Psychonauts/Characters

This article contains descriptions of the many characters who feature in the game Psychonauts. It also lists the names of the mental worlds found inside the minds of the appropriate characters.

Raz

 * Mental worlds: Brain Tumbler Experiment (partial), Meat Circus (combined with Morceau Oleander)

Short for Razputin. One of many children attending Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, Raz is the ten-year old player character of the game. Feeling that he is not accepted by his family, while living and performing at the circus, Raz sets off and is first seen eavesdropping on Coach Oleander's speech about the human mind, and then falling out of the tree and frightening all the other campers because of rumors about a lake monster. Right off the bat the teachers knew there was something special about him, because of his mental capability to resist to their powers with his own. Raz is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.

Lili Zanotto
Lili, the daughter of Truman Zanotto, grand head of Psychonauts, is a fellow trainee at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, and has been so for a number of years prior to Razputin's temporary enlistment. She has a wealth of existing psychic experience, and loves nothing more than exciting adventures to stir up the otherwise quiet nature of the campgrounds. Although Lili is an excellent psychic, she's become bored and disillusioned from years of repetitive training, and believes the Psychonauts are 'just not what they used to be'. Lili is voiced by Nikki Rapp.

From the very moment that Razputin walks (or drops, as the case may be) into the camp, Lili falls for the budding Psychonaut. However, her natural reluctance to throw herself at him prevents her from immediately revealing her affections. The two grow closer as they discover that they are sharing the same disturbing nightmares and begin to work to save Whispering Rock and the world. However, Lili is abducted, and Raz gives pursuit to save her. In the end of the game, they finally come together.

Morceau Oleander

 * Mental worlds: Basic Braining, Brain Tumbler Experiment (partial), Meat Circus (combined with Raz)

Tiny, easily angered, and the head coach of Whispering Rock, Oleander seems like the typical army man. Morceau Morry Oleander's job is to ensure that the participating children all receive the best psychic education possible, so that they can secure a place on the journey to becoming a Psychonaut. He runs his classes with maximum efficiency and harsh discipline, driving the children to the very edge of what they can handle, presumably using his years of experience as a soldier to aid this process. Coach Oleander is voiced by Nick Jameson.

Coach Oleander seemingly spends a lot of time devising plans for his next class, and has a habit of accidentally snoring directly into the campground's speaker system, much to the distaste of those trying to relax within the campground's boundaries. When awoken, he initially expresses fear and paranoia, followed quickly by anger.

Repressed memories stored away in mental vaults reveal how disturbed the coach's mind truly is. As a child, Little Oly loved bunnies, and had several hutches in a field where he kept several rabbits. Unfortunately, his father was a butcher who believed that animals were only good for meat, and often took his son's rabbits and chopped them up, with Oleander watching in horror and crying. This, coupled with the shame that he was never actually accepted into the military due to his inadequate height, led Oleander to develop an obsession with warfare and the military. To hide his shame from the children running his course, he placed an easily accessible Memory Vault on the way to the goal, containing fabricated memories showing himself as a tall war-hero.

Razputin eventually discovers that Oleander is behind the abduction of Whispering Rock's campers. Driven mad by his nightmares, memories, and insecurities, Oleander plans to conquer the world using tanks powered by the children's psychically powerful brains. He enlisted the mad dentist Dr. Loboto to assist him, and together they mutated a lungfish to transport the children to their headquarters within the island-based Thorny Towers asylum. Early in the game, Oleander's thoughts can be heard through the campground's speaker system while he is asleep next to the telepathic radio. He makes cryptic references to his plan referring to the children's brains as eggs (a metaphor also seen in a Memory Vault in the Brain Tumbler Experiment level) and to Linda the Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata, whom he psychically mutated and controlled via brain implant to steal the children from the camp, as the Easter Bunny and warns her not to drop the eggs underwater.

After several battles, Raz is forced to combine his consciousness with that of Oleander for a final confrontation; the result blends the two foes' memories into a bizarre circus made of meat and mutilated animals. During their mindmeld, Raz is able to defeat both his own inner demons and Oleander's (both are haunted by mental images of their fathers), giving Oleander true inner peace. He later apologizes to everyone for stealing their brains and thanks Raz for his efforts.

It should be noted that, like doctor Loboto, he has two oddly coloured eyes. This adds to the speculation of Bobby Zilch being related to both Oleander and Loboto, creating a triangle. An example is when Raz complains to Oleander about Zilch to which he replies 'That kid reminds me of me at that age...' His mental image of his father also has blue skin, although this could just be in his mindframe. However, his mental vault suggests otherwise. It would also explain how Loboto gains info on Oleanders plan.

Sasha Nein

 * Mental world: Sasha's Shooting Gallery

Sasha Nein is a true Psychonaut, with years of experience on the field behind him. He works between missions at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, where he helps out Coach Oleander with the teaching of the summer camp's kids, in the hope that at least some of them will turn out to one day become powerful Psychonauts just as he is. Sasha is constantly seen downstairs in his lab testing his experiments. His contributions to the Psychonauts as an international secret agent and scientist make him a valuable asset. Sasha is voiced by Stephen Stanton.

Inside Sasha's mind, everything seems to be well organized and structured in a cube that's as cool and calculated as Sasha himself. However, once Raz overloads the Censor generator, bits and pieces of Sasha's history appear.

