Melody Ludwig

The beginning.
Melody was born in a small farm in a kingdom far away, a kingdom lost to enemy hands so long ago that the name was forgotten. She lived a peaceful life on the farm, helping her parents grow many different crops and feed their livestock of sheep, cows and horses. Her parents made a living off of the horses they sold to the kingdom in exchange for quite a lot of money. This money allowed them to pay for the ownership of their land and for the materials they needed to keep their home proper and safe. She had interests in running a forge for their vassal, however could never do so. At the age of five, the kingdom she lived in was attacked by an enemy of theirs. The enemy warriors came in yelling, burning down their house and forests surrounding it. Her parents made her hide in the barn with the sheep, which also got burnt down. They slashed the heads of the sheep, leaving them to bleed out on the ground. Melody, being surprisingly smart enough at the time to not scream but instead hide beneath the corpses, managed to survive the attack unharmed. The soldiers trampled the crops growing in the soil and completely destroyed every building on their land. Throughout the immense chaos, Melody heard her parents fleeing, screaming and begging for their lives as they ran into the forest. Many of the enemy soldiers chased after them. They returned, chanting in an unknown language before the chanting slowly got quieter and quieter as they went towards the castle. Melody stayed between the corpses of the sheep until she couldn't hear anything before peeking out, the whole plot of land reeking with blood and smoke. Once she got up, she immediately headed in the direction she heard her parents go to, crying, covered in the blood of the dead animals. She soon saw them, sitting behind a tree. As she approached the tree and their silhouette became clearer through the thick smoke, she realized they had been beheaded, their heads resting on their laps. She froze, screaming in horror before immediately turning around and running to a nearby river. She sat in silence, sobbing intensely before eventually calming down.

New home.
Melody set a goal in her head. To find a new home. She gathered the belongings and food that escaped destruction, as well as an abandoned wagon left in the forest. She struggled to drag it home, where she put everything in. She grabbed buckets and filled them with water before setting foot on her journey. She slept in the wagon, afraid of the nightly noises. She eventually found another raided home that surprisingly was left mostly untouched! They tried to start a fire but it didn't spread enough to destroy the house. She took shelter there. While looking through the house, she found many glass containers filled with seeds. There were potatoes, carrots, beets, even apple seeds! She brought all her belongings inside, cleaning up the place. Being young, she made a bit of a mess but she got it all done. She planted seeds and watered them before eventually falling asleep of exhaustion. In the morning, she got up and prayed to Solaris to protect and guide her, since she was taught to pray to the almighty Soleviel gods, Solaris and Syelene from a very young age. She fed herself and drank some water before heading back outside to clean herself in the rivers once again. She apparently was safe for now, but most likely not for long. She stayed there for a few years, practicing her English to make sure she never forgets to speak, however unable to write and read since she had no books nor paper. One day, on a cold fall morning, she received a visit from a vassal and his guards, requesting information on the surrounding area. She told them about the massacre, and at that point the unknown vassal offered to escort her to his own land to give her shelter in a home there, for absolutely free. She accepted, under the condition of being allowed to grow her own food, to which the vassal accepted the request. They helped her gather the little things she owned then headed to the promised land. After a long, exhausting two days of riding through deserted wastelands converting into healthy and clean forests and plains, they finally arrived to a rather large town composed of a few hundred houses. At the time, Melody was twelve and was given her own house, with instructions to keep it clean and in order. A maid would come once a week to inspect it, and if not proper, the maid would order Melody to help her clean it all up. She even helped her grow her crops in the small yard she had. There, Melody grew a good different spices for her own cooking, fruits, vegetables and all kinds of other goodies. She stayed there until she turned seventeen.

New relationships.
During her time living there, she made a couple new friends who visited her, and that she visited in return. They exchanged gifts, Melody even selling her crops to them every now and then. Throughout the many years she lived in the town, she never had problems. She bought lumber from a man who regularly went outside of town to chop trees in the forest and she was able to make a portable crop rack that she'd move inside during the cold winters to avoid all her crops dying and her eventually running out of food. Since she didn't need to pay for anything, she quickly made a little fortune selling her crops around town and eventually got a job as a chef in an inn, a few blocks away from her home. In that Inn is where she met her best friend and future girlfriend, Rayiniria Rostraya, that she called "Rin" to shorten her name. They laughed and had so much fun working together in the Inn that they soon caught feelings for each other, turning their friendship into a loving relationship. As the years went by, Rin eventually sold her home to move in with Melody, where they lived together happily. Rin quickly became obsessed with brewing, and got a new job in a tavern. Mel, wanting to stay with her at all costs left her job and applied to work as a chef in the same place, where she got accepted. She also regularly went to the forge in town, speaking with the blacksmith a lot. He taught her how to hold a sword, soon teaching her to make her own swords! A few months later, she had made her very own steel dagger, which she secretly kept under her pillow in case of an unexpected attack. She then learnt how to make a sheath for it, at which point she carried the dagger with her everywhere. Her life was going wonderfully well ever since the kind vassal accepted to give her shelter, but it was about to turn around again.

Final Destination
Another attack. Another fallen kingdom. The kingdom Melody and Rin resided in was attacked by another enemy force, much bigger than the last assault on Melody's farm. They managed to run, saving themselves on a ship set to a faraway land. They sailed for months before finally arriving to the destination, enemy ships on their heels. Everyone was ordered to set foot on land, and everyone ran for their lives. Melody and Rin, holding hands and praying to Solaris to bless them once again, ran into the forests before arriving to another beach where they found hundreds of people boarding another ship, in panic. They got in the line of people, hiding their faces from the guards. Once the boat was filled, they quickly set sail, only stopping once at a nearby island to restock on food and water, staying at shore for a few minutes at most. They continued their voyage to a faraway land, enemy ships distant in their tracks. They stopped on a large continent, at which point Rin and Melody got off the ship and ran once again, arriving to a small village. There, a man named Beef offered them shelter on his island named Silver's Guild, to which they quickly accepted. Once on the island, the man gave Melody the job of going deep into the mines to find many different ores. She got everything she could find, mining for hours and hours. During the time they were on the island, Melody mined all day tirelessly and Rin prepared food and drinks. Then, while Melody was underground, the enemy ships lowered their anchor at the islands breaches. The group of people known as "Rats" from Rattican swept the whole island in search of her, unable to find her due to her being far, far underground in the mines. They left, threatening to return the next day. Rin informed Melody of this and they both planned an escape to a small, destroyed town they saw on the way. In the morning, they left together to that town, in search of a true shelter. They arrived there, and seeing how the town was mostly destroyed and seemingly not owned by any nearby land, they set shelter there. The next morning, they woke up to notes telling them to speak to a man claiming to be the owner of the town they lived in. The man paid them a visit that day and offered to show them around the continent they were standing in. They learnt they stood in Simulami land, in the Stormgovan district. The town they now lived in used to be called Parroburg, a town now abandoned by it's old owners. The man, known as Ornn Hrafn, now known as Ornn Ludwig showed them around NewJellhem, a town very close to Parroburg. He accepted to let Mel and Rin take ownership of Parroburg, and they decided to call it Freholm. From there, they were given citizenship of Simulami and NewJellhem. Melody built her own forge and Rin her own bar, at which point they both sold the fruits of their craftsmanship. Ornn then offered to adopt Melody, which she accepted, making her a princess of the Stormgova district of Simulami. Her last name was changed to Ludwig upon the adoption, after which she was given a room in the Ludwig Castle, in NewJellhem. Rin and Mel were engaged a few days after that, and planned their wedding to occur on 7/26/2022, at 3PM EST.