Victor Carmine #

Victor Carmine is the man at the head of Arc/Hive, later Nex Gen. He is the receiver of some files and ordered Operation Trinity, getting powerful Mantra cult knowledge into the company.

While he mostly operates from the inside, we see Victor Carmine appear in articles on Mindstream, Nex Gen’s entertainment service that delivers entertainment directly to the brain. His current status is unknown by both us and Sof.

Backstory #

Victor Carmine from Sof's journal

Victor Carmine is the boss of Arc/Hive and later Nex Gen, re-branding after an incident the public calls the “Cradle Crash”. He inherited his empire after the war, after his family with a particularly bloody legacy all lost their lives. He has strong ties to the DTC government, as well as family connections with Novosovia.

Family Legacy #

The first known Carmine is Domenico ‘The Butcher’ Carmine. During the Resource Wars, he hoarded supplies to run black-market food lines. This caused thousands to starve, while he executed others for resisting him.

Enzo ‘Iron Fist’ Carmine is also mentioned, likely being Victor’s grandfather. He was responsible for the massacre at Santuario, where an innocent settlement was firebombed for not paying his family’s extortion tariffs.

Luca Carmine, Victor’s father, burned many districts during a period of class riots. The journalist in the reconstructed interview even mentions speculation of Victor of murdering his own brothers, although Victor later claims in the same interview that they died in the war.

Before Mantra #

During Cold War 2.0, the conflict with Novosovia escalated because of more than politics and energy shortages. Victor Carmine was an astrobiologist at the time and obsessed with the aliens. Carmine used his father Luca’s connections to create a peaceful agreement with Novosovia to send signals into space. The signals were sent from Evpatoria, a station in the tundra in Novosovia. They aimed their signals made of morse code straight at Venus. They used words like ‘Varka’ and ‘Zinaida’, words with real-life etymology tracing back to ‘birth’ and ‘god’. In the interview it is noted that the words likely had symbolic meaning.

After decades, they received a strange faint signal in 1983. The Novosovians thought it was a hoax to trick them into lowering their guard. The conflict escalated, with the Novosovians’ government afraid of losing the grip they had on their population through religion. Carmine was thrown into the Third World War. This caused him to lose his father and brothers, according to Carmine himself. After being seriously injured in the war, he also got his cybernetic parts, which he remakrs make him look “like a metal tin can”. He inherited his whole family’s empire after this. A prosthetic finger that matches Carmine’s can be seen in the artifacts.

With Carmine now as the head of an empire, he went to the DTC to offer them his resources. His condition was that they would kill “the woman in the sky”. He remarks that he saw what they did with ‘it’ in Novosovia, prompting him to make the demand despite its negative consequences for the economy.

Project Kingslayer #

In 2015, Skys sent out an encrypted message to recruit the youth of Novosovia into the cult. Carmine was working at Arc/Hive, with close ties to the government. At the time, Novosovia was in their third Cold War with the DTC, where Victor resided at Arc/Hive. Carmine was especially interested in their Project Kingslayer. A man named Alfgram claimed to wield an ancient power and the ability to traverse dimensions after being patient zero for the project.

Victor Carmine then decides to send in his daughter using a fake name: Medea. She is instructed to seduce Skys, gain information, and bring down the cult. Skys falls for Medea, who eventually falls for him too and betrays her father, no longer contacting him. Most of the details of this area come from Dr. Lee MD in his third episode of Unbeleevable.

Operation Trinity #

Victor Carmine ordered Operation Trinity in 2020, ordering for the extraction of the three men from Novosovia during the fall of the cult. He was interested in Skys, Strassman, and Dallus Lauren.

Strassman had a family at the time, but it is unknown what happens to them during the event. Skys was in a coma after the fall of Mantra, but successfully extracted to Arc/Hive. Dallus Lauren managed to flee Novosovia with his family, with his wife Elena even giving birth to Lyra on the helicopter rescuing them (according to Sof’s journal. Dallus’ diary. In the same diary from 2021, we learn that he was already preparing for the SYNTH project, remarking that Carmine was “practically salivating”.

New Elysium #

New Elysium is first mentioned (in the fictional timeline) in Dallus’ diary from 2021. It is a community seemingly controlled by Arc/Hive (and later Nex Gen). It is a haven for survivors of the holy Eastern war.

Selene and Scott would later grow up here according to Selene’s diary, two kids who are also referred to as NYX-01 and NYX-02 in the Kingslayer codec. Both Selene and Scott’s diary refer to drugs produced by Nex Gen Pharmaceuticals.

It seems like the company (and Victor) were likely responsible for human experimentation within this community.

Project D.U.S.T. #

The Project D.U.S.T. research proposal by Dr. Elias Mortem is written in 2021, when Carmine was still leading the company. The proposal itself is addressed to a redacted person, only leaving “Director of Special Projects” visible. From a reconstructed interview in 2037 we get confirmation that Victor was responsible for the project.

The proposal describes several research projects, including Project D.U.S.T.. It is a direct continuation of Project Kingslayer and a result of the October Massacre, signifying the end of the Mantra cult. The acronym D.U.S.T. means Deaths Unknown Spiritual Terrain.

During the fall of Mantra, the cult was able to fend off a great number of troops using a type of psychological weapon, terrifying soldiers. Arc/Hive works closely with the government, making this into an interesting opportunity to develop weapons to Carmine.

Mortem proposes experimentation on a redacted test group called the “Special Six”, which they got through Operation Trinity. He also proposes a new second version of the “Altilium Chordata” tank. Finally, he is also interested in something called P.S.Y., or Psychoactive Structured Yttrium, which seems to help manifest supernatural powers.

Synths #

Victor Carmine already showed interest in synthetic bodies shortly after Dallus arrived at Arc/Hive. When lab assistant Rebecca posts about being diagnosed with CERS on Grumblr, Dallus is already working on the project, which is thought to be a way to save humanity.

In 2028, Rebecca discusses her successful transition to her synth body in the Tekka Interview. We learn that Nex Gen makes Rebecca smoke as a PR stunt, to show how indestructible synth bodies are. At the time, they are even believed to be immune to addiction. Rebecca is asked about Victor Carmine in the interview by interviewer Jax Jackson, but refuses to talk about both the Trinity and Carmine.

The synth project continues and more people transfer themselves into synthetic bodies, including celebrities. Nex Gen also develops combat synths, referred to by the public as Sentinels. From the article on Sentinels we also learn that they seem to be defying their programming. Dr. Lee MD writes in the Daily Whisper about synths used for very sinister purposes.

Mindstream #

Interestingly, Carmine appears in the news more publicly in articles about Mindstream. This is a cutting-edge entertainment service by Nex Gen, where brain interfaces communicate directly with the brain to deliver entertainment to the visual and fear-processing centres of the brain. Many criticize the technology, citing the difficulty in distinguishing between reality and artificial experience. Some even experience lasting symptoms, indicating that Mindstream might affect brain chemistry.

In an especially controversial decision from Nex Gen, they decide to air Faith Over Flesh on the company’s network. In this show, a man named Jonah has recently found new faith. He is rumoured to be involved with Ecliptism, a mysterious religion that uses pain to achieve salvation.

LBR Sites #

The LBR sites letter is written from Strassman to Carmine. Sof’s journal dates it back to 2038, indicating that Victor was around for at least some time after the creation of E.V.E.. Sof remarks in her journal that at some point, E.V.E. became the leader of Nex Gen and wonders what happened to Carmine.