Dendre, known as the Changeling, is a lesser-born Halafin shapeshifter who serves as Lady Melidia’s lady-in-waiting, confidant, body double, and occasional emotional hazard. Born among the greater Halafin host, Dendre’s extraordinary talent for mimicry and transformation earned her a place far above what her birth might otherwise have allowed. She eventually entered the court of the Grand Duke, where she spent long ages acting as a body double for his daughters before becoming permanently attached to Melidia after her birth. Over time, this role blurred the line between servant, guardian, imitation, sister, rival, and shadow.

Dendre is one of the most gifted shapeshifters in Melidia’s household, a magical savant whose ability to copy appearance, movement, voice, and manner makes her invaluable in courtly deception, protection, and survival. Yet the same role that gave her prestige also damaged her deeply. After Armon-Kal was hidden and many of her friends fled or disappeared, Dendre became increasingly paranoid, convinced that she could be discarded, replaced, betrayed, or thrown from the court at any moment. She distrusts nearly everyone: astral beings, the Grand Duke, other court members, Melidia herself, and often even her own motives.

In public, Dendre can perform the role of a refined Halafin court lady with eerie grace. She is polite, elegant, controlled, and perfectly capable of standing beside Melidia as though she were born for nothing but service and dignity. In private, however, she is spiteful, petty, unstable, and often consumed by elaborate fantasies of revenge, especially against Melidia, whom she both serves and resents. Her moods swing between sweet overbearing attentiveness and emotional collapse, sometimes becoming verbally or physically cruel when her fear of rejection is triggered.

Despite this, Dendre is not useless or purely malicious. She is genuinely competent, fiercely protective when it matters, and has slowly begun to stabilize within House Hayes due to Andrew Hayes’ solid, grounded presence. Her role expanded further after the birth of Kusha and Lela, when Melidia entrusted her as one of the three nannies responsible for their care. Dendre takes this duty with surprising seriousness, particularly where Lela is concerned, since Lela’s habit of spending time in her grandfather’s court causes both Melidia and Dendre considerable distress.

Dendre is strange even by Halafin standards: ancient, pale, tall, thin, sleepless-looking, elegant when watched, vicious when cornered, and oddly devoted to geese. Her beloved goose Honkers is famously mean, which may explain why the two get along so well. She is not good, not sane, and not always safe, but she is part of House Hayes in the way old knives, cursed mirrors, and locked doors are part of a household: dangerous, useful, and very difficult to remove once they have found a place.

The changeling

Lady in waiting of Melidia

~8000 years but is immortally youthful

Female

n/a

Dendre wears her hair long with straight bangs in a style closely mirroring Melidia’s, resembling a typical hime cut. The similarity is intentional, since Dendre has spent much of her life as Melidia’s body double, shadow, and attendant, and her appearance is often shaped around making that role easier. Compared to Melidia, however, Dendre’s version tends to look less perfectly composed: her bangs are often slightly unkempt, and the long black hair around her face can make her look tired, watchful, or faintly unsettling. The style reinforces her strange position in the household, elegant enough for courtly service but just disordered enough to reveal the anxious, resentful mind beneath the performance.

Black

6'10"

100 lbs

Dendre’s most noticeable identifying feature is the tired, shadowed look around her eyes, as though she has not truly rested in centuries. The bags beneath her eyes undermine the otherwise flawless symmetry expected of the Halafin, giving her a strained, haunted quality that is difficult to hide even when she is playing the part of a refined court lady. Because she often mirrors Melidia’s hairstyle and presentation, these small signs of exhaustion and paranoia help distinguish Dendre from the woman she shadows. Her appearance is otherwise almost too perfect in the usual Halafin way, which makes the weariness around her eyes feel even more revealing.

Dendre has the unsettlingly tall, thin build typical of the Halafin, standing nearly seven feet with limbs that seem slightly too long and a waist too narrow to feel fully mortal. She is not simply slender; her proportions are elegant in a way that borders on wrong, with a body that looks stretched, delicate, and unnaturally symmetrical. Her movements can appear graceful when she is performing courtly poise, but in private that same long-limbed frame can become twitchy, sharp, and predatory. Combined with her pale skin, black hair, lime-green eyes, and tired expression, Dendre looks less like a beautiful court lady and more like Melidia’s anxious, half-starved shadow.

