Melanie de Rolo

Melanie von Musel de Rolo was a member of the de Rolo family and a former Lady of Whitestone. She was responsible for the creation of the gardens at Whitestone Castle until she was suspected of necromancy.

Background
Lady Melanie was part of the third generation of de Rolos to be born in Whitestone.

She had an arranged marriage with her cousin, Lord Wolf de Rolo, for solely political reasons. She became the Lady of Whitestone, and she and her husband were the fourth couple to rule over the city. She was openly known to be unhappy with her marriage, and she only found happiness and peace in her creation of a garden behind Whitestone Castle. There, she secretly grew poisonous plants from Wildemount with which she planned to murder her husband by slowly poisoning him over a course of years. She ultimately planned to take over the city herself. Eventually, Wolf was severely injured in a large fire known as the Great Whitestone Fire. With his health compromised from Melanie's poisoning, he could not recover and died a few weeks later. She became the sole ruler of Whitestone.

The fire destroyed a third of the city, so Melanie attempted to expand the city walls into the Parchwood Timberlands to incorporate a holy site to the Dawnfather established by the first settlers of Whitestone; plans were also made to build a temple at the site. The project was beset by various supernatural events, including visions of Wolf de Rolo, that halted all progress except for the completion of the temple. Melanie sought help from her cousin Ivan von Musel, a devotee of Erathis. He determined that she disrespected Erathis, who was preventing the city's expansion. His subsequent vision and journey into the forest secured permission to expand Whitestone to a specific point into the forest and forged an agreement where a citizen of Whitestone must venture into the forest to be tested when called. As thanks, Melanie created the title of Grand Master of the Grey Hunt. She further established the third house of Whitestone to convince Ivan to remain in the city.

She was eventually removed from her position for suspected witchcraft and raising of the undead.

At some point, Melanie's relationship with Wolf was the reason control of the third house of Whitestone passed to the de Rolo family.

Legacy
The gardens were reconstructed after the Briarwoods' occupation to include some rose gardens, a small hedge maze, and a pond, as well as a revival of the walled poison garden by Percival de Rolo and Keyleth, who named it the Widow's Garden. Melanie's surname has been passed through generations, with several of the de Rolo children carrying it, the most recent of which is Percival's youngest daughter, Gwendolyn Zahra Melanie von Musel de Rolo, who also bears Melanie's first name.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 1

Trivia

 * Her name derives from the Greek word melania, meaning "blackness". It's possible that the name itself is a reference to her rumored deals with black magic.
 * Since her garden was renamed as "Widow's Garden", she most likely survived her husband, possibly because of the poisoning.
 * Melanie is considered part of the third generation of de Rolos born in Whitestone, which means that one of her parents was a de Rolo, and through them she was related to the main line of the family.