Golgotha Virus

Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

"G" redirects here. G may also refer to William Birkin.

"A purple object in a gel-like state."
— Item description in Resident Evil 2.

The Golgotha Virus, often abbreviated as "G-Virus", is a highly advanced strain of the Progenitor Virus possessing fierce, regenerative abilities capable of essentially granting infectees biological immortality.

William Birkin's goal with the G-Virus was to create "G-Humans", a new super-human species that maintained reproductive capabilities.^[1]

History

G-Virus was first discovered in 1988 in the body of Lisa Trevor, a biological weapons test subject kept at Umbrella USA's top-secret Arklay Laboratory. Trevor had been injected with a variety of viral strains over a twenty year period and ever since her initial Progenitor Virus infection in 1967 had survived tests others had perished during. As Umbrella's bioweapons research entered its third stage, the development of highly-intelligent weapons, it reached an impasse. Umbrella USA's Tyrant Project found that a gene crucial in human mutation towards a powerful, intelligent form was extremely rare. Umbrella Europe, meanwhile, was devoted to the Nemesis Project and had an intelligent organism, the NE-α Type parasite, which would kill its host after five minutes of taking over its nervous system. Dr. William Birkin, then chief of research at the Arklay Laboratory, procured one of the prototypes and implanted it within Lisa's body. The parasite was killed by Lisa's body and its DNA absorbed into her genome. Searching for the cause of this spontaneous mutation, Dr. Birkin's team isolated the primitive G-Virus. Birkin theorised that a G-Virus infection could induce mutations within the human body more beneficial than the random mutations and zombification observed with the t-Virus. Dr. Oswell E. Spencer, himself an avid eugenicist, supported Birkin's research on the G-Virus despite it being unrelated to their bioweapons research, and invested construction in a new research facility beneath Raccoon City to support it.

As research neared completion in 1998, Dr. Birkin grew frustrated with the company who were unwilling to offer him a position as an executive. After observing footage of the Queen Leech in July, both he and his former colleague, Dr. Albert Wesker, made the decision to leave Umbrella altogether. Over the summer, Birkin made contact with the US military and reached an agreement to provide them with the G-Virus for their own bioweapons project. Umbrella's headquarters was tipped off by their own moles within the US military and prepared an Umbrella Security Service operation to retrieve it first. Though their recovery was a success and Christine Henry received her promised sample, the company suffered a significant loss. Nearly the entire G-Virus research team died in the chaos, as a group of Hunters were released from confinement to coincide with the team's arrival. Nearly the entire G-Virus research staff was killed in various ways, and Birkin infected himself with a sample of the virus to prevent death from a gunshot wound, soon after killing most of the USS team in a rampage and releasing the t-Virus into the sewer ecosystem, itself moving to the water supply. By the night of September 30 only Birkin's wife, Dr. Annette Birkin, was alive in Raccoon City and did her best to keep the facility defended from spies, encountering Ada Wong who was sent from a rival company to hunt down any remaining samples and was eventually successful. Dr. Annette Birkin also instructed civilian Claire Redfield with how to develop the DEVIL antigen, after learning Annette's daughter Sherry was implanted with one of her husband's embryos.

Post-Raccoon City

Following the 1998 Raccoon City incident, the G-Virus fell into the possession of four parties: Umbrella Europe, the rival company; a scientist later going by the name of Frederic Downing, the sole escapee of the Raccoon City laboratory, and the United States government, who had placed Sherry Birkin into protective custody as a means of extracting samples.

Umbrella Europe continued study the G-Virus, but the only known result of their research was the t+G Virus, a t-Virus strain that mutated from exposure to G-antibodies. Dr. Downing took up a top research position in WilPharma and, in 2005, provided both the t-Virus and the G-Virus to Dr. Curtis Miller, a virologist who was radicalised and convinced by Downing to commit terrorist attacks in Harvardville. Miller transformed after G-Virus infection, leading to the destruction of WilPharma's laboratory, enabling Downing to fake his death and escape with his samples in the hopes of selling to the Republic of Bajirib, a state-sponsor of bioweapons. Of the American research, Derek C. Simmons was able to provide The Family with a sample from Sherry Birkin, which was used in the creation of the C-Virus which would be used in attacks across the globe from 2011 to 2013.

