quick info post
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
traitordaughterTo twenty nine years, yes, we are free at last.
“Once you return, my sweetling, look for me. There is something very important I must tell you, but now is not the time. I'll be waiting for you, as... as I always have.”
IntroductionIn hac habitasse platea dictumst. Vestibulum vitae dignissim nulla, ac maximus risus. Aenean rhoncus lacus sed metus malesuada sollicitudin.
Player InformationThis is a serif paragraph. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus ac diam nisl. Pellentesque pulvinar rhoncus consequat. Maecenas in dolor mattis, convallis dolor vitae, dapibus eros. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Vestibulum vitae dignissim nulla, ac maximus risus. Aenean rhoncus lacus sed metus malesuada sollicitudin.
Vestibulum finibus nisl at ligula imperdiet elementum. Nunc ut nunc eu lacus imperdiet fermentum. Mauris lacus arcu, elementum sed volutpat at, ullamcorper molestie nisl. Proin consectetur metus nec metus scelerisque posuere. Sed porta libero mauris, ut lobortis turpis ornare a. Morbi feugiat lacinia tincidunt.
Personality;Mel’arnach is a flirtatious, affectionate, and playful drow prone to teasing people, but she is not often forthcoming with her true nature, preferring to adopt separate personas as a way to protect herself. To the Sarghress mercenaries that serve as her jailors, she is a capricious predator who lost her mind long ago. To her mother, she is an untrustworthy snake and a traitor to her clan, though Mel’arnach tries to gain concessions by feigning submission, usually unsuccessfully. To her old friends made in the halcyon years at the academy, she is a carefree and brazen woman unafraid to befriend anyone, regardless of ideological differences or clan alignment. For a noblewoman, Mel is grounded and sympathetic towards the plight of oppressed peoples, if disconnected from politics. Mel can be stubborn and unyielding, especially if she believes that she has been wronged, and is often reactive and short-tempered. After a lifetime of being victimized, Mel craves safety and security, often in the wrong places, and longs for a peaceful life far away from the turmoil of the underground. Overall, Mel wants her freedom, rivaled in importance by her all-consuming, obsessive desire to rekindle a relationship with the daughter that was stolen from her.
ARC IIAfter suffering through a final sentence imprisoned by the Sarghress, having endured hardship after hardship, Mel'arnach becomes deeply embittered and inescapably trapped in patterns of self-destruction. She is unable to think of the Sarghress in a subjective manner, seeing them all as complicit in her abuse, and even a passing mention of her mother will put her in a foul mood. Snadya'rune becomes her sole source of protection and comfort, and this makes her especially vulnerable to Snadya's manipulation. The codependency becomes so deep and pervasive that when Ariel, once the center of Mel'arnach's world, is almost killed, Mel'arnach does nothing but await Snadya'rune's intervention. Losing her children plunges Mel into a deep depression. Through Snadya'rune's orchestrations, Mel is coerced into becoming part of the Nidraa'chal operatives, where she takes a proactive role in the Sarghress's downfall. While driven by vengeance, Mel'arnach is deceived into believing that she is protecting those closest to her. It consumes everything, and she is nothing but a shadow of the woman that pined for a life of peace. She
Character Background;Mel'arnach is the eldest daughter of Quain'tana, the queen of the Sarghress clan. Although she is by birthright the heir to the Sarghress, she has clashed with her mother from a young age and would have continued to defy her in almost every respect if it were not for her serendipitous departure for the academy. There she befriended and formed a romantic relationship with the headmistress, Snadya'rune.
When Mel'arnach returned home, she arrived to a clan in chaos; her sister had perished in combat and Quain'tana had been made barren in a fateful clash with the Sharen, making her particularly desperate for heirs to continue her lineage. She badgered Mel'arnach for children, knowing that Mel was trying for a child with her preferred partner - a sentient tarantula named Zhor, who once resided in the catacombs of the academy. As punishment for Mel's defiance, Quain had Mel'arnach imprisoned in the Sarghress dungeons and disowned her.
Mel'arnach's efforts eventually bore fruit, though this victory would be bittersweet. When she gave birth to her daughter, Quain'tana was there to steal her away. Mel'arnach was then separated from her daughter for nearly ten years. The girl came to be known as Ariel. Mel made efforts to secure their reunion but was not successful until a chance encounter. She was able to earn Ariel's trust but did not yet reveal the truth.
