Melinoë was born in a world of magic, her youth spent sheltered and practically locked away learning etiquette and really anything she could get her hands on. Learning to read at a young age she grew enamored with the idea of magic and began to explore innate talents against the wishes and warnings of her guardian, and as the story goes unwittingly invited darkness into her being, planting the first seeds of corruption.
Late in her adolescence her home came under attack resulting in the destruction of her home and family. Forced to flee she wound up in a city fraught danger and violence despite its shining reputation. Fueled by youthful rage and dreams of revenge she supported herself as she could, finding a job keeping the books of an exceptionally wealthy artifact collector, using the wage he afforded her to survive while also developing a rapport of trust which she would later wield like a club, becoming much more than a simple accountant as the more nefarious nature of her employer's business came to light as but one of the players in the city's blackmarket.
A quick wit and a silver tongue earned her quite a purse and a crippling collection of secrets that kept many of the city's most dangerous criminals and even some of the most celebrated citizens under her thumb. It was a power she used with relative wisdom, but in her youth she made several errors that would result in the catastrophic events that drove her seek further study under powerful warlocks and witches and eventual employment in a crown-funded team specifically tasked with recovery and neutralization of dangerous artefacts.
In this time she grew more into her own, gaining confidence and strength in her skills. Though her magic was a particularly demanding one, the kind you sacrificed and sacrificed deeply for she wielded it with a brazen confidence in its strength, that there was nothing in the world she could not make meet her demands. So she thought.
It was a routine scouting mission went awry. Her team found themselves held prisoners for weeks, losing two members including her the current mentor and leader. They returned shaken and battered, the unit dissolving under the pretense of honorable sacrifice and celebratory fanfare, and though she had quite literally survived hell, Melinoë found herself longing for it.
She took to traveling, distracting herself from the deep sense of loss and regret with projects and endless catalogues of the natural world - it was one such trip she found herself waylaid by what she at first took to be a simple bandit however soon realized was no mere outlaw. Terribly powerful and senselessly violent he overwhelmed her quickly and efficiently as though she were nothing more than child, her attacks and defenses entirely ineffective.
Upon coming to consciousness she remembered only a few hazy, general facts of her past and very little specific. Haunted by the ferocity and malice of her attacker and the unnervingly unfamiliar landscape she's managed to find herself in, she is quite literally a bloody mess.