Sasha's mother fell sick and died when he was still an infant. In his first mental vault, he has early memories of her feeding him, and playing with him back when he was a baby. She was Sasha's first loss. Thus, the various baby items and the deathbed appearing in Sasha's mind.

Later in life, Sasha is working for his father, a shoemaker, as a teenager. Not knowing much about his mother, he tries using his early psychic talents to read his father's mind. He finds happy memories about his mother when she was alive and how his father is sure she must be an angel in heaven now. However, Sasha's mind probing goes a bit too deep as he winds up seeing his mother as a sexual being through his father's eyes. Disturbed, he finally leaves home.

Between his time in his father's shoe store and joining the Psychonauts, Sasha worked in a factory making tiffany lamps; and apparently had a miserable time there, for to this day the sight of those lamps fills him with disgust (he considers them to be tacky), and he has Razputin use them as target practice while earning his Marksmanship badge.

Although reserved by nature, Nein evidently has a real affection for Raz. This is revealed when, using clairvoyance on him Raz finds that Nein sees him much like a miniature version of himself.

Milla Vodello

 * Mental world: Milla's Dance Party

Milla Vodello, The Mental Minx, completes the trio of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp's trainers. A fun-loving international secret agent and Psychonaut teacher, Milla projects the image of a party girl who enjoys being the center of attention. Her area of psychic specialty is Levitation, which she teaches to the campers within a dance party in her mind. Milla is voiced by Alexis Lezin.

She has two memory vaults, one of which contains a sad, dark past that belies her party girl appearance.

The first, more easily accessible memory vault shows her going on various adventures with Sasha Nein as Psychonauts, in the style of Austin Powers-esque secret agents. Partnering with the more cool and reserved Sasha seemed to make for an odd pairing, but deep down she seems to harbor strong feelings towards Sasha Nein. One image shows Milla smiling down at Sasha, into whose arms she appears to have been thrown during a dangerous mission.

The second memory vault contains Milla's nightmares. Hidden in her mind is a small room with various children's toys, figments, a memory vault, and a large toy box. She warns Raz to get out of that part of her mind and rejoin the party, because whatever is in there is a party killer. If Raz disregards her warning and enters into the toy chest, he uncovers a room containing Milla's nightmares. The room contains various dark, menacing shadows held within a cage made of what appears to be fire. Milla tells Raz that he has stumbled upon her deepest and darkest nightmares, but that she manages to keep them under control. Listening closely to the nightmares reveals whispers directed towards Milla: Save us, Why did you let us die? and other disturbing voices.

More information can be found in the memory reel from the second vault, Milla's Children. Presumably before becoming a Psychonaut, Milla Vodello held a position as a nun or a nurse at an orphanage. Her memories depict her feeding the children, singing songs with them, and playing with them; it is obvious that she cared deeply for the children. A subsequent image shows Milla returning from grocery shopping to find the orphanage consumed in flames. She is seen covering her head in anguish as the children's cries surround her; it is unclear whether this occurs during the fire itself or whether she is haunted by the pleas later. She clearly feels a great amount of guilt over being away from the orphanage when the fire had started, and this may be what drove her to become a Psychonaut: the prospect of righting wrongs to atone for her self-perceived failure at protecting the children from harm. If Raz uses Clairvoyance, an ability which allows him to perceive the world as others do, on Milla, it is revealed that she sees him (and likely all the other children at the camp) as a baby to be protected.

Milla is Brazilian, and her manner of speech and accent is mildly reminiscent of Spanish-born entertainer Charo.

Ford Cruller
At first glance, Ford Cruller seems to be a somewhat senile old man who finds a way to be everywhere at once. In each location, he is wearing a different outfit and filling a different position (Admiral Cruller in the boathouse, Ranger Cruller in the wilderness, Chef Cruller in the lodge, etc.). However, there is much more to Ford than meets the eye. Cruller is voiced by David Kaye

Ford Cruller is one of the original Psychonauts, and one of the best. His psychic capabilities were astonishingly high, as he is the only character in the game capable of penetrating Razputin's mind (aside from Raz's own father, who managed it after a great deal of effort; Coach Oleander couldn't even procure Raz's name, thinking it began with a D). Ford's immense psychic powers earned him prominence and a leadership position within the Psychonauts. Unfortunately, a battle with a powerful enemy psychic left him physically unharmed but shattered his psyche. As a result, Ford can only ever be himself when he is near a large quantity of psitanium, an element that focuses and amplifies psychic energy. His personality fragments as he moves away from the metal, causing him to forget his true identity and regress into one of his alter egos.

Since this condition left him nearly useless as a Psychonaut, Ford became involved with the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp for two purposes: to help train young, new recruits and to be near one of the world's largest deposits of psitanium to keep his psyche stable. His underground sanctuary is built directly over the enormous meteor that created the valley in which Lake Oblangata now lies.

The operational branch of the Psychonauts now seem to regard Ford as a crazy old has-been. Only Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello maintain any respect for him; secretly, Cruller monitors information feeds from around the world and assigns Sasha and Milla to undertake missions for him (he knows that if the operational branch of the Psychonauts found out that Ford was the person assigning Sasha and Milla their missions, they would never be approved).