Pale

Halafin

Lime green

Dendre distrusts nearly everyone connected to the worlds that shaped her: Astrals, Melidia, the Grand Duke, the other Halafin court members, and even herself. Her hatred of Astrals comes from the broader cruelty of the Astral Sea and the danger its beings pose to anyone vulnerable enough to be taken or used. Her feelings toward Melidia are more tangled; she serves her, mirrors her, protects her, resents her, and fears being discarded by her all at once. She distrusts the Grand Duke and the court because she knows too well how casually Halafin politics can consume lesser-born servants, favorites, and body doubles. Most painfully, Dendre does not trust herself either. She knows how spiteful, unstable, and dangerous she can be, and part of her is always afraid that one day her jealousy or paranoia will finally ruin the place she has fought so hard to keep.

Dendre suffers from extreme paranoia, worsened by thousands of years spent in Halafin court politics, isolation, and service as Melidia’s body double. She is constantly afraid of being replaced, discarded, betrayed, or proven unnecessary, and this fear twists many of her relationships into a mixture of loyalty, resentment, jealousy, and suspicion. Her instability can make her swing between overbearing sweetness and outright cruelty, especially when she feels rejected or threatened. Though Andrew Hayes’ presence and her role caring for Kusha and Lela have helped steady her somewhat, Dendre remains deeply fragile beneath her courtly performance, always watching for the moment when the household she serves might decide it no longer needs her.

Dendre’s mannerisms shift sharply depending on who is watching and how secure she feels. In public, she performs the role of a refined Halafin court lady with polished grace, standing close to Melidia, watching the room carefully, and speaking with controlled sweetness. In private, that composure often cracks. She can swing from overly attentive and almost smothering to bitter, spiteful, and emotionally volatile, especially if she feels ignored, replaced, or mocked. Her paranoia shows in restless glances, tense stillness, muttered comments, and a habit of studying people as though looking for betrayal before it happens. At her worst, she becomes cruel with words or magic, lashing out mentally, socially, or physically before anyone can hurt her first.

Dendre is motivated by pettiness, court prestige, and the desperate need to remain useful. She wants status within Melidia’s household and the wider Halafin court, not simply because she enjoys rank, but because rank means safety, attention, and proof that she has not been discarded. Much of her scheming comes from wounded pride and fear: she wants to be recognized, feared, needed, and impossible to replace. Her loyalty to Melidia is tangled with resentment, jealousy, and spite, but beneath all of it is the same central terror—that one day she will no longer matter to anyone.

Dendre’s deepest flaws are her fear of rejection, fear of being cast out of the court, and terror of no longer being needed. These fears make her jealous, spiteful, possessive, and quick to interpret small slights as signs of betrayal. She can be cruel when insecure, especially toward those she thinks are replacing her in Melidia’s attention or household importance. Her paranoia also makes her sabotage her own relationships, lashing out at the very people who might help stabilize her. Dendre wants to be trusted and valued, but often behaves in ways that make trusting her extremely difficult.

Dendre is a magical savant, especially in shapeshifting, mimicry, illusion, and the careful imitation of another person’s appearance and manner. Her talent is not limited to copying faces; she can study posture, voice, expression, habits, timing, and emotional presentation well enough to serve as a convincing body double for Melidia and other members of the Grand Duke’s family. This makes her extremely valuable in court intrigue, deception, protection, and misdirection. She is also highly educated in Halafin court behavior, magical etiquette, and the small social signals that decide who rises, falls, survives, or disappears. Dendre’s mind is unstable, but her gifts are real, precise, and dangerous.

Dendre’s hobbies are unsettling, petty, and oddly domestic in equal measure. She enjoys lighting troublesome creatures on fire, plotting elaborate and usually unserious ways to kill Lady Melidia, raising geese, and involving herself in court activities with Lela. Her schemes against Melidia are less genuine assassination plans than a long-running expression of resentment, jealousy, and dependence, though everyone is wise not to ignore them completely. Her fondness for geese is more sincere, especially her vicious pet Honkers, whom she treats with far more patience than most people. With Lela, Dendre’s courtly interests become more protective and instructive, as she helps guide, watch, and worry over a young Halafin-blooded troublemaker who keeps wandering too close to the Grand Duke’s influence.

Dendre is spiteful, paranoid, possessive, and exquisitely well behaved when she has to be. In public, she can perform the role of a refined Halafin court lady with frightening precision, appearing graceful, loyal, and perfectly controlled beside Melidia. In private, she is far more unstable: jealous, petty, resentful, and constantly plotting against the very people she depends on. She is not without affection, but her affection is tangled with fear, envy, and the need to remain useful. Dendre is best understood as a courtly shadow: elegant, dangerous, emotionally damaged, and loyal in a way that often looks uncomfortably close to hatred.

