(I've posted this on both my blogs)
I've loved the Resident Evil games for years now. But it wasn't until recently that I realized I didn't know the lore as well as I thought I did.
Now, there are plenty of thorough videos online that lay out the lore of the games, but my silly little brain has a hard time following along/comprehending. So I wrote out the lore in a way that made sense to me!
*DISCLAIMER*
I'm not an RE expert, I haven't played all the games, so if something is incorrect, I’m sorry. Additionally, I left some content out to keep it as simple and comprehensible as possible!
images are not mine lol
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RESIDENT EVIL CHARACTER LINK - (There are only so many colors I can use on Tumblr, so I did my best to highlight the characters I thought were pretty important!)
Mother Miranda lives in an Eastern European village. In 1919 the Spanish flu claimed her only daughter. In a state of depression, Mother Miranda finds herself deep within a cave network underneath her village, hoping to find the sweet relief of death and be with her daughter once more. This is where she discovers a unique mold (a form of mutamycete) with regenerative properties. She spends the next several decades researching the mold in hopes of using it to reincarnate her daughter.
In 1951, a British medical student by the name of Oswald E. Spencer discovered Mother Miranda’s research. He basically becomes very interested in the human genome and goes off on his own to run his own experiments for the next few years.
In 1962 Oswald E. Spencer hired a man named George Trevor to build him a mansion in the Arklay Mountains, so he could continue his research privately.
Later, Oswald E. Spencer joins forces with two other men, James Marcus, and Edward Ashferd. The trio sets off to Africa to find a unique flower, the “Stairway to the Sun”, which has regenerative properties. Using this flower, the men synthesize the Progenitor Virus.
In 1968, Oswald E. Spencer, James Marcus, and Edward Ashferd, co-founded Umbrella Corp. This “pharmaceutical company” was really just a front for their viral bioweapon research.
Above is the Umbrella Corp. Emblem
Shortly afterward, Edward Ashferd gets frustrated with his two partners and moves to Antarctica where he starts up his own Umbrella research labs. Oswald E. Spencer dislikes this and has Edward Ashferd injected with the Progenitor Virus, killing him.
Oswald E. Spencer is working on Project W. where he kidnaps children and injects them with the Progenitor Virus, in hopes of building a race of loyal superhuman soldiers. All of the test subjects die, except for one, Albert Wesker.
In 1987, James Marcus and his assistants William Birkin and Albert Wesker created the T-Virus, by combining leech DNA with the Progenitor Virus. Shortly after this, the facility gets shut down(?), and the trio moves back to Oswald E. Spencer’s lab in the Arklay Mountains.
Back at the Arklay Umbrella lab, William Birkin discovers that ~10% of the population is naturally immune to their viruses. So he created Bio Organic Weapons (BOW’s). His work with BOW’s is refined into making specific BOW’s, aka Tyrants.
(Late 1998) James Marcus is working with his own strand of the T-Virus, and he creates his “Queen Leech”. Oswald E. Spencer dislikes this as well and tries to kill James Marcus. This attempt fails. James Marcus’s body along with his Queen Leech are dumped into a sewage area, where the Queen Leech eats James Marcus’s body, and absorbs his consciousness. This sort of reincarnates James Marcus.
In the 1990s, Umbrella expanded, and Oswald E. Spencer commissioned a new lab facility to be constructed underneath Raccoon City.
(William Birkin created the G-Virus around this time.)
In 1996, S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) was created. It is technically under Raccoons Cities jurisdiction, but it's privately funded by Umbrella Corp. so they can have control over it. Albert Wesker gets assigned as Captain to the S.T.A.R.S Alpha team.
In 1998, Rebbeca Chambers stumbled across a train wreck filled with James Marcus’s infected leeches. She ends up finding, and killing the Queen Leech (remember James Marcus’s consciousness is intertwined with the Queen Leech).
(Still 1988) S.T.A.R.S Alpha team is on a mission. Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield discover Umbrella Corp.’s experiments and learn that Albert Wesker is a traitor. They fight, and Albert Wesker injects himself with the T-Virus, and escapes.
Raccoon City’s water supply is contaminated with the T-Virus. This infects the whole town and turns them into zombies. Umbrella uses this situation to test out their new BOW, a Tyrant named Nemesis. Nemesis targets Jill Valentine. With the help of Carlos Oliviera, they escape the Tyrant and Raccoon City before it is nuked so the virus doesn't spread.