Later, with Nein and Vodello out of the picture, Raz is the only one capable of stopping Coach Oleander's evil plot. Ford takes the roles of Raz's supervisor, mentor, and confidante throughout his mission. Any time Raz needs advice or extraction back to Ford's sanctuary, he only has to wave a piece of bacon (Ford's favorite food) beside his ear. In response, a psychic projection of Cruller emerges from Razputin's ear.

In the final stages of the game, Ford discovers that he is able to leave his sanctuary without fragmenting his mind by strapping a large piece of psitanium to his back, but eventually the psychic energy wears off, reverting himself to one of his many personalities.

Children at Whispering Rock
Below is a list of Raz's fellow bunkmates at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. Each kid can be found at different locations during different times of the day, and depending on which part of the story is being played through.




 * Benny The Nose Fideleo: Bobby Zilch's sycophantic friend. He mocks the other campers, but becomes quite insecure whenever Bobby is not around. Later, a failed attempt at trying to torment Maloof results in being held upside down in the air by Mikhail, Maloof's new friend and bodyguard.  Despite his enormous ears, he is called The Nose.  Voiced by Bill Tanzer.
 * Bobby Zilch: Bobby is the camp bully, and singles out Raz for particular abuse. He is convinced that the entire camp is below him, and employs Benny as his sidekick/yes-man. His skin is greenish, his mouth is sparsely populated with crooked, discolored teeth and he sports an enormous 'cotton candy-like' clump of orange hair. At one point in the game (when shown the button given to Raz by Sasha), Bobby acts paranoid and panicked, leading us to believe he's had some form of experience with a GPC (Geodesic Psychoisolation Chamber). Bobby secretly holds a crush on Chloe. When Bobby's face is seen in a close-up, it turns out that he sports one red eye and one green eye- an eerie feature shared only by Dr. Loboto.  Certainly, with his bluish skin and long neck, Bobby bears a striking physical resemblance to the mad doctor although it is never expanded upon.  Voiced by Doug Giorgis.
 * Chloe Barge: A space cadet in every sense of the word, Chloe is absolutely certain that she is from outer space because she believes she hears transmissions (which are actually her natural telepathic powers reading other people's thoughts).  She usually uses Coach Oleander's radio, connected to the camp's PA system, to try and contact any UFO passing by so that she can get off Earth; if Raz climbs the speaker pole before the Basic Braining level, he can hear her message. Her most notable trait is the space helmet she wears all the time, and she can be found either out flying a remote control space ship, or fiddling with the camp radio in Oleander's cabin.  She is the only person Bobby Zilch is authentically nice to.  She is well aware that he has a crush on her, but says that his technique needs a lot of work.  Voiced by Brett Walter.
 * Clem Foote: Clem is an eerily enthusiastic cadet who is close friends with Crystal. Both seem very happy on the outside, and see all other campmates as football players (as seen when Raz uses clairvoyance). However, when he is alone, he starts to track down the other half of this two-man cheerleading group, possibly to keep Crystal from hurting herself. Like Crystal, he seems to be hiding a suicidal and/or homicidal side. Eavesdropping on Clem and Crystal when they stand on the roof seems to suggest that they are contemplating suicide in order to become more powerful. Voiced by Andrew Morris.
 * Chops Sweetwind: Chops is a Canadian cadet whose most notable feature is his afro hairstyle. He feels betrayed when his best friend J.T. becomes more involved with his relationship with Elka than his friendship with him. However, the pair reunite at the end of the story. Voiced by Ogie Banks. He sees Raz as a hockey player.
 * Crystal Flowers Snagrash: Crystal is an eerily enthusiastic cadet who is close friends with Clem. Both seem very happy on the outside, and see all other campmates as football players (as seen when Raz uses clairvoyance). After Ford recranializes her stolen brain, she casually admits to Raz that both she and Clem attempted to poison themselves and, when that did not work, throw themselves off the Main Lodge's roof. Voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey.
 * Dogen Boole: Dogen is a friend of Raz who has incredibly powerful, yet unmastered, psychic powers. He relates to Raz that one time he kind of made someone's head explode (he later admitted it was four times), and therefore wears a special tin-foil hat. He seems to be very agitated with the local squirrels, who he claims are lying ndash; after his brain is returned to his body, Dogen says the squirrels were saying the little man is going to kill everyone; Dogen thought they were talking about him, but they actually meant Oleander. In the campfire area, a picture of someone named Compton Boole is carved into a log. The connection, if any, is never explained.  Voiced by Nika Futterman.
 * Elka Doom: Elka is a snobby, controlling, prissy girl at Whispering Rock who first appears to be in a one-sided relationship with J.T. (whom she calls James). Later, it turns out that this was merely a revenge tactic against Nils, her ex-boyfriend.  At the end of the game, she breaks off her relationship with J.T., and gets back together with Nils. She later admits that she always knew they would get back together, telling Nils that she can see the future.  Voiced by Victoria Hoffman.
 * Elton Fir: A fearful child who can psychically communicate with fish. He has a crush on Lili early in the game, but halfway through he starts going out with Milka Phage. However, he still seems to harbor some resentment towards Razputin over stealing Lili from him (if you use Clairvoyance on Elton, you can see that he sees Raz as a mustachioed villain carrying a bound Lili). Voiced by Christina Puccelli.
