Mother Miranda is the main antagonist of the video game Resident Evil Village. She was a biologist and cult leader who ruled over a small, rural village in Eastern Europe where she conducted experiments with the Mold, a fungal super-organism that assimilated the consciousnesses of those it infected. The goal of these experiments was to create a vessel for the consciousness of her daughter Eva, who had died during childhood. To accomplish this goal, she abducted Rosemary Winters, the infant daughter of protagonist Ethan Winters, to use as Eva's new vessel.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Miranda was born in the late 19th century and resided in an agrarian mountain village somewhere in Eastern Europe. In 1909, she gave birth to Eva, her first and only child. However, Eva would die ten years later during the Spanish Flu pandemic, leaving Miranda devastated with grief.
In her despair, Miranda wandered into a cave where she intended to take her own life. Before she could do so, she encountered an enormous and ancient fungal mass that she would call "the Mold". At the centre of the super-colony was the Fungal Root, or Megamycete, and Miranda inadvertantly touched it. Upon contact with the Megamycete, Miranda saw the memories of thousands of people that had been absorbed by the Mold over its lifetime. Among these memories was Eva, whose body had been absorbed immediately after her burial. Feeling Eva's consciousness within the Megamycete, Miranda came to believe that she could bring her daughter back to life through the Mold. As well as this epiphany, she had also been mutated by the Mold after touching it, gaining inhuman abilities such as shapeshifting and immortality.
As Mother Miranda[]
After her transformation, Miranda returned to the village, which was still reeling from the Spanish Flu. She infected the villagers carrying the disease with the Mold, curing them. Proclaiming herself as a prophet of the "Black God", Miranda swayed the villagers to abandon their Christian faith and convert to a new pagan cult under her leadership. From then on, the villagers, under the mind-altering effects of the Mold, referred to Miranda as "Mother Miranda" and worshipped her like a deity.
Over the following decades, Miranda conducted many experiments with the Mold. She operated out of a makeshift laboratory within the caverns beneath the village, experimenting on both living and dead organisms. In time, Miranda would create the Cadou, a parasitic organism based on the Mold. She would produce many of these parasites and implant them in selected villagers, both peasants and nobility, hoping to produce a superhuman vessel for Eva. Most of the test subjects would die after implantation, or be transformed into feral, bestial creatures known as Lycans. Miranda would have the Lycans cast out of the village so as to keep the other villagers alive for her continued research. The banished mutants would make their den in the remains of a medieval fort, only emerging on occasion to prey upon livestock. Miranda's most promising candidates for her Cadou research were the descendants of the Four Kings who ruled over the region - Alcina Dimitrescu, Karl Heisenberg, Donna Beneviento, and Salvatore Moreau. Although none were suitable vessels for Eva, Miranda recognized their ancient feudal rule over the region and they operated together as a council.
During the 1950's, Miranda was known to have employed at least one assistant to her research: British medical student Oswell E. Spencer, who was rescued by Miranda after he had gotten lost while hiking in the mountains. Spencer and Miranda spent some time researching the Mold together, but would ultimately part ways due to conflicting interests and ideologies. While Miranda was focused on reviving her daughter, Spencer's ambitions involved enhancing all of humanity through the use of viruses. While their paths diverged, it was through Miranda's work that Spencer became inspired to later establish the Umbrella Corporation. He continued to hold Miranda in high regard and would write to her following his departure, but the two never met again.
The Connections[]
In 2000, Miranda was contacted by a global crime syndicate known as The Connections. The Connections had been made aware of Miranda's research and wished to collaborate with her, hoping to use the Mold to develop new types of B.O.W.'s. Miranda provided them with Mold samples and an embryonic clone of Eva which the Connections would use to produce a number of B.O.W. prototypes. Working in collaboration with H.C.F., they developed a bioweapon capable of utilizing mind control. This weapon, known as E-001 or "Eveline", was artificially aged to appear as a ten-year old girl and resembled Miranda's daughter at the time of her death. Miranda met Eveline in person along with her assigned handlers, Mia Winters and Alan Droney. When the Connections' facility housing Eveline was discovered during a BSAA investigation. In October 2014, Eveline was transported across the ocean on a tanker which then crashed off the coast of Louisiana, resulting in the Dulvey Incident.
Abduction of Rosemary Winters[]
In early 2021, Miranda learned of the termination of Eveline via a Connections mole within the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. The mole also informed Miranda that Eveline's killer, Ethan Winters, had been infected with the Mold during the Dulvey Incident along with his wife Mia. The two had since conceived a child named Rose and had been relocated to Eastern Europe for their protection. Believing that the infant Rose could potentially be an ideal host for Eva, Miranda made plans to kidnap her.