At the same time, there's a girl by the name of Claire, she's searching for her brother Chris Redfield in Raccoon City.
(All you need to know is through RE from here on out, she keeps searching for her brother and getting into dangerous situations where different viruses are present.)
Anyway, Claire meets Leon Kennedy, and they go to the Raccoon City Police Department (RPD). The two get separated and Leon Kennedy finds the G-Virus. He meets a woman named Ada Wong, an independent mercenary who's trying to get her hands on the G-Virus, and sell it. (She actually does this). Claire and Leon Kennedy escape Raccoon City through a sewer before it’s nuked.
It's now 2004, Leon Kennedy was deployed to a village in Spain to rescue the U.S. president's daughter who was kidnapped. The village is plagued by the Las Plagas Virus, which has something to do with the Los Illuminados Cult. Ada Wong shows up and grabs a sample of the Las Plagas Virus to sell to Albert Wesker. Leon Kennedy saves the president's daughter, defeats the Los Illuminados, and escapes the island.
(2006) Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine find Oswald E. Spencer’s location, and they go to his house. When they get there, they find Albert Wesker had just killed Oswald E. Spencer. (This is cause Wesker found out he was the product of Project W).
Basically, Albert Wesker kidnaps Jill Valentine for a while and uses her as his test subject/mind-controlled dummy. (Eventually, she breaks free from Albert Wesker's mind-control)
Around this time, the B.S.A.A. was created. The Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. (This is because bioweapons are being made worldwide)
Albert Wesker moves on and tries to make West Africa a diseased wasteland. Chris Redfield and the B.S.A.A. team up to go to stop him. This is where they discover the Uroboros Virus. (This is an RNA virus in the Progenitor family. It was engineered by Albert Wesker). Chris Redfeild and the B.S.A.A successfully kills Albert Wesker.
In 2012, there was this thing called the C-Virus, which can mutate bodies while keeping their consciousness. For a while Umbrella Corp.'s was under some heat, but they revived themselves as “Neo Umbrella”. Neo Umbrella unleashes the C-Virus (in China?) and basically, Raccoon City happens all over again.
There is this crime syndicate called “The Connections”. They strike a deal with Mother Miranda, she gives them her mold and the DNA of her daughter hoping they would help revive her. The Connections use the E-Type Mutamycete mold to create bioweapons out of children. This gave birth to the genetically modified human Eveline, who had mind-controlling and regenerative powers. The B.S.A.A. caught wind of this, and The Connections loaded a research team with Eveline onto a cargo boat to ship her somewhere safer. Eveline infected the whole cargo ship with her mold, killing everyone except Eveline's direct handler, a researcher named Mia Winters.
The cargo ship wreckage landed somewhere along the coast of Dulvey Parish, Louisiana. An old man by the name of Jack Baker found Eveline and Mia Winters and took the two back to his house to take care of them. Eveline infected the whole Baker family.
Mia Winters sends an email to her husband, Ethan Winters. He drives to Dulvey Parish, Louisiana to save his wife. Unfortunately, Ethan Winters gets killed pretty quickly, but he gets revived by Eve’s mold. Eveline turns into a big mold monster, and Ethan Winters does his best to fight it, until Chris Redfield comes in and saves the day.
Fast forward a few years, Ethan and Mia Winters have a baby named Rosemary (Rose) Winters. Somehow Mother Miranda finds out about this and decides that Rose Winters is the perfect candidate to use to resurrect her daughter. So Mother Miranda kidnaps Rose and Mia Winters and brings them back to her old Eastern European village. Ethan Winters goes to save his family. He fights a bunch of Mother Miranda's experiments (i.e. Lady Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, Lycans, Dona Beneviento, etc...), and eventually, Chris Redfield comes to try and save the day again. But Ethan Winters sacrifices himself for his family and blows up the whole village.
Fast forward again, it's 2037. Rose Winters is a teenager now, and she has Mutamycete mold powers. She hates that she's different, and wants to get rid of them. She is told if she enters the Mutamycete mold’s consciousness, she might find a way to rid herself of these powers. Now everyone who's ever been in contact with the Mutamycete mold is trapped/a part of the mold consciousness. Inside, she fights off Mother Miranda one last time, meets her father, and then decides to keep her mold powers.
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Again, I did leave some games/content out, but I hope this was enjoyable and/or useful and easy enough to understand.
