Melinde

**Melinde Atreadeaisia**, known more commonly as **Madame Melinde of the Bath** or **Earlswyn Melinde**, is the heiress of the island of the Bath, a scion of the House of Allisteir, and the wife of Charles D'Ochre. Melinde is the second child and first daughter of Robert Ducat and his second wife, Margarette, and earned rights in principle to the Bath after Ducat's heir passed away. She wed her half-brother Charles to grant rights over the Bath to her husband, who was at the time the Thane of Flannings.

Though regarded most often as the wife and half-sister of Charles D'Ochre, Melinde herself is responsible for using a portion of her inheritance to renovate the primary church of the Bath, the Queen's Cathedral. This act of charity has earned her a secondary title of **Madame Melinde the Pious**.

## Life

Melinde was born after Robert Ducat, her father, abdicated the position of Thane to allow his son Gustav, her brother, to ascend. However, before she was a year old, Gustav disappeared and was presumed dead after the Battle of Agabad. Her half-brother Charles D'Ochre assumed the title of Thane, but only of Flannings. As in the laws of succession, related fiefs such as Jorif and the Bath were passed to surviving heirs. It was clear that Charles' sister Claudia-Caroline would inherit Jorif, and Melinde was to inherit the Bath.

To circumvent this dispute and retain the Bath within the sphere of Flannings, Melinde at her first year of age was to be betrothed to her half-brother by consent of her mother; this purely ceremonial act would put Charles as regeant until her thirteenth birthday, in which she would decide whether or not to accept the betrothal and marry Charles. This was initially controversial, as it was both a second incestuous betrothal over the Bath and a bizarre accordance of law to betrothe an infant to a man in his thirties. However, Melinde accepted the marriage in CE 966, to which the Bath was formally incorporated into Flannings.

Melinde, upon receiving her inheritance from her father on her sixteenth birthday, used her fortune to renovate the Queen's Cathedral in CE 970, which made her popular among the people of the Bath. This included replacing relics lost over time, especially objects recovered but held in retinue by the Pontifect. This would earn her the sobriquet "the Pious."

In addition to this, Melinde has spent much of her fortune in helping the people of the Bath, especially the lower class. She has patronized priests and healers at shrines to Rosemary of Jorif and personally attends *concertos* of young performers if they request her presence. These have made her among the most popular lords in recent memory.

Because Melinde has not yet had children, concerns have arisen on whether her marriage to Charles has truly been ordained by Mithra, and sentiment is conflicted regarding the heir of Flannings and the Bath should Charles D'Ochre pass away or disappear. With his disappearance after the Siege of Arelon, the heads of House Allisteir convened and agreed should Charles not return, rule of Flannings would pass to his sister Claudia-Caroline on Jorif, and almost certainly put a permanent end to a unified Illyrian coast.