After some encouragement from Snadya'rune, Mel'arnach made one last attempt to reconcile with Quain'tana. Quain gave her an ultimatum: give her children. Mel tried to negotiate another outcome but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Quain had Mel's arms broken and she was sent to the dungeon for the final time. While delirious from pain and infection, Mel revealed the truth of her parentage to Ariel. To her immense despair, Ariel's commitment to the clan and her role as heir had already been cemented, and while she did not outright reject Mel'arnach, she was reluctant to embrace her as her mother and leave behind her old life. Disheartened and defeated, Mel at last agreed to provide Quain'tana with children, and she was sent away to languish in a new prison under the condition that she would be released when she gave birth to a girl.
Mel'arnach was eventually released sixteen years later and allowed to return to Snadya'rune, but her ordeal left undeniable psychological scars. She was utterly dependent on Snadya'rune for support and protection to the point that she overlooked acts of unsavory and gratuitous violence, from the torture and execution of political trespassers to blatant disrespect and lies. To placate Mel, Snadya'rune reunited her with Zhor, whose consciousness had been implanted in the body of a dark elf. Through Snadya'rune's manipulation, she was turned against the Sarghress as an assassin, seeking to avenge the years spent as a captive broodmare - and this hatred would only be reinvigorated when Snadya'rune told her that her children were killed during the clan's unraveling. Snadya'rune then convinced Mel'arnach of several important falsehoods, exaggerating the importance of her brother's role in her imprisonment and widening the divide between herself and her "last" daughter.
Mel'arnach did not know, but the children she conceived while imprisoned had actually survived their ordeal (with the exception of her eldest son, who was killed protecting his younger siblings). They were adopted by Ariel and her partner, Faen.
As the Sarghress suffered an internal power struggle, Snadya'rune capitalized on the disorder by picking off the few surviving officials, thus pitting the fractured parts of the clan against one another. Driven by vengeance, Mel'arnach volunteered to assist Snadya'rune in this endeavor, and she was eventually tasked with the important mission of assassinating Ariel, who had since risen to command the splintered, rebellious faction of the Sarghress. Unbeknown to Snadya'rune, Mel'arnach had requested this role to ensure Ariel's survival, as she was unable to kill her daughter; she instead took advantage of the chaos to release a crossbow bolt into her brother as punishment for his inability to protect her.
Secretly, Mel'arnach had become disenchanted with Snadya'rune and was becoming increasingly close to Zhor, but she was still unable to cut ties. She remained steadfast and loyal even to the moment that Snadya'rune's tower was invaded. She confronted Ariel in the corridor and Ariel challenged her on her role in Kel'noz's attempted assassination. As Mel'arnach began to grieve the children that were supposedly killed, Ariel's partner, Faen, revealed that they were still alive. Mel'arnach realized that she had believed a hollow lie for many years, and after a long conversation, she reconciled with her daughter and proceeded to the upper floor of the tower, hand in hand with Zhor.
Mel'arnach was furious with Snadya'rune, who continued to insist that she had been given false information. As Snadya'rune became impatient, she was unable to hide her lack of sympathy for Mel's plight, and when she was provoked by Zhor, she attempted to lash out. Mel'arnach moved to protect Zhor, and thus her once ironclad dependence on Snadya'rune was shattered. Mel'arnach pursued Snadya'rune as she erected a magical barrier to protect herself, determined to avenge the years lost.
This is my preferred canon point.
Mel’arnach is an extremely tall (towering at roughly eight feet) and statuesque drow woman with a curvaceous build. Her skin tone is very dark and she has long, pointed ears that will elongate as she grows older. Unlike common-born Drow who have mouths that have turned purple from malnutrition, the inside of Mel'arnach's mouth and her tongue are a normal pink. Her hair flows to the small of her back in lavender tresses. She has dark purple irises with pupils that radiate crimson when in low lighting. She has visible scarring on her arms from when they were broken.
Clothing;Mel’arnach’s wardrobe consists predominantly of revealing, provocative garb woven from white spider silk, barely covering more than a typical set of underwear. Cleavage and curves are usually exposed or barely concealed behind layers of diaphanous mesh, but in accordance with Drow conventions of modesty, her neck is always hidden. Sometimes Mel wears a collar with a silver ring. When given access to a wider selection of clothing, Mel’arnach often defaults to more modest attire – practical black leather, a ceremonial dress in her clan’s signature burgundies, and a high-necked white dress adorned with a feathered mantle. Most of her clothes were provided by Snadya’rune and as Mel’s dependency on her tightens, she allows Snadya to dictate most of her wardrobe choices. Leather and spider silk are resistant to her mana skin ability and thus almost everything she owns is made of those materials.