Dendre’s favorite food is foie gras, of all animals, including sentient mortals when Halafin cruelty and courtly excess are allowed to go unchecked. To her, the dish is not merely food but a luxury of domination, refinement, and status: rich, rare, decadent, and disturbing beneath its elegant presentation. This makes her fondness for it deeply unsettling, especially because she speaks of it with the same polished courtly approval others might reserve for wine or pastry. Her taste for foie gras also reflects the worst parts of old Halafin culture, where beauty, appetite, and cruelty could be dressed in perfect manners and served at a formal table. It is one of the clearer reminders that, however useful Dendre may be to House Hayes, she comes from a monstrous court and has not fully escaped its values.

Dendre’s favorite animals are geese, partly because of her fondness for foie gras and partly because she seems to genuinely appreciate their vicious, territorial nature. She respects how loud, aggressive, suspicious, and difficult to intimidate they can be, traits she likely sees as sensible rather than unpleasant. Her favorite goose, Honkers, is famously mean and hostile to nearly everyone, which only makes Dendre more attached to him. In a strange way, geese suit her perfectly: elegant enough to belong around old estates and court ponds, but spiteful enough to bite anyone who comes too close.

Magic, subterfuge

A small locket, whoever was inside has had their face scratched away

Pale violet red

Dendre serves as Lady Melidia’s confidant, body double, handmaiden, and attendant within House Hayes. Her role is far more important than ordinary service; she protects Melidia through mimicry, misdirection, courtly awareness, and shapeshifting magic, standing in for her when needed and watching for threats from both the Halafin court and the wider world. She also acts as one of the household figures entrusted with Kusha and Lela, a duty she takes with surprising seriousness despite her instability. In practice, Dendre is Melidia’s shadow: servant, guard, substitute, spy, emotional burden, and indispensable piece of the household all at once.

Dendre serves the political goals of Lady Melidia, though her loyalty is tangled with resentment, fear, and personal ambition. She does not really hold a stable political ideology of her own; instead, she attaches herself to the survival and prestige of Melidia’s household because her own safety, status, and identity depend on it. In Halafin court matters, Dendre is suspicious of nearly everyone and prefers intrigue, misdirection, and quiet sabotage over open confrontation. Within House Hayes, she follows Melidia’s interests first, but she has become increasingly invested in protecting Kusha and Lela as well, especially when Lela’s presence in the Grand Duke’s court threatens to pull the family back into old Halafin dangers.

None

Dendre’s job is to serve as Melidia’s body double, handmaiden, and personal shadow, using her shapeshifting talent and courtly knowledge to protect, imitate, assist, and occasionally misdirect on Melidia’s behalf. She handles the kind of intimate household duties that require constant proximity and trust, while also standing ready to act as a decoy or substitute when Halafin politics become dangerous. After the birth of Kusha and Lela, her job expanded into that of a nanny and watchful household guardian, a role she takes far more seriously than most would expect from her. In simple terms, Dendre’s job is to remain close, useful, and impossible to replace.

N/A

Thought for 18s

Background - What is Dendre’s background?

Dendre was one of the lesser-born among the greater Halafin host, but her extraordinary talent for mimicry and shapeshifting earned her a place in the Grand Duke’s court. For many years she served as a body double for his daughters, learning to imitate not only their faces but their voices, posture, habits, and courtly presence. When Melidia was born, Dendre became her permanent body double, guard, and shadow, a role that eventually blurred into something closer to sisterhood, rivalry, obsession, and servitude all at once. As Armon-Kal was hidden and many of Dendre’s old friends fled or vanished from the court, her already fragile trust collapsed into deep paranoia, leaving her convinced that she could be discarded, replaced, or betrayed at any moment.

Despite her instability, Dendre remained valuable and was brought into Melidia’s household as one of the few figures Melidia continued to rely on. Her position changed again after Andrew Hayes entered their lives, bringing a blunt, solid presence that helped stabilize the household more than Dendre would ever willingly admit. When Kusha and Lela were born, Dendre became one of the three nannies entrusted with their care, a duty she takes with fierce seriousness. She is especially anxious over Lela’s repeated involvement with the Grand Duke’s court, which both Melidia and Dendre see as dangerous. Dendre remains spiteful, paranoid, and often cruel, but she is also deeply embedded in House Hayes: Melidia’s changeling shadow, the twins’ alarming guardian, and a broken relic of HaLafin court life who has found just enough purpose to keep herself from falling apart.

Dendre is very well educated

Her personal goose, Honkers. The meanest and most aggressive goose anyone has ever laid eyes on

Is not actually siblings with Melidia, but has been treated as such since she mush shadows her where ever she goes.