After acquiring medical supplies she would need for her upcoming experiment, Miranda abducted Mia, assimilating her DNA in order to assume her form and infiltrate the Winters household. She was easily able to pass herself off as Mia and fool Ethan; she already knew about local folklore and cuisine and Ethan and Mia's marriage had already been strained since the Dulvey Incident, so her aggressive manner during her deception did not arouse any suspicion.
On the eve of February 8th, the Winters' house was raided by a counter-terrorist unit led by former BSAA operative Chris Redfield. Chris had been investigating Miranda ever since learning about her from Connections documents seized after the Dulvey Incident and had the Winters' under constant surveillance since their relocation. After watching Ethan put Rose to bed, Chris' team struck, sniping Miranda through the windows before breaking into the house. Chris shot Miranda five times in the head while his men took Rose from her crib. Miranda was, in fact, not severely harmed by the shots due to her Mold-based physiology and she feigned death until the right moment arose to abduct Rose. While Ethan and Rose were being transported to another location aboard a military truck, Miranda struck and killed Chris' men before taking Rose and fleeing with her back to the village.
In the early hours of February 9th, Miranda met with the Four Lords to inform them of the upcoming ceremony in which Rose would become the host for Eva. Using the tools and supplies she had obtained, Miranda performed a procedure wherein she was able to crystallize Rose's body and take it apart without killing her. Each of Rose's body parts were contained within flasks and divided among the Four Lords to insure the ceremony went ahead as planned. Deciding that she no longer needed the villagers, Miranda set her pack of Lycans loose in the village. Most of the villagers were either slaughtered or transformed into Lycans themselves.
By daybreak, very few residents were left and Miranda had spotted Ethan Winters entering the village and fending off a Lycan attack. Taking the form of the Old Hag, a disguise she used to mingle among the villagers and spy on them, Miranda provided Ethan with false information that Rose was at Castle Dimitrescu. During her final search of the village, Miranda killed the last of the surviving villagers.
Not long after, Miranda held an emergency session at the old church following Heisenberg's capture of Ethan. Either losing faith in Winters' reliability or simply not caring, Miranda gave in to the Lords' demands and gave Heisenberg permission to have him killed and left. As noon approached, she received a phone call from Lady Dimitrescu alerting her to Winters' presence in the castle, though once more decided to prohibit his execution. In the early afternoon, Winters escaped the castle after his slaying of Dimitrescu and ran into Miranda in an underground shrine beneath the ceremony site. In her Old Hag form once more, she teased her knowledge of his mutant nature and sent him off in search of the other three lords. Over the course of the afternoon, Miranda became aware a BSAA operation was taking place, having been tracked back to the village by Redfield's squad, Hound Wolf. The squad set up a series of camps around the village to monitor the situation, including one within the very cave where she discovered the Megamycete. Moreau was alerted to the threat the BSAA posed to their plans, though was ultimately unsuccessful. Heisenberg himself was also aware of the BSAA's plans, though whether he learnt through Miranda or on his own is uncertain.
By the evening, Winters had recovered all four flasks and placed it within the Giant's Chalice at the ceremony site. Miranda, watching from afar, began the process of waking up the Black God, causing earthquakes as it began growing beneath the surface. While Ethan explored Heisenberg's factory, Miranda took possession of the chalice. As night fell, he and Heisenberg fought, with Winters ultimately the victor. With Heisenberg no longer a threat to her, Winters had outlived his purpose and Miranda ripped his heart out.
Demise[]
With Ethan and the Four Lords dead, Miranda could finally carry out the ceremony to resurrect her daughter and took the Giant's Chalice which contained Rose's "components". As the Megamycete expanded beneath the ground, massive Mold growths erupted all over the village which spawned imitations of Lycans and Moroaice to combat the BSAA operatives that were moving into the area. At the same time, Chris Redfield and his Hound Wolf unit, operating independently from the BSAA, were also moving into the village with the intent of destroying the Megamycete.
Miranda was unconcerned by the presence of the BSAA, but the real threat proved to be Ethan, who had survived having his heart ripped out. Miranda realised that Ethan had been mutated by the Mold back in America and possessed a significant degree of regenerative ability, explaining how he was able to endure so much physical punishment. It seemed, however, that Ethan had reached his limit as his body was slowly deteriorating, but he nonetheless made it to the ceremony site where he confronted Miranda one last time. When confronted, Miranda continued with the ritual, but discovered to her horror that the reincorporated Rose was fighting back the super-colony. As a result, Miranda and possibly the Megamycete as a whole were weakened, and Eva's consciousness failed to imprint on Rose.
With Winters and Redfield taking the offensive, Miranda was forced to take extreme measures and underwent a series of transformations. Ultimately, however, Miranda's body was exhausted and calcified, with a fragment of Miranda's consciousness preserved in the Mold taking her place, effectively merging her with the Black God she worshipped. This entity too was weakened more so, allowing Winters to recover Rose and have her evacuated with Redfield. Winters himself stayed behind and set-off a powerful explosive that Chris had planted upon the Megamycete. The resulting explosion destroyed the entire village, the Megamycete, and insured both Miranda's and Ethan's deaths.
