prototypes of the machine were also found in different places and they all differ in complexity.

Locations in STEM

Most of the areas in The Evil Within are locations in the real world as well as STEM. The real life ones are different and usually infested by Haunted, but all are based on the memories of people connected to STEM, usually the main characters. However, some are only seen in STEM and are usually created by someone inside as a completely altered version of a real world room.

In The Evil Within 2, the entire city of Union is constructed within STEM by MOBIUS and does not exist outside it. It is infested by Lost.

Trivia