progenitor of the Warren line of witches

Date of Birth:                     31 October, 1670; Virginia

Type:                                      witch 

Powers:                                     

i. Telekinesis —  able to move objects with her mind

ii. Molecular Immobilisation —  able to freeze time

iii. Premonition —  able to see the future 

Magic:        To summon Melinda Warren cast the Blood to Blood Spell

Details:                                    

Melinda Warren is the ancestor of the Charmed Ones, and the first witch in their magical line who prophesied that her descendants would grow stronger with each generation, culminated in the arrival of three sisters who would be the most powerful witches in the world; The Charmed Ones.

She was born to a mortal mother named Charlotte. At some point Melinda moved from Colonial Virginia to Salem and had a daughter named Prudence. She also created the Warren Book of Shadows which would grow in knowledge and power so that by the time it came to be in the possession of the Charmed Ones it would be the most powerful book of magic in the world. 

Melinda took a lover named Matthew Tate who unbeknownst to her was a deceitful warlock with power to copy a witch's powers. Matthew managed to gain Melinda's trust so that he could copy her powers before outing her as a witch to the authorities. Melinda was stung by Matthew's betrayal but devised a shrewd plan to extract her revenge. 

Melinda was to be burned for her crime of witchcraft and when Matthew came to visit her in her cell she tricked him into opening her locket, the Pewter Heart. She immediately cursed Matthew into the locket for eternity whilst also restoring the powers he had copied from her.  The locket would remain closed ever onward unless one of Melinda's descendants ever opened it again, which would be Matthew's only hope of release. 

Melinda was then burned at the stake and died. She did not use her powers to save herself because she knew that would incriminate her young daughter as a witch as well. Melinda chose to die in hopes that Prudence would be spared and raised by another family who might take pity on the orphaned girl. 

The day Melinda was burned she made her iconic prophecy before those gathered to witness her demise: 

 "You may kill me but you cannot kill my kind. 

 With each generation, the Warren line will grow stronger and stronger — culminating in the arrival of three sisters. Together, these three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will be good witches and vanquish all kinds of evil. 

They will be known as  The Charmed Ones."

300 years later, Prue Halliwell opened the locket by accident, unaware of its significance and freed Matthew Tate from his incarceration. After a brief scuffle he copied her power and then escaped into the streets of San Francisco. 

Prue returned to the Manor with the locket in tow but was unable to find any information about Matthew or how to vanquish him in the BOS. Phoebe touched the locket and immediately received a premonition — in it she saw Melinda cursing Matthew the first time and the sisters realised that they would have to summon their ancestor to the present day in order to ask for her assistance in cursing Matthew again.     

They cast the spell to summon Melinda and she appeared before them in a flurry of bright lights. The sisters helped to acclimate Melinda with the 21st Century somewhat and then they began to acquire all the necessary ingredients for the curse. 

Matthew, meanwhile, had been on a killing spree, targeting anyone with the last name of Halliwell in hopes of stopping Melinda's descendants from cursing him again. With some guidance from the warlocks Rex and Hannah, Matthew was able to focus his attention on the real Halliwells and copied Phoebe's power, seeing his own demise in the process. 

Undeterred, Matthew attacked the Charmed Ones at the Manor, holding Piper at gunpoint and demanding she freeze him so that he may gain her power and be too powerful for the curse to ever work on him again. 

Piper refused and Matthew aimed the gun at Phoebe and Melinda, goading Piper into saving them.  Luckily, Prue arrived at that precise moment with the key ingredient for the curse and used her power to disarm Matthew, buying Piper and Phoebe time to mix the potion together. 

Melinda then took the locket in her hands and cast the curse one last time, drawing Matthew into the locket once more, for all eternity. 

During her brief time spent with the sisters Melinda imparted pearls of magical wisdom and helped them become more comfortable with magic. The sisters' had become quite attached to her, and she to them, and when asked why she didn't just remain with them and live out the life she was denied, Melinda replied that it was no longer her time, it was theirs. 

Just before she left, Phoebe placed Melinda's hand on her heart and asked Melinda what she could see. Melinda closed her eyes as the premonition washed over her. When she opened them again she was overcome with emotion, revealing that she had seen many more generations of Warren Witches, her beautiful "daughters". 

The Charmed Ones then released Melinda from the spell, and she was returned to the afterlife, content that her dreams for her family line had come true. 

Status:          Died in 1692; Salem, Massachusetts  

Episode:       S1E9 "The Witch Is Back"