To the BSAA, the G-Virus represented one of the greatest threats to mankind, and in the event of use in bioterrorism the local branch had orders to contain it immediately. In the event the outbreak spread further, the BSAA contingency plan was for the deployment of all BSAA agents around the world.

Transmission

As with its T-Virus, Umbrella considered the G-Virus' primary means of infection to be through injections. To date, only two individuals have been witnessed undergoing primary infection: Dr. William Birkin and Curtis Miller. Unlike creatures created by the t-Virus, "G"s cannot pass infection on to other creatures through physical contact and injury (e.g. bites and open wounds).

The secondary infection is drastically different, and relates to the "G"s' reproductive system. If a "G" decides upon using a human as a breeding tool, they will turn the individual into a host for its embryo through oral implantation with its reproductive organ, seen on William to be on his hand.

G-virus-eye — A third eye on some part of the body (typically the shoulder) was a common feature of creatures imbued with the G-virus.

Should the host be of a complementary genetic makeup to the parasite - generally through identical blood groups, as with William and his daughter, Sherry - then a bond between the two will form, leading to the host's assimilation by the parasite, and subsequent mutation into a creature perhaps comparable to the first "G". To date, this occurrence has not been recorded as having happened due to the rarity of G-Virus usage. The only successfully implanted host with a DNA match - Sherry Birkin - was saved from assimilation by the experimental G-Vaccine, codenamed DEVIL, before mutation could occur, with help from her mother, Annette, and Claire Redfield.

Alternatively, a host whose DNA is incompatible will reject the parasite in a matter of minutes. The embryo rapidly grows inside its host before bursting from their chest. Upon exiting the host body, the embryo quickly mutates into its adult form. Brian Irons, police chief of the Raccoon City Police Department, Ben Bertolucci, a journalist attempting to investigate Chief Irons, and Monica are the only known victims to suffer this rejection of a G-embryo after being infected by William Birkin.

Effects

As shown by its creator, William Birkin, the G-Virus is capable of revitalizing the body of its host. However, the host becomes mutated into a monstrous creation that loses any human memories, becoming driven by only instinct. Signs of G-Virus infection indicate an increase in muscle mass of the host with mutated sections of flesh over the upper body, an enlarged third eye on the shoulder, and extended claws on a single hand.

The G-Virus grants its host increased strength, durability, vitality, and strong abilities of regeneration. Also, the G-Virus is capable of cellular mutations to the body should it sustain severe injuries, allowing it to mutate into more powerful form to adapt to various conditions. Even with the G-Vaccine, the virus can still change to the body, retaining the regenerative factor.

However, there is only so much damage that the body can take before it becomes destabilized, leaving the G-virus only to regenerate and evolve what remains.

The G-Virus is also capable of reanimating dead bodies, creating "G-Zombies".^[2]^[3]^[4]

Microbiology

A primitive form of the virus was discovered in the mutated body of Lisa Trevor, on whom the Umbrella Corporation had been conducting unethical genetic and viral experiments for three decades. When she displayed unexpected immune resistance to the experimental NE-α Type parasite, Birkin and other researchers looked for a cause and found what would later become the G-Virus. The virus was subsequently developed by Umbrella Corporation scientist William Birkin, who had also claimed credit for James Marcus' work on the t-virus.

Treatment

Alongside work on the G-Virus, Drs. William and Annette Birkin also devised the DEVIL vaccine to suppress the virus' take-over of the body. However, as the vaccine could only be injected into an infectee who still had not succumbed to the virus, its only realistic usage would be the administration of hosts - particularly hosts genetically similar to the "G". When Sherry Birkin was vaccinated, some aspects of the virus was preserved within her DNA. In the same vein as Lisa Trevor, Sherry developed extraordinary regenerative abilities, though nowhere near what she could have been capable of if left unvaccinated.

Further notes

The localization for Resident Evil 2 erroneously inferred that the T-00 (referred to as "that monster that is tearing apart the precinct") was created by the G-Virus and that it was the ultimate bioweapon when Brian Irons was explaining its properties to Claire. In the original script, he instead commented that the virus has the ability to rapidly advance human evolution without even mentioning the T-00.