Resident Evil Village: Megamycete, Mold, and Cadou Parasite Explained

Towards the end of Resident Evil Village‘s story, the game starts throwing out the terms “Megamycete,” “Mold,” and “Cadou Parasite” like they’re all things you should be intimately familiar with by that point. The problem is that unless you’ve been paying very close attention to the game’s hidden files, dialog, and environmental clues, there’s a very good chance you’ll have no idea what any of those terms actually mean.

It’s a bit of a shame that the game doesn’t do a little better job of explaining the relationship between those phrases, as the true meaning of all of them, and the various ways they’re connected, form the foundation of not just this sequel’s plot but much of the Resident Evil franchise’s lore.

If you’re one of the many who just finished Resident Evil Village without fully understanding why the game was suddenly throwing a bunch of new words at you, here’s what you need to know about Megamycete, Mold, and Cadou as well as how they’re all related to each other:

What is Megamycete?

The most logical place to start explaining the Megamycete/Mold/Cadou relationship is to explain Megamycete. After all, it’s the substance responsible for most of this mess in the first place.

While some mysteries remain regarding the origins and exact methods of Megamycete, it appears to be so much more than just a disease. Actually, some of Mother Miranda’s more cryptic lines and a few research files that we find scattered throughout Resident Evil Village suggest that Megamycete is actually closer to a hive mind organism that can recognize the presence (or death) of the vessels it infects. This seems to be part of the reason why the Megamycete was awakened and so aggressive after Ethan killed the four infected house leaders and many of the infected villagers. It was almost like the Megamycete was being wounded along the way.

Miranda appears to have a degree of control over the Megamycete, but based on what we eventually learn, it seems much more likely that she’s just a powerful representative of the organism’s desire to spread. It’s all seems strangely similar to how the Borg function in Star Trek. Interestingly, though, Miranda does mention that the version of Eve that hunted us throughout Resident Evil 7 had some control over the mold and that she suspects that Rose (who Miranda hoped would be a vessel for her deceased daughter) may eventually be able to exercise even more control over it.

I’m also going to assume that the Megamycete lives as long as someone (or perhaps just a suitable environment) can play host to it. Given that the fungus clearly spread all the way to Louisiana in Resident Evil 7, it seems likely that the Megamycete’s apparent “destruction” at the end of Resident Evil Village will not be the last we see of it and the problems it can cause.

What is The Mold?

The difference between “Mold” and Megamycete is a bit odd and seemingly comes down to a simple matter of logistics.

Basically, characters in Resident Evil tend to refer to “The Mold” as the product of the Megamycete fungus. To use an (admittedly simple) analogy, it’s kind of like how you don’t call “wood” a “tree” even after you’ve gotten it from a tree. The wood is just the product of the tree. In the same way, it seems that those who experimented with Megamycete (or discovered it after it had spread) eventually just started referring to the substance they saw as “Mold.”

Again, it all seems to come down to linguistics and logistics, which is pretty funny when you consider that the word “Mutamycete” (with a slightly different spelling) was only used in the U.S. version of Resident Evil 7. The Japanese version of the game just used the word “fungus” in its place. I’m not yet sure if the same is true of Village, but it certainly seems like the Megamycete concept is partially a way to essentially unify this whole idea by giving the collective organism a more proper name.

What is The Cadou Parasite?

Here’s where we dive into more of the “Village-specific” lore in order to at least try to better understand the relationship between those three terms.

Basically, it seems that Mother Miranda discovered the Megamycete in a cave while wandering around in grief after losing her daughter. She became infected around that time and decided to experiment with the Megamycete by taking “mold” samples. She hoped to eventually use those samples to find a human vessel for her daughter or perhaps just resurrect her outright.

At some point, Miranda discovered it would be easier to infect subjects if she turned the mold collected from the Megamycete into a parasite called “Cadou” (which means “present” or “gift” in Romanian). Most of the people infected with this parasite simply turned into wolves or other monstrosities, but the four lords of the area (Dimitrescu, Moreau, Beneviento, and Heisenberg) had much different reactions to the infection which granted them unique forms and abilities.

Interestingly, it seems that Dimitrescu was the first to survive this procedure mostly intact and even demonstrated an early ability to control her transformation to a degree. That would certainly help explain why she feels an especially close relationship with Miranda. As we see in the case of the other lords’ powers, though, each of them eventually gained more control over their mutations. It’s not entirely clear why these four had such unique reactions to the parasite (or why anyone does for that matter), especially since the parasite accelerated the effects of a blood disease Dimitrescu already had. That’s the real reason she has to drink blood.

While Village seems to suggest that many of the mutations, viruses, and parasites seen throughout the Resident Evil series can be traced back to Megamycete, the Cadou Parasite seems specific to Mother Miranda’s personal experiments.