Meliande

It was a dark and stormy night in Lordearon when Meliande’s parents first met. Iande, one of many children in a large family of tailors, was on her way home from delivering a package in the next village for her parents. She took refuge in a roadside chapel. It was there that she met Noir, a strong, handsome man of lesser nobility who was also seeking shelter. Noir was in the area as part of his work as a geologist. They were both soaking wet and cold. Nature took its course. Despite Iande’s parents having no knowledge of firearms or a shotgun, a wedding was hastily arranged three months later. Six months after the wedding, Meli’s brother Melo was born. He appeared extremely healthy despite assurance by Iande to the midwife that he was indeed, born three months premature. Two years later, Meli was born. Noir, Iande, Meli, & Melo travelled frequently as dictated by Noir’s employ as a geologist. Thus, they were out of the country when Lordearon fell.

As a child, Meli wanted to be a warrior. She would quite often engage neglect her mother’s attempts to educate her in favour of duelling with her brother. A strong devotee of the Light, Iande pressured Meli into becoming a priestess, sending her off to Northshire Abbey. During her studies at the abbey, Meli shone as one of the most devote adherents to the Light. Her ability to memorize long and complicated prayers and passages astounded the Priests. Further astonishment was found in her inability to apply that oral ability in writing. Seeing the potential in her, the priests and priestesses put in long hours trying to improve her literacy. Meli, on the other hand, despite struggling to do her duty to the Light by learning to read, was more interested in the stories of warriors. In her free time, Meli would beg visiting warriors and the guards at the abbey to show her techniques. Meli would spend hours concentrating on improving her battle stance, parrying skills, and other fighting techniques. Due to the tumultuous times, the priestesses gave Meli more allowance with the way she spent her free time then they otherwise would have. Another contributing factor may also have been that tutoring Meli was often seen as a less pleasant occupation for the clergy than, say, torture at the hands of Vishas. One Winter’s Veil Meli returned home for a family dinner. It was there that she met her Uncle Mike’s girlfriend Sheryl. Sheryl was a paladin. While her Uncle Mike was a bit too much of a ladies’ man to keep Sheryl as his girlfriend for any longer than that one Winter Veil, Meli was enthralled. After talking to Sheryl, Meli reached a compromise with her mother and left her studies as a priestess, taking up the calling of Paladin. Eventually, Meli travelled to the city of Stormwind where she met a priestess by the name of Krissana from The Scarlet March. Having heard only stories of her homeland of Lordearon and The Scarlet Crusade, she listened intently to the wondrous tales spun by the priestess. It was also at this time that she first became aware of the impurities of other races. With her love of the Light, the wish to reclaim Lordearon, and a desire to see the suffering on Azeroth ended, she was drawn into the Scarlet March to serve under the Lady Servitor Anaslain.

Through her devoted service to the Light, she rose through the ranks to become a beloved, and oft times feared, member of the March.

While capable of great acts of evil, she acts only out of love. The three virtues are Meli’s guide to living her life. Knowing the joy and love she feels as a devotee of the Light, she wants every human to share in this feeling. As she has also learned that every other races are inferior, she compassionately seeks to end what she can only imagine is a horrible, torturous life of suffering without the Light through the only way possible: death.

As taught by former members of the March, Meli also believes in the cleansing, and learning, power of pain. It is not unusual for her to be found whipping a subordinate to instill some lesson in them, or help them on their path of devotion to the Light.