 * Frankie Athens: Frankie is Kitty's best friend, and possibly her only real friend, as the two of them don't seem to like anyone else besides each other. She is just as snotty as Kitty, though Kitty is better with the insults.  Frankie is rumored to have a secret crush on Vernon, though she doesn't show it.  Voiced by Jessica Di Cicco.
 * James J.T. Hoofburger: J.T. is a kid who looks like he's seen way too many westerns on TV over the years.  J.T. always wears a cowboy hat, and speaks as if he were a real cowpoke.  Unfortunately for him, he seems to be in a one-sided relationship with Elka Doom which is putting a strain on his friendship with fellow camp cadet, Chops.  Despite being Elka's whipping boy, J.T. eventually gets out of the relationship, and gets back together with Chops.  He can be found at the target range outside the main lodge during the day, practicing his primary psychic ability, psychic energy blasts.  After recranialization, he patrols the kids' cabin area with Chops.  Voiced by Jeannie Elias. He sees Raz as a cowboy.
 * Kitty Bubai: Kitty is your classic snotty, stuck-up, spoiled rich girl. She often insults Raz whenever he speaks to her.  Kitty and her best friend Franke spend most of their time making friendship bracelets behind the main lodge.  Quentin has a crush on Kitty, and can often be heard singing a song about her while practicing in the main lodge. She appears to be of Asian descent, and a Daddy's Girl, since when certain proceeds are made, she threatens to have her father sue.  Voiced by Brett Walter.
 * Maloof Canola: Maloof is a short child who has always been the prey of bullies Bobby and Benny. Roughly halfway through the game, Maloof befriends Russian cadet Mikhail, who defends Maloof by threatening bullies with his famous Deadly Nelson. Before long, Maloof attempts to form a protection racket based on Mikhail's powers. He seems to be from a family of mobsters; when after he and Mikhail are recranialized they are found fiddling around with the Coach's jeep in the parking lot, he comments that that is how things are done in his family. He also sees Raz as a mobster when Clairvoyance is used on him. Voiced by Brett Walter.
 * Mikhail Bulgakov: A Russian immigrant with a funny hat, Mikhail enjoys wrestling bears using telekinesis, and is obsessed with a giant hairless bear that he believes is in the nearby woods. This happens to come up in conversation every time Mikhail is included in a scene. This bear, however, is actually the Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata. Mikhail, however, does not know this, and when Raz tells him this at a particular moment, he dismisses Raz's warning as a joke. He is recruited by Maloof near the end of the game as a bodyguard and to help him get back at Benny by using variants of his Deadly Nelson technique. His name is presumably a reference to Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov. Voiced by Mark Ivanir.
 * Milka Phage: Milka is a cadet who is extremely gifted in the art of invisibility. Early on, she can be found in the main lodge drawing at one of the tables, but usually disappears whenever you get close to her, as she is very shy. However, examining her drawings show Elton Fir with hearts around him. Later, she and Elton begin hanging out, and then even later, they go steady.  Voiced by Lara Jill Miller.
 * Nils Lutefisk: A boy with the appearance of a child's doll, Nils is convinced he is a playboy. His first concern in any situation is how it relates to the ladies. His last serious relationship was with Elka Doom. He is commonly seen practicing clairvoyance with a squirrel and its acorn, next to the girls cabin to see everything. When he tells Raz he's practicing for tonight, Raz wonders why that such a thing would require practice, but Nils responds, My parents let me watch R-rated movies, so I think I know a little more about this than you do. His primary psychic ability is clairvoyance. The solemn historical recount of the past of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp is disrupted by the fact that he carved part of his romantic history on the tree log it is inscribed on. Voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey.
 * Phoebe Love: Phoebe is a member of a band with Quentin (they can not agree on whether to call themselves The Firestarters or The Levitators).  Her main musical talent is playing the drums. Quentin once levitated her as part of their act, resulting in her crashing on top of her drum set.  She is usually found practicing in the main lodge with Quentin, and later, the two collaborate on writing Raz's victory song.  Her primary psychic talent is pyrokinesis, though she apparently has had problems controlling it in the past, as evidenced by her frightened and paranoid reaction when Raz tries it on her.  Voiced by Crystal Scales.
 * Quentin Hedgemouse: Quentin is a member of a band with Phoebe (they can not agree on whether to call themselves The Levitators or The Firestarters). His main musical talent is record scratching on the turntables. Phoebe accidentally melted his turntable records once with some unplanned pyrotechnics of hers. He is usually found practicing in the main lodge with Phoebe, and later, the two collaborate on writing Raz's victory song. It is possible that Quentin, as well as Raz and Lili, may have been privy to Oleander's mental transmissions; at one point he asks Phoebe if she has ever had 'a weird dream about a bathtub', while a bathtub with the word Oblongata on it is part of the environment in the Brain Tumbler experiment. His primary psychic talent is levitation.  Voiced by Sherrie Jackson.
 * Vernon Tripe: Vernon is a boy with a fondness for telling stories, but cursed with an inability to recount those stories in anything but an incoherent, rambling drawl. He speaks with a low, nasal monotone voice. His philosophy in hide-and-seek, as well as life, is Never follow a snake into its den. That is the code of the mongoose. The code of the hunter. If the player listens to him while he's in the lodges tv room after dogens brain is removed, he'll reveal some truths about the asylum and the lungfish, with some useless bits of info as well. Voiced by Faith Abrahams.

