Melelani 🎲

CHARACTER SHEET

Melelani is my first and main D&D character. She's your friendly neighborhood fish bard!

Melelani (Mele to her parents, or Mel to her friends) doesn't really have any sort of angsty backstory like your typical adventurer. She's just a curious sheltered nerd that wants to get out and see the world.... unlike her pacifistic, reclusive community that sees no value in combat other than to fight for food (the ocean is an unforgiving place). Up until now Mel has made her way in her small town by being a top-notch performer whose kinesthetic sense is topped only by her musical talent and charm. Mel is particularly fascinated by the aesthetics of fighting and has mastered the art of gladiatorial combat! Or at least in theory, anyway. She's lacked a formal teacher and hasn't learned the proper way to build up her body strength for the sake of fighting. At least her musical background grants her fantastic choreography and rhythm, so that's gotta count for something! 

Unfortunately Mel has reached a plateau - only learning how to fight from books has been no good, since Mel learns best by moving around and acting out. So, she decided to travel to the surface to get more practical experience, since no one from her hometown is willing to spar with her. As a bonus, she'll get to learn all the things about the surface that out of date books covered in algae won't be able to tell her. She looks forward to being able to bring back what she's learned and perform it for the whole town to see.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

• Large (6'0", 386lbs)
• Resembles a whale shark shoved into the silhouette of a gingerbread cookie person
• "Hair" is shimmery strands of loose vestigial fins, woven into a giant fishtail braid
  • I've been inconsistent about how exactly her hairline works, but she always has one 'main' fin as a sort of pompadour/mohawk which separates out into an ahoge in the very front
• Eyes are dark blue and shiny; sclerae are not generally visible
• Arms are fin-like but split into five fingers at the end; toes are still slightly webbed (a sign of youth)
• Skin is soft and smooth like a dolphin or whale
• Scar on right cheek from a shield bash
• Body riddled with various other small/shallow scars from weapon practice and hunting for food
• Has both lungs and gills. She is amphibious and can live comfortably on land as well as in water, but is prone to exhaustion and drying out in hot/arid/desert climates

PERSONALITY

• Soooooo chill. The chillest. Very patient and easy to get along with.
• A huge fun-loving goof that goes with the flow
• Has trouble leaving others alone, especially if there's gossip potential, ESPECIALLY if it's romantic in nature lol.
• That said: she will generally respect your privacy if you've drawn a boundary line... by way of changing the subject to juicy gossip involving OTHERS. 
• Can and will try to drag you into partying with her
• LOVES to give friendly ribbings. Loves a good insult even if it's directed at her
• Cares deeply for friends and will put that above all other issues
• Encyclopedic knowledge of theater and music (and musical theater)
• Shrewder than she's often given credit for because of her looks/demeanor/"Eeyore" voice; it's a mistake to assume she's stupid.
• Flip side of previous point: can be naive about things and looks for the best in people (maybe a bit TOO trusting)
• A sucker for a pretty face. Very pan. Very flirty. Will melt if the flirting is reciprocated and will melt even faster if she wasn't the one to make the first move.
• Capable of holding an intense grudge if she feels like she's been unfairly disregarded, let down, or offended in some particular way. She's pretty easygoing, though, so the number of people who have actually earned a Melegrudge are very few

TRIVIA/DESIGN NOTES

• Pronunciation: Meh-leh-LAH-nee
• She shares a birthday with famous Polish romantic composer Frederick Chopin
• *Mel was conceived as a Trichadon (species homebrew page), but by this point I've branched way off into doing my own thing about Melelani's species, hometown, and society, so maybe I should be calling them something else now lol. (I don't know a lot about D&D's Triton race but I don't think she falls under that, either, based on what I have seen)
  • Like all Trichadons (according to me, since I do what I want), Melelani hatched from an egg and had a poliwog tail growing up. These are gradually absorbed with age, and Mel, completely tailless, is considered an adult. Additionally, courtesy of notbecca this is not the case for Axolotl Trichadons, who keep their tails throughout their adult lives.
• Mel is a gladiator valor bard because Trichadons are supposed to be pacifists, but I wanted to deviate from that a little bit
• She idolizes a figure in her culture named Finndiana Jones, who was a famous explorer/fighter that brought much of the original knowledge of the surface to Anemone Park.
• Ironically, Melelani's Strength score, one of the most important for fighting, is an 8 (the lowest possible for a PC); this would be less of an issue if her Dexterity weren't an equally pathetic 9. However, her max-ed out Charisma score (and Bard perks) let her be good at almost everything else, haha. Practically speaking, she'd make a mean Lore Bard, but where would be the fun in that? (Our campaign is much heavier on the RP side anyway lmao)
• All of her spells and some of her songs are incanted/sung in Aquan, which for Mel sounds a lot like whale calls. As you can imagine, this sounds better and carries farther underwater, but has an odd scratchy charm to it on land that others find strangely irresistible