Melesa Algood

**Melesa Algood** is the current Lady of Algood Hall. Since she came of age in the year of 275 AC, she rules the castle in her own right.

## History

Melesa Algood was born in late 259 AC as the oldest daughter of the young Lord Addam Algood of Algood Hall and his wife Rhea Lydden. She was followed two years later by her younger sister Leonella, and from a young age on, always being the heiress presumptive for the Lordship of Algood Hall, was taught courtly manners by the household’s Septa, being instructed in ladylike pursuits like sewing, knitting, and music, but also in conversation with the castle’s retainers and knights whom she would mayhaps rule at some point in the future.

When Melesa was eight years old, about to turn nine, her mother died birthing her second sibling, who turned out to be another girl, named Darlessa by the mourning father. Instead of remarrying, Lord Addam decided to groom his eldest daughter as his heiress and showed much determination in improving her skill. Melesa proved to be cunning in many regards, a quality that hopefully would be of much use to her future governance in a court of many noblemen and -women to appease.

In 270 AC, when the war later named Durran’s Defiance broke out, Lord Addam followed Lord Lannister and marched with the Algood contingent to the Westerman army, towards the Reach. However, he never returned home to his castle and his young daughter, as he was slain by Reachmen warriors during fights at Red Lake. When the news reached Algood Hall, Melesa knew very well that it meant that she was now the Lady of Algood Hall, but also that none of her decisions would be valid until she reached the age of six-and-ten, causing her uncle Ser Maynard Algood to act in her stead as regent.

From the very beginning of his regency on, Ser Maynard showed neglect of the well-being of his subjects - or technically Melesa’s - and instead wasted much of the holding’s resources to his own gain, where it would have been very clear to Melesa that a good ruler would act otherwise. The situation worsened for Melesa when she became a maiden flowered, and as she grew into a woman instead of a girl, her uncle showed an inappropriate interest in her. While he ensured that her maidenhead remained intact for a future marriage he was already planning to arrange, Ser Maynard found other ways of abusing her to his own pleasure, and Melesa’s resulting fear gave him even more of a free hand in the governance of the castle.

During that time, Melesa often visited the castle’s Maester, fearing she might need Moon Tea at some point in the near future, and showed great interest in the studies the Knight of the Mind provided, especially the ones in alchemy. The fear of unwed pregnancy - but not the fear of her uncle’s other perversions - was at least removed from Melesa, when a marriage was arranged for her, to Selmond Greenfield, a sickly and weak boy one year her senior, obviously chosen to not stand in the ways of Ser Maynard’s regency or interfere with it in any way, given how weak-willed he was.

Even though it was not in his nature to be particularly enthusiastic, Melesa actually enjoyed being bedded by her new husband, even if it was only for the contrast to the painful visits from her uncle and regent. Selmond Greenfield’s seed, however, proved rather weak, and even without taking Moon Tea, Melesa did not become with child for months and months, but what did change, slowly and incrementally, was the court’s opinion of Ser Maynard. Over the next years as she approached the age of majority, first the Maester, some retainers, and eventually even her husband came to support Melesa’s rule in the castle, and while her uncle still made the decisions in name, covert meetings were held to make an end to his ruinous spendings and mistreatments.

In the year of 275 AC, Melesa had come of age, but Ser Maynard was still clinging to his control over Algood Hall’s coffers and personnel, confident in having planted enough fear of him in his niece to continue a “regency” in practice. At a feast later in that year, Ser Maynard Algood took a drink of apparently poisoned wine, and died on the same evening. It never became known what exactly had happened, but in truth, Lady Melesa herself had provided the poison, brewed in the Maester’s laboratory.

Thus, Lady Melesa Algood began to rule in her own right, assisted by her husband Selmond Greenfield - as far as he could - as well as her cousins, of which Melwyn, the oldest, was about to come of age. It would be a difficult task to restore Algood Hall’s economy to a presentable state after all that Ser Maynard had done, but Melesa was determined to work towards achieving it.

In 278 AC, Selmond Greenfield died at the age of twenty of an infection that hit him particularly intensely due to his weak constitution, leaving Melesa as a widow, without having given her a child, though not for the lack of trying, and also not due to Melesa, according to the Maester, who attested her to have good hips.

When her kinswoman Lady Alysanne Lydden announced her intention to marry in 280 AC, Melesa and her sister Leonella travelled to Deep Den and after the wedding stayed to visit her family on her mother’s side, some time into the new year. During that time it was decided that Leonella would permanently remain in Deep Den as a lady-in-waiting to Lady Alysanne.

## Recent Events

* Until 3rd Moon of 281 AC: Melesa spends time at Deep Den with her kinswoman Alysanne Lydden, developing a strobg bond between the two women.
* 4th Moon of 281 AC: Melesa departs from Deep Den, being called to Ashemark for a council held by Lord Joffrey Marbrand by her liege lady Bellena Banefort and participates in the council regarding the security of the Westerlands in the light of threats from the Reach and the Riverlands. Here she first learns about the Northmen coming to Banefort in search of House Stark's greatsword Ice, and is given further instructions by Herold Banefort.

## References

1. ↑ The Same Procedure As Last Moon
2. ↑ We Must Away - Or Rather, I
3. ↑ Operation: Fortress Besterlands