Shadows of Rose[]
Following her physical death, Miranda's consciousness was absorbed into the Megamycete, a portion of which survived the explosion that had destroyed the village. Within the mycelial realm of consciousness, Miranda studied its properties and cultivated different constructs and environments, recreating parts of the village she had once ruled. The constructs she created from the fragments of consciousnesses absorbed by the Black God manifested as duplicates of Rose, but they had no personality or life to them and lacked the real Rose's power.
Still obsessed with creating a vessel for her daughter Eva, Miranda created a psychotic facsimile of the Duke, a man who had previously done business with her and her Four Lords, using him to subject the Rose copies to extreme terror in an effort to reproduce her powers. These efforts proved to be failures as they could not produce what Miranda considered to be a viable vessel. Deciding that only the real Rose would suffice, Miranda was able to call out to Rose via her Mold infection. With the real Rose now a teenager desperate to relinquish her powers due to her overwhelmingly strong abilities, Miranda projected an illusion in her mind of her family friend and colleague, Canine, to exploit Rose's traumatic childhood as an outcast and victim of bullying.
Through her Canine projection, Miranda informed Rose of a means of ridding herself of her Mold abilities, luring her to a BSAA facility where the last surviving fragment of the Megamycete was being held. When Rose opened the capsule containing the fragment, she touched it and entered its realm of consciousness. From afar, Miranda watched as Rose sought out the purifying crystal that was supposed to cleanse her of her powers, running from the nightmarish creatures that Miranda had forged within the mycelial realm. As Rose journeyed through the different stratums of the realm of consciousness, she was aided by another presence that provided her with tools and guidance to help her survive.
When Rose reached the innermost stratum, she found the purifying crystal in a cavern located beneath the facsimile of the village. There, Miranda appeared before Rose, introducing herself and revealing her plan to coerce Rose into giving up her powers so that Miranda could use her body to host Eva's consciousness. She reached out to Rose, but was then interrupted by the appearance of Ethan, Rose's father, the presence that had been helping her throughout her ordeal. Enraged by Ethan's interference, Miranda caused the cavern to collapse. Rose and Ethan escaped from the cavern before being buried, finding themselves outside in a barren, snowy plain. There, Miranda attacked Ethan, determined to destroy him completely for ruining her plans in both life and death. Unwilling to let her father face Miranda alone, Rose decided to accept her powers as a part of her, shattering the purifying crystal and regaining her abilities.
Miranda fought against Rose, whose powers were amplified by her father's energy. Fighting with all her rage and hatred, Miranda nonetheless failed to overcome Rose's powers and was ultimately defeated. With one final scream of her daughter's name, Miranda crumbled to dust as her consciousness was purged from the mycelial realm, erasing her from existence once and for all.
Personality[]
Mother Miranda was driven insane from the grief of losing her daughter Eva. Since discovering the Megamycete, she has become obsessed with resurrecting her daughter at any cost, an obsession that has totally consumed her over the course of her unnaturally long life. She has no qualms about using others to fulfill her desires, seeing people as mere instruments to be used and then discarded once they have fulfilled their intended purpose. Even the Four Lords, her adopted children, were only means to an end.
Miranda regards the Megamycete with both scientific wonder and religious fervor, referring to it as the "Black God". It is through this super-organism that she planned to resurrect Eva by imprinting her consciousness stored in the mycelial network onto Rose Winters.
Abilities[]
- Genius Intellect - Miranda was remarkably intelligent and, despite lacking any significant scientific education and resources, was able to conduct numerous biological experiments within a makeshift laboratory in an underground cavern. It was through these experiments that she learned about the capabilities of the Mold and produced the Cadou parasites and various bioweapons.
- Immortality - After being mutated by the Mold, Miranda effectively became immortal as her ageing process was slowed to a crawl and she was rendered immune to all diseases. However, she could still be killed by external forces, albeit of great power and effort.
- Superhuman Endurance - Altered by the Mold, Miranda became inhumanly durable, able to shrug off small arms fire and other physical attacks.
- Shapeshifting - The Mold allowed Miranda to alter her physical form at will. She was capable of taking on the form of another human (such as she did with Mia Winters) and could transform into animals as well. She could even divide her mass into multiple parts as she was shown turning into a flock of black birds. During her battle with Ethan, she took on a winged form that allowed her to fly and a spider-like form that granted her increased mobility and strength.
- Mold Control - Miranda was capable of manipulating the Mold at will, conjuring massive Mold formations from the ground and producing projectiles out of the substance. She could also control any Mold-based bioweapons and mutations.