Fairy Duke Melvin of the Ringford Kingdom is a supporting antagonist character in the main storyline of erion saga book series who appears in the perspective books of oswald as a supporting character in his perspective and as secondary antagonist figure for mercedes.
He is the duke of the Ringford kingdom and a council advisor, Melvin is in charge at the second highest command of the Ringford military, he is the second highest ranking and the second most powerful figure in the Ringford kingdom until his allegiance betrayal when his first degree cousin child fairy princess Mercedes became the next Queen upon the death of her mother, Melvin gathered up the 1/3 personnel amount part of the Ringford military branch for himself to side him for his planned intentional overthrew of his 1st degree cousin Mercedes to take the crown of rule from her, he launched a revolution and coup d'etat against Mercedes reign and rule of the Ringford kingdom as an attempt to remove her from the power of being a Queen of their kingdom and to take the leadership from her and make himself as the king of the Ringford kingdom that resulted in failure leading to his death, he is Oswald's foster father and Mercedes first cousin and as well as Elfaria's nephew.
Profile Overview[]
Melvin's in game appearance
Melvin is a duke among Ringford's nobility and one of Elfaria's advisers. She is also Elfaria's nephew through an older unknown sibling of Elfaria, making him Mercedes's first cousin. Years before the story started, he discovered Oswald as a baby as the only survivor of an attack on a house in the distant wilderness. Melvin subsequently took him in and raised him, initially as his adoptive son, but to eventually become his Shadow Knight.
He is the second highest ranking character figure in the Ringford Kingdom, his power of authority is just behind Queen Elfaria and eventually to Mercedes after Queen Elfaria's death until his betrayal against mercedes through rebellion by attempting to kill her to take the crown leadership from Mercedes to make himself as the king of the Ringford Kingdom that only resulted in failure.
Melvin is a manipulative individual, he uses this tactic as one of his steps to obtain the leadership of the Ringford Kingdom such as he adopted oswald as an infant because he wanted to use him as his right hand man that will assist him later in his plan by one time incident when he used Oswald to fight Mercedes for him, hoping to defeat her to due to the curse he had requested for Oswald's weapon in exchange for his adopted son soul and body.
He does not bore any loyalty in himself to anyone in his own people and their kingdom compared to other top high ranking monarch officials, as Melvin does not wanted to be ruled by anyone in him and he prefers that he is the one that rules rather than being ruled over by somebody, this can be seen when he was wanting to have the leadership position of the Ringford Kingdom.
Melvin is a power gluttonous figure in the Ringford Kingdom, his hunger obsession in leadership and greed for power made him to do some extreme lengths such as making a deal with the death queen for a curse power to be granted in the weapon he requested to forge in exchange for the soul of his adopted son, melvin is ready to do anything for power and leadership obtaining even if it would cost him heavy at his own or other expense or if the action he has take is somehow to be bad or even much worst as evil deeds.
Following his death after his failed revolution in the Ringford Kingdom in an attempt to overthrow his first cousin Mercedes to take the leadership