Melinda Warren

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Melinda Warren was a very powerful good witch that lived in the late 17th century. The founder of the Warren line of witches, she prophecized the coming of the Charmed Ones upon her burning at the stake.

History
Melinda Warren is an ancestor of the Charmed Ones; in fact, she was the one who created the Charmed prophecy. ("Something Wicca This Way Comes") She was born on October 31 1670 outside of a rural village in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia; the daughter of a witch named Charlotte Warren. ("All Halliwell's Eve")

Melinda later returns as a newborn baby when the Charmed Ones are sent back in time to save a woman who belongs to a coven of witches. The woman they save from Cole and the evil Ruth is pregnant. As they flee, they are chased by a group of gun men on horseback. While Prue and Phoebe use magic to form a protective circle, Piper helps deliver the baby. Back at the coven, the sisters discover that the woman they have saved is Charlotte Warren, the mother of Melinda. ("All Halliwell's Eve")

She later moved to Salem, Massachusetts and bore a daughter, Prudence. Betrayed by her lover, the warlock Matthew Tate, she was burned at the stake in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Matthew's power was to copy any power used against him and having already tricked Melinda into letting him copy all of hers, he betrayed her.

Witchcraft
Before her death, Melinda enacted her revenge on Matthew by cursing him to spend eternity trapped within a locket he had given to her as a gift, but not before wiping out Matthew's copies of her powers. Only Melinda herself or a witch of blood kin could set Matthew free. ("The Witch Is Back")

On the day of her death, Melinda foretold the prophecy of the Charmed Ones. ("Something Wicca This Way Comes")


 * You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. I vow that with each generation of Warren witches will grow stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters. These three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will destroy all kinds of evil and shall be called the Charmed Ones.

Melinda herself possessed the three original powers that the Charmed Ones later develop separately; Telekinesis, Premonition, and Molecular immobilization. ("Something Wicca This Way Comes")

Melinda's Return
Over 300 years after her death, Melinda’s descendant, Prue Halliwell, stumbled upon the cursed locket while working as an appraiser at Buckland's Auction House. Not knowing of the curse, Prue opened the locket and set Matthew free. With his ability to copy powers, he acquired a replica of Prue's telekinesis and after discovering she was a descendant of Melinda Warren herself, Matthew had a new modus operandi; copying the powers of the Charmed Ones and then killing them, effectively destroying the Warren line and enacting the ultimate revenge against Melinda Warren for entrapping him for almost 400 years.

Fearful for their lives, the Halliwell sisters cast a spell to bring Melinda back and into their time to learn how she originally cursed Matthew into the locket.

Before they could finish the potion with which they can curse Matthew back inside of the locket, Matthew himself arrived at the manor having copied Phoebe's power of premonition. Now all Matthew needed was a copy of Piper's powers before he would be powerful enough to kill the sisters and then Melinda as well.

Fortunately, the collective workings of the sisters and Melinda were enough to foil Matthew. Prue delivered the last ingredient to the potion, the feather of a spotted owl, and Melinda uses the completed potion and its adjoining spell to once again trap Matthew within the locket for all of eternity.

After the battle Melinda, returns to the afterlife, but before the Halliwells release her spirit, Melinda receives a glimpse of a distant future with her power of premonition. She sees many more generations of "her daughters" through Phoebe, proving the Warren line will live on for years to come. ("The Witch Is Back")
 * Phoebe, who triggered Melinda's premonition of "many beautiful daughters", is the only sister to end up with three daughters.

Legacy
At Piper Halliwell's wedding to Leo Wyatt, the "something old" found by Prue was Melinda Warren's blessing cup. ("Just Harried")

Piper later planned to name her first daughter (Melinda Halliwell) after her ancestor after seeing a potential future. In that future Melinda was her only child. ("Morality Bites") Later Piper would become pregnant and expect a girl, planning on naming her Prudence Melinda, only to have a son instead. ("Baby's First Demon")
 * In "Forever Charmed", Piper is shown in the future to have a third child, a daughter, and although her name was not mentioned, the shooting script listed her as Melinda Halliwell.


 * The character is probably named after Mary Warren who took part in the real Salem witch trials. 'The show's creator and writer, Constance M. Burge, named the character "Melinda" after her niece.


 * She was played by actress Tyler Layton.