Melody is a character I’ve been wanting to develop for a while now. I’ve had in mind a general idea of her look and backstory, and every so often I’d use that as the basis for a drawing or story I wanted to write. After not really doing anything with her for a while, I recently decided enough was enough and actually sat down and did my best to solidify her design through a character sheet. However, the first version I made was very simple and basically a rush job and ever since I finished it, I was immensely dissatisfied by how plain and frankly uninteresting it was. So, over the past couple weeks I’ve been gradually improving what I had already drawn and adding to it until I got it to a point where I was actually happy with it.

This is mostly my finalized design for Melody, but as things often go with stuff like this, I might end up changing details here and there in future drawings, either intentionally or not. Anyone who wants to is more than welcome to use this to make their own art of Melody. Her Patron would love nothing more than to see Melody be transformed, so feel free to turn her into anything you want. (Just nothing gross please.)

I had to condense the text a bit in order to better fit it onto the sheet, so here is the full, unedited version of Melody’s backstory:

Melody is a woman who can't remember her past. It's not like she has amnesia or anything though. No, her memories were taken from her as payment when she entered into an arrangement with the being she refers to as her Patron, an archfey, a creature of immense power from realm far beyond our own. In exchange for a new "exciting" life and with vague promises of one day being given her own fey-like abilities, Melody agreed to serve her Patron however they see fit. However, the exciting life she was given wasn’t anything like she had hoped. With her old name taken and her soul bound to the contract, Melody is forced to work a demeaning office job as her Patron's personal assistant, running errands for them while they cause mischief and play at being human. The worst part is, anytime Melody makes a mistake or otherwise disappoints her Patron (which is pretty often) they magically transform her into some other form until they feel like she's learnt her lesson. Confined by the terms of their arrangement and without any other life to go back to, Melody has no other choice but to survive, serve, and endure her punishments, all the while desperately trying to figure a way to escape from clutches of her Patron and secure her freedom.