Neither, the Witch of Thorns really was a particularly powerful though seemingly cursed person. Her genetics were salvaged by the church and injected into Aradia, who was then cloned for what was likely supposed to be an army of artificial witches. The lore gets weird and if you don't have the best available English translation / don't know Japanese to read the original, obtaining this understanding is too difficult. There's also lots of lines to draw yourself in speculation, but I feel confident enough about the circumstances of the game's events to draw some logical speculation out here.
How the above description works out:
- When departing from Vendetta, as Aradia leaves she wishes her to come back safe... "this time". Implying Aradia has left before but never came back.
- At the Unnamed Lake, once you defeat the prayer maiden you get access to the sword of the witch of thorns in very deteriorated condition. The sword is stabbed through a standing mass of crystals a bit larger than a person would stand. Some interesting evidence is surrounding this event.
- The Prayer Maiden's description is that she originated in a nearby lab, which is true as the laboratory is just past the Sunken Valley. Who owns this laboratory?
- A "suspicious woman" who is "claiming to be a witch" introduces herself to you near the entrance to the ruined chapel off the Path of Eternal Rest, engages in small chatter, attempts to get the location of a secret laboratory from you, then appeases you with the gift of a red flask.
- Notably, this woman is a witch wearing pantyhose. That is strange, given that witches have a brightly colored mark on their thigh that denote their clan and magic specialization. It's been so prominent on literally every witch in the game that they may consciously expose it just to state their affiliation or so their magic can work the best it can. There has never been a witch who claims to be one yet does not have the mark exposed. Which implies this woman knows about the thigh marks, wants to explain she is a witch, and does not want her cover blown by not having a thigh mark.
- The prayer maiden was guarding the standing mass of crystals. That's the only reason she attacks you. She is blocking literally nothing but those crystals, the sword plunged into it, and a chest with a prayer ring in it. If I had to speculate, I would say the witch of thorns was dead at some point, interred into the cave as a grave, coated in these crystals, sealed with a special prayer with the officiator wearing a band with the same kind of gem this grave is comprised of, and her sword is stabbed into the mass to tell everyone who is buried there. So who gives prayers and why would they want involvement with the witch of thorns?
- The church owns the laboratory. Hence how a prayer maiden could and was created there. The remnants of female bodies that cast dark magic roam the halls. A children's nursery with toys is on the lowest level of the lab. The courtyard off to the side has a swift sword, likely meant for teaching the children growing up in this pseudo-orphanage how to swordfight. Interesting. This fits the suspicious woman who is standing around in a place full of pilgrims and inquisitor knights yet never being endangered. Except until you convened with her and she gifted you, that made her look suspicious. Possibly not working for the church but knows about a history of unethical experiments from them in the area. She ends up at the ranch, but considering Aradia's bad end in a small room on the elevated path, they may have raped this woman, tossed her into an alley in Ragdum, and the mafia picked her up..
- This likely means the church killed the witch of thorns, the first of many witches they would betray as they want to hold exclusive power monopoly over their world. Although said witch of thorns may have turned rogue to provoke this.
- Spoilers to see at the end of the game:
- The true Aradia was working as a secret long-haul assassin in the highest echelon of church leadership.
- The true Aradia informs you that she was injected with the genes of the witch of thorns, raped, and upon her escape she realized the power of the witch of thorns manifested within her. The power likely manifested through strong feelings of hatred and an urge to fight and kill.
- She invites you to kill all witches and the entire church, should you have enough karma (works like insight from Bloodborne). Why would she turn upon her own kind?
- The original Aradia was in Vendetta's care, but got captured by a suspicious witch group who brought her to the lab to begin her new and terrible life of pain under incarceration.
- Although Aradia believed the church staff to be witches as their story implies, remember the church has the ability to cast magic as well (red and white inquisitors, the librarians, the knights), make magic items (fire and tentacle bombs), and possess magic weaponry (the rifle, sword, and staff on the Path of Eternal Rest).
- The laboratory likely thus taught church dogma as ritualistic brainwashing, and the original Aradia came to hate it but know enough about the church to use it.
- Aradia was raised by Vendetta since childhood, and left at the cusp of coming to age.
- I recall the original Aradia and Vendetta say lines that implies Aradia destroyed the laboratory somehow.
- Vendetta finds a functional but inert clone of Aradia who upon awakening later after much treatment only remember her life up to before she left Vendetta's care.
- How was Aradia able to be in 2 places at once, or rather why did Aradia live a different life after escaping the laboratory?
- She used what she learned about the church from the dogma taught at the lab to pose well within church service, rising through the ranks until she got to be near the top of leadership. She probably fostered a growing grudge all the way through.
- Meanwhile, the clone Vendetta salvaged and raised back to life through sheer motivation of missing Aradia eventually came back to life, only to wish to depart once again.
- Why did the game end that way, with the original Aradia fighting the clone Aradia upon their disagreement of killing all witches and the entire church, and the clone of Aradia killing both her original and herself?
- Original Aradia is just done with the world.
- Witches were awful to her, the life of a witch is tragic, the church has enough resources to kill every witch out there, and she has to hide who she is.
- The church is rotten to the core. Just thugs in pretty robes who own everything.
- She destroyed the lab and killed all her clones. Killing another is just part of life.
- The clone Aradia did not get to see the horrors of the lab and lose her motivation through standing with the church while she was against it for so long.
- She only sees people who need help and a quest for vengeance.
- Note however the short black-screen text-only "microscene" on the transition from the lab to the elevator up to the elevated Pigrim's Path. Clone Aradia may briefly remember unethical experiments and rape through vague audio-only memory. This scene is short, vague, and cryptic though interjected between the lab and the elevated church proper, which might mean something.
- At the end of her adventure, she sees her true self and recognizes the destruction of vengeance.
- In the end, she considers her entire life futile, as the world will only turn her into a murderous lunatic the longer she lives in it. Her life's motivation only being to bring justice to her lost family.
- And so she dies, having realized her father's wishes to not fight and to only fight for self-defense. She ruined her own life, as she said. Her original would've not been captured had she not sought vengeance.
- Clone Aradia says "there will always be children with our eyes", a double entendre that means her spree of murder will only create more vengeful children, and her continued life makes it likely someone will attempt to clone her for her destructive power much like the witch of thorns.
- Vendetta is crushed as she gets to lose her adoptive daughter twice in a row, with none left alive to stay with her.
I banged this out in 10 minutes (then edited a few times), but essentially the moral is to not seek vengeance and just live in the moment. I don't know how a person would reasonably show this story in their game without an obnoxious truck-ton of notes, voice acting, enough scenes to measure screentime alongside the LotR trilogy, etc. So there's just scant hints to open a heap of speculation. I hope you were entertained by my rambling of the story that might be or could have been. Thank you for reading.