Thorney Towers staff and residents
Characters Raz encounters when at the Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed. Raz has to enter their mind and fix their mental problems, learning about their usually dark past in the process. Of curious note is the fact that, according to the tree-calendar at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, the asylum was closed 50 years prior to the beginning of the game. However, the history of the residents of Thorny Towers is implied to have occurred much more recently than that (indeed, apart from Gloria, it is doubtful that any of them are even that old). Fred, for example, appears to be much younger than 50, yet he was supposedly Head Orderly when Thorny Towers was still in use.

Since no record of the asylum re-opening or still being operational is carved on the tree-calendar, it is possible that it was put back into use without the counselors of Whispering Rock being informed.

Boyd Cooper

 * Mental world: The Milkman Conspiracy

Employed as the security guard at Thorney Towers, Boyd is extremely paranoid. He constantly mumbles bizarre fragments of conspiracy theories involving a sinister individual he calls The Milkman while writing on the walls (interestingly, not all of what he says is gibberish. Later in the game, a few phrases seem to make sense in context; 'The fire will start in menswear' is most likely a reference to the department store fire he started, while 'the hunchbacked lady who likes brains so much' is an obvious reference to Sheegor. He also mentions a 'Fat kid with a bunny' that refers to li'l Oly). Boyd claims that he does not have the key to the gates, but that it is held by 'The Milkman'. In order to find out more about the Milkman, Raz journeys into Boyd's mind. After exploring a warped suburban neighborhood crawling with extremely obvious shadowy agents who are also looking for the Milkman, Raz discovers that Boyd is the Milkman; or, more specifically, the Milkman is a currently-dormant persona within Boyd's mind.

The contents of Cooper's mental vaults describe a troubled past. He was a security guard at a department store until being fired (apparently, this was only one in a string of similarly-lost jobs). This latest blow sent Boyd over the edge, and he burned the place down with a number of Molotov cocktails made from empty milk bottles. He was arrested and committed to Thorney Towers, where Oleander recruited him as the asylum's security guard. Using hypnosis (and possibly drug-laced milk), the coach planted subconscious orders into Boyd's mind: when triggered, Boyd would assume the role of the Milkman, making a final fiery delivery that would burn down the asylum and erase all traces of Oleander's plot for world domination.

Raz discovers that the Rainbow Squirts (a youth organization similar to the Girl Scouts of the USA) are dedicated to protecting the secret of the Milkman's location, but in doing so he accidentally leads the agents to their headquarters. Their leader, the Den Mother, hurls boxes of exploding cookies at Raz, but he manages to deflect them back at her. With her defeat, Raz accidentally triggers Boyd's transformation into the Milkman. Under Oleander's mental control, Boyd opens the gates to the asylum and prepares to throw the firebombs, but seems to await one last signal. This signal may be the question You're ready to blow this popsicle stand? as he doesn't hurl his cocktail until Fred poses that very suggestion.

After Raz defeats Doctor Loboto, Boyd finally manages to fling the molotov cocktail into the asylum, burning it down. With his mission finally complete, the Milkman and all associated psychoses (including the agents and the Rainbow Squirts) are exorcised from his mind and he, Edgar, Fred and Gloria leave the asylum for good.

The den mother appears to be incredibly overbearing and protecting of the milkman. There is also a secret government man inside the house of the hedge trimmer G-man. The phrases said by the the G-man (While being hilarious) seem to show Boyds view of housewives. This evidence may show that Boyds mother was indeed overbearing, and may have created his false-confidence and assurance that he was the best guard out there, explaining why he was fired and why he was so bitter.

Fred refers to Boyd by name at one point, implying a previous acquaintance. Since it is suggested that Boyd became the guard for Thorny Towers after it was abandoned, it is most likely that Fred recognizes Boyd from his days as a patient at the asylum. Boyd is voiced by Alan Blumenfeld.

Gloria von Gouten

 * Mental world: Gloria's Theater

A former world-renowned actress, Gloria now suffers from bipolar disorder. She shifts suddenly from kindness to rage when she steps into the shadows. Unsurprisingly, her mental landscape is that of a troubled theater. Stage manager Becky is at her wits' end because the only two plays she can stage are mediocre, drawing in no audiences except Jasper Rolls, a vicious critic. Jasper's constant harassment has taken its toll on Bonita Soleil (who has a surprisingly deep, masculine voice), the star of the show and the inner light representing Gloria's youth, beauty and talent. Bonita sobs in her dressing room and refuses to take the stage until Raz encourages her to return. Before she can utter a line, however, a masked fiend called The Phantom drops a stage light on one of the performers, prompting further scathing criticism from Jasper, which sends Bonita back to her refuge.

