Melusine

Art by Lorenzo Mastroianni

## Origins

### Birth

During the Prelude, an elven lord named Elynas was out hunting when he spied a beautiful water nymph called Pressyne. Her beauty was so great that he proposed to her there and then. Pressyne accepted on one condition - that Elynas never enter her chambers whilst she gives birth to their children. Elynas accepted, and they married that day.

Eventually Pressyne fell pregnant with triplets. Elynas, overcome with joy, forgot his promise and burst into Pressyne's chambers. Pressyne was outraged, calling him an oathbeaker, and fled Elynas' lands to the isles of Avalon.

### Curse and marriage

When her daughters - Melusine, Melior, and Palatine - reached their fifteenth birthday, they asked their mother what had happened to their father. When she told them the truth, Melusine, the eldest daughter, felt rage build up inside her. She convinced her sisters to take revenge on their father. They returned to his castle and sealed him inside forever servants, treasures, and remaining family.

Melusine told her mother what they had done, and she was disgusted with them. The two younger daughters were imprisoned in separate castles, whereas Melusine was exiled from Avalon, and cursed to transform into fish from the waist down every Saturday. If ever she married and her spouse saw her true form, she would be stuck in this form forever.

After spending a number of years living as a hermit by the rivers of Faeble, one day Melusine came upon a lowly knight named Raymondin. He was washing blood off his armour having just accidentally killed his uncle whilst out hunting together. Melusine helped and consoled the knight, advising him how best to explain the misfortune to his family. He asked her to accompany him, which she did, and they became close. He soon asked him to marry her, and they lived happily together for a number of years, with Melusine's magic and wit bringing great wealth to Raymondin's house.

Years later, Raymondin's friends and family had begun to question why his wife disappeared every Saturday, and rumours started to spread of a secret lover. Raymondin's curiosity eventually got the better of him, and one morning he spied on Melusine through the keyhole to her chambers as she bathed. The final stage of Melusine's curse took hold immediately, and she fled the castle, never to return.

### Joining the Fae Court

Still decades before the First Age, the Lady Maleficent was adventuring across the land when she stopped at a cave for shelter from a raging storm. With the howling wind and thunder muffling her voice, she screamed her frustration at the preferential treatment she perceived her sister Titania received from their parent the Author. Melusine, who had made the cave her home, heard the archfey's frustrated cries and appeared to her in the dark, and encouraged her lust for vengeance, and together they plotted against Titania.

Together they plotted to embarrass Titania beyond redemption on her upcoming birthday. Maleficent brought Melusine to the Fae Court, claiming her to be a master seamstress of the merfolk. Melusine told the Lady Titania that she would create for her a dress of exquisite beauty that could only be seen when worn by the fairest woman in the land. On the morning of her birthday, Melusine pretended to clothe Titania in the dress she had made for her. Maleficent and a number of her friends came to Titania's chambers and feigned astonishment at the beauty of the "dress", and encouraged her to begin the parade immediately.

Titania strolled proudly through the streets for her parade, waving to the hundreds of perplexed onlookers. It wasn't until a halfling child pointed at her and asked why the archfey was marching naked through the streets that Titania realised what had happened. She fled back to her chambers in shame and didn't leave them for weeks. Maleficent, however, was overjoyed at the prank, and formally invited Melusine to join the Fey Court.