Melinda Warren


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Melinda Warren was a very powerful good witch who lived in the late 17th century. The founder of the Warren line of witches, she prophesised the coming of the Charmed Ones upon her burning at the stake. She was married to William Jackson but had a short affair with Matthew Tate, who seduced her for her powers.

History


Melinda Warren is the great-great-great-great-grandmother 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 mortal named Charlotte Warren, who was a member of a Wiccan coven in the area. ("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 helped to 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. She created the Warren Book of Shadows, which would become the most coveted Book of Shadows ever. She briefly had an affair with Matthew Tate, a warlock whose gift was to copy any power when it is used against him. Once he copied a power, it would have no effect on him at all. After tricking Melinda into letting him copy all of hers, he betrayed her in order to keep his own cover from being blown. She was burned at the stake in the Salem witch trials of 1692.

Witchcraft
Before her death, Melinda enacted her revenge on Matthew Tate 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.

Prophecy
On the day of her death, Melinda foretold the prophecy of the Charmed Ones, presuably due to a premonition she had. These were her words:

You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. With each generation, the Warren witches will grow stronger and stronger - until, at last, three sisters will arrive. Together, these three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will be the Charmed Ones.

Powers & Abilities
Melinda was the first witch in the Warren line to develop magical powers, her mother being only a simple witchcraft-practitioner with no real powers. These powers would continue to be passed down throughout the Warren lineage and would be the ones that the Charmed Ones later developed separately; Telekinesis, Premonition, and Molecular immobilization.

Like any kind of witch, she was capable of spellcasting and potion brewing, and presumably scrying if it existed in her time.

Melinda's Return
Over 300 years after her death, Melinda’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Prue Halliwell, was given 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 Tate free. What Prue didn't know was that her boss, Rex Buckland, was using Matthew to steal her powers.

Realizing that she had to have been a descendant of Melinda, Matthew tried to kill Prue, but she fought him off with her telekinesis--thus inadvertently enabling him to copy that power. He now 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 over 300 years.

Fearful for their lives, the Halliwell sisters cast a spell to bring Melinda back and into their time. Melinda is gratified that the three sisters have fulfilled her prophecy of 300 years earlier, and proposes to curse Matthew back into the locket--presumably for good.

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 with the locket to keep Matthew trapped forever, but before the Halliwells released 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")

To Call Blood to Blood

 * This spell was used to summon Melinda Warren.


 * Melinda Warren,
 * Blood of our Blood
 * Our Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother,
 * We Summon Thee.

To Reverse the Blood to Blood Spell

 * This spell was used to send Melinda Warren back to her own time.
 * Melinda Warren,
 * Blood of our Blood
 * We release you.

Legacy
At Piper Halliwell's wedding to Leo Wyatt, the "something old" found by Phoebe was Melinda Warren's blessing cup that she drank from at her wedding. ("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.