The two plays, as well as additional ones that Raz finds, are loosely based on Gloria's early life, and have two aspects. A lighting mechanism controls whether the current play is performed in a cheerful, happy manner or with a darker, more cynical air. Between these plots and the memories hidden in Gloria's vault, the story of her past emerges. At a very young age, Gloria's acting talent was apparent. Before long, her fame exceeded that of her mother, apparently also an actress (and described as being embittered and washed up, likely how Gloria perceived her mother for sending her to Hagatha Home). Gloria's mother sent her to Hagatha Home, an intensive-training boarding school for the arts at the insistence of her manipulative, duplicitous boyfriend. Gloria felt abandoned and unloved, and quickly found Hagatha Home to be a very difficult, demanding, even cruel environment. Her twin hopes, to be rescued by her mother or at least to receive encouraging mail from her, never came true (the latter, it is implied, because her mother's boyfriend kept destroying the letters instead of delivering them). After finally leaving Hagatha Home, Gloria cut all ties with her mother out of anger and fled to Paris to continue her expanding career. Soon afterward, she received news that her mother had committed suicide by throwing herself off of a tall building. However, statements made by the Phantom imply that it was in fact not a case of suicide, but homicide. Flooded by guilt and regret, Gloria spiraled into mental illness until she was institutionalized at Thorney Towers.

Raz finds, to no surprise, that the Phantom is actually Jasper (though he originally suspected Becky), Gloria's overdeveloped inner critic. (Also, Bonita once said that Jasper apparently arrived around the time that Gloria's mother committed suicide.) He defeats the critic by exposing him to intense spotlights that zap his power. With Jasper reduced to a tiny, ineffectual figure, Bonita returns triumphantly to the stage, entrancing audiences with her beauty. Gloria's mental balance is restored and she leaves her self-imposed prison, allowing Raz to take an award trophy that resembles Dr. Loboto's claw arm.

Gloria's faded-star, slightly-insane personality is a reference to Norma Desmond, the lead character of Sunset Boulevard; her first name comes from Gloria Swanson, who played Desmond in the film. Gloria is voiced by Roberta Callahan.

Fred Bonaparte

 * Mental world: Waterloo World

Fred is a direct descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte and the former head orderly of Thorney Towers. He is confined to a straitjacket when Raz first encounters him, alternating between his normal speech and an imperious French accent. He endlessly plays a strategic board game with improvised pieces such as a teddy bear and a lawn gnome while Crispin Whytehead watches and makes bitingly sarcastic comments.

As Raz enters Fred's mind, he finds that Fred is entangled in a continual strategy game with the genetic memory of his ancestor Napoleon. Fred seems resigned to eternal defeat, unable to muster the effort even to hope for victory. Raz finds that he can enter the game board, shrinking enough to move the pieces or becoming even smaller to interact directly with the basic game elements.

The images in Fred's memory vaults reveal that as head orderly, Fred felt pity for the unresponsive patient Crispin. He taught Crispin how to play a strategic board game called Waterloo and was amazed when Crispin not only came out of his shell enough to play, but to beat Fred repeatedly. As the string of his losses grew, Fred developed a crippling inferiority complex, and began to consider himself a disappointment to his famous predecessor, until he was finally driven over the edge when an enraged Napoleon leaped at Fred from inside a mirror, possessing him. The diminutive emperor now subjects Fred to a never-ending series of abuse and defeats in an internal game of Waterloo.

On this mental game board, the pieces talk and have wills and demands of their own. Raz convinces several peasant pieces to fight for Fred and recruits a carpenter to fix the bridges Napoleon has destroyed. To Napoleon's utter shock (and pride), Fred's knight storms the castle, finally winning the game for the hapless orderly. As the senior Bonaparte fades, he joyously assures Fred that this is the first of many victories in life and that he will share in the family greatness, and the family ulcers (which he tells Fred are hereditary, and the ultimate cause of his defeat at Waterloo, as well as being the reason Napoleon is often depicted with his hand inside his coat).

Cured of his massive inferiority complex, Fred shrugs out of the straitjacket. He sets his mind on making Crispin pay for his constant cruelty... right after a nap. Fred (and the genetic memory of Napoleon) is voiced by Andre Sogliuzzo.

Edgar Teglee

 * Mental world: Black Velvetopia

Edgar is an obsessed artist. No matter what he begins to paint, the result depicts a charging bull. Dr. Loboto, he says, has chained him to the floor near an easel until he is capable of painting something other than a bullfight.

As he enters Edgar's mind, Raz finds him building a giant house of cards. He is lacking the four queens he needs to reach the image floating in the sky, that of a beautiful woman crying rose petal tears. A huge pink bull, El Odio (literally, Spanish for The Hate; the mental manifestation of hate that drove Edgar to madness) races in suddenly, knocking down the cards and sweeping Raz into alleys abutting a long, winding street. Every few seconds, the bull speeds by, making it dangerous to set foot into the road. Raz encounters a series of dogs in the alleys, selling their art and explaining bits of Edgar's history.

Edgar was an acclaimed artist married to a beautiful woman named Lampita Pasionado. When famous matador Dingo Inflagrante commissioned Edgar to paint his portrait, Lampita left Edgar for the bullfighter. The artist descended into madness, painting nothing but bullfights as he obsessed over his heartbreak. A tragic story -- but a romanticized version of the truth. What actually happened, one of the dogs tells Raz, is that Edgar was the captain of his high school's wrestling team. Each member of the team had an animal-themed nickname; Edgar was Bull and his teammates were known as Tiger, Eagle, Dragon, and Cobra. Edgar's talent led them to the state semifinals, but it was there that his cheerleader girlfriend Lana left him for Dean, a male cheerleader. The betrayal broke Edgar's fighting spirit and cost his team their shot at the championship. His teammates turned viciously on him after the loss, compounding his sadness and shame. This forced him into sitting in the art room during break times at high school, leading to his growing interest in art to hide away from these failures. Somewhere along the line, he decided it was Dean and Lana's fault that his team lost, and it may be that El Odio's charging may represent a subconscious desire for revenge against Dean and Lana for what they did to him and his team.

In order to acquire the four queen cards, Raz must dodge El Odio and defeat representations of Edgar's former teammates. When Edgar finally completes his tower of cards, Raz is transported to a bullring where the bull is Edgar himself. In self-defense, Raz has to telekinetically lodge four banderillas (harpoon-like weapons) in Edgar's back. When Edgar is near defeat, however, Dingo suddenly appears, congratulating Raz for weakening El Odio, and prepares to slay him as Lampita looks on from a balcony. Even though Raz hurriedly removes the banderillas, Edgar is too weak to resist Dingo's attacks. To defend the artist, Raz pelts Dingo with confusion grenades that make the matador think he is El Odio, then strikes him with the harpoons. As Dingo collapses, Lampita throws herself on him, her voice transforming from that of an exotic señorita to that of a high school cheerleader. His mind clear at last, Edgar sees Dingo and Lampita for the pathetic teenagers Dean and Lana really were. He refuses to waste any more of his life torturing himself over them, opening a pit in the bullring beneath the two.

Cured of his compulsion to paint bulls, Edgar presents Raz with a portrait of Dr. Loboto, who he considers his patrón. Subsequently he paints a black velvet painting of dogs playing poker with himself, featuring the various dogs Raz encountered in his head.

His therapy complete, Edgar decides to leave Thorny Towers to prepare his first art gallery, but hesitates when he sees Fred, apparently concerned that his departure will be considered an 'escape'. Fred tells him to relax, informing him that the asylum is defunct. Edgar is voiced by Jerry De Capua.

Crispin Whytehead
Crispin was formerly a withdrawn patient at Thorney Towers. The head orderly, Fred Bonaparte, introduced him to Waterloo, a strategy board game, as a form of play therapy. It worked magnificently: Crispin not only became communicative, but subjected Fred to a series of humiliating defeats. The losses instilled a massive inferiority complex in Fred, turning him into an inmate as well. When Dr. Loboto took over the abandoned asylum, he gave Crispin the job of guarding the elevator that led to the upper floors. This position of power, along with the reversal in roles with Fred, affected Crispin profoundly. He watches Fred, who wrestles with his insecurities while bound in a straitjacket, mocking him with sarcastic glee.

Crispin is extremely nearsighted, with everything seen to him as a blur. He recognizes Loboto by his three distinct features: his shiny, clawlike artificial arm, his white smock, and his unique, robot-like face. By wearing Fred's straitjacket, sporting Gloria's three-pronged trophy, and holding Edgar's portrait of Loboto, Raz manages to fool Crispin into letting him use the elevator. Moments later, Fred chases Whytehead from his post in pursuit of vengeance. Crispin is one of the Asylum characters whose mental landscape is not seen in the game; attempting to enter his mind produces a note from Loboto saying he's sealed it off to prevent anyone (specifically, Coach Oleander) from tampering with his guard. Crispin is voiced by Dwight Schultz.

Dr. Loboto
His full name is Dr. Caligosto Loboto, D.D.S. A deranged dentist whose secret lab occupies the top of the asylum's highest tower. Although Loboto initially appears to be the main villain, he turns out to be a subordinate of Oleander. His bizarre appearance includes a metallic-looking face with one green and one red eye and an artificial arm ending in three golden prongs. He is first seen inside Raz's mind during the brain tumbler level. It is there that Raz witnesses the theft of Dogan's brain.

As Whispering Rock's campers are captured, he binds them in a special chair that nullifies their psychic abilities. He twists his forearm like a pepper mill, releasing sneezing powder into the victim's face; the powder causes the children to sneeze so violently that their brains fly out through their noses. Loboto hands the brains over to Oleander, who places them into psychic death tanks he plans to use for world domination.

When Raz attempts to free Lili, Sasha, and Milla, Loboto falls from the tower during the struggle and is not seen again. Despite his being a major character, it is not possible to enter Loboto's mind at any point in the game, or even to hold a conversation with him.

Dr. Loboto's name is derived from the term lobotomy. It may also be noted that he bears a startling resemblance to the camp bully, Bobby Zilch, although it is never expanded upon. Dr. Loboto is voiced by Nick Jameson. He looks slightly like Dr. Finklestein.

Sheegor
Dr. Loboto's assistant Sheegor is a frightful-looking woman whose personality is in stark contrast with her appearance. She is a hunchback with wide, bulbous eyes and a shock of white hair standing on end; however, she has an extremely high-pitched voice, a peaceful temperament and a simple mind. Loboto compels her to help him by holding her beloved pet turtle as hostage in a tank that had a barbecue as a bottom. The thought of Mr. Pokeylope coming to any harm is nearly more than Sheegor's mind can bear.

When Raz rescues Pokeylope, Sheegor gratefully agrees to help him free his friends. Clueless as to a plan, she solicits advice from the turtle, who answers in a deep, resonant voice reminiscent of Barry White. After Sasha and Milla are rebrained, Sheegor becomes Sasha's new lab assistant.

Her name is a combination of the feminizing prefix she- and Igor, the stock character of a mad scientist's assistant.

Sheegor bears a resemblance to the statue located on top of the fountain in front of the asylum. This may mean that she is related to the founder of the asylum. Sheegor is voiced by Tara Strong.

Linda the Lungfish

 * Mental world: Lungfishopolis

Raz first knows this character as The Hideous Hulking Lungfish of Lake Oblongata, a scary tale told among campers at Whispering Rock. He discovers that the creature exists when it lures Lili with a flower, then apparently swallows her and walks into the lake. Raz enters a bathysphere to follow, which drops into a huge underwater mucus bubble filled with air. After battling the fish into submission, he uses the Psycho-portal to enter its mind, where he appears as an enormous figure (known as Goggalor) terrorizing a city of tiny, law-abiding lungfish.

After viewing the contents of the fish's mental vaults and speaking with tiny members of a rebel force, Raz learns that Linda was once an ordinary lungfish living in an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. The villainous Loboto and Oleander mutated her and implanted a device in her brain that compelled her to kidnap the psychic children. The mind-control device appears in Lungfishopolis as a giant radio tower and is defended by Kochamara (Coach Oleander in a super sentai costume). Once Raz destroys the transmitter, Oleander relinquishes control over Linda, claiming that Lili's brain is so powerful, he no longer needs more brains. Linda becomes an ally and transports him to and from Thorney Towers, the asylum on a tiny island in the middle of the lake and Whispering Rocks beach.

Linda bears no resemblance to an actual lungfish. Lungfish are eel-like in appearance, do not possess modified spinal barbs they use to attract prey as anglerfish do, and do not live in mucus-lined air bubbles underwater. However, most of these can be explained as the results of Linda's mutation at the hands of Dr. Loboto. Despite being mentioned often, it is interesting to know that Mikhail has seen her around camp while looking for a bear, and mistaking it as such.

If the player reaches rank 100 by completing all the game's objectives, a bonus cut scene reveals that Linda and Mr. Pokeylope (Sam) have a bit of history between them. Linda is voiced by David Kaye.

Mr. Pokeylope (Sam)
Mr. Pokeylope is Sheegor's pet, a small turtle wearing a crown and boots. Dr. Loboto ensures Sheegor's compliance by threatening violence against Pokeylope; he keeps the turtle in a small terrarium over a stove, promising to cook Pokeylope alive if Sheegor disobeys. After Raz rescues the turtle, he finds that not only does Pokeylope talk in an extremely deep voice, but has a plan to stop Dr. Loboto. The psytanium residue in the food chain in the Lake Oblongata area has affected Mr. Pokeylope no less than the rest of the wildlife, as he possesses human intelligence due to a human-sized brain inside his shell rather than his head. Interestingly, showing him to the other campers (once you have rescued their brains), Ford, and two of the residents of the insane asylum (Fred and Edgar) will provoke unique responses.

If the player attains rank 100, an extra cut scene shows that Pokeylope's first name is Sam, and that he and Linda the Lungfish are old acquaintances. Mr. Pokeylope is voiced by Nick Jameson.

Razputin's father
Although not seen until the final scenes of the game, Razputin's father is mentioned at several points. When Raz began to exhibit psychic abilities, his father (who is a circus acrobat) ordered him to continually practice very physically demanding stunts and tricks. This regimen led Raz to believe that his father hated him and was either trying to distract him or kill him; at a loss for any other explanation, Raz concluded that his father hated psychics. This reasoning was strengthened by the curse placed upon his family by Gypsy psychics, that everyone in Raz's family is destined to die in water. (This curse is called the Hand of Galochio, named for the group that cast it.)

The final mental landscapes of Psychonauts combine aspects of Raz's past (being raised in the circus) and Oleander's past (traumatized by his father being a butcher). Raz's father appears as a sinister figure, forcing Raz to speed through a dangerous acrobatic course while water continually rises beneath them. In addition to pelting Raz with scornful, mocking comments, he throws flaming torches meant to knock Raz into the water. He eventually tries to kill Raz with the assistance of Oleander's dad, but the two monstrous creatures are eventually knocked into a meat grinder and emerge one final time as a horribly mutilated combination.

In reality, Raz's father is a psychic himself, which Raz had also begun to suspect. He was very worried about Raz and hoped that the harsh acrobatic routines would help hone his discipline and help him deal with his powers. He assists Raz in the final mental battles against the monstrous visions of himself and Oleander's father. Raz's father is voiced by Armin Shimerman.

D'Artagan
D'Artagan (or Dart for short) was the original player character of Psychonautssup/sup. He was cut from the game for various reasons, mainly because his hat and clothing were too hard to render and animate properly. However, he does make a brief cameo in the game's final cutscene; he pokes his head out of the latrine, but hides again quickly. There may also be a reference to him in the opening cutscene: when Raz was discovered by the camp, Milla asks for his name, and after Oleander fails to probe Raz's mind, he states that Raz's name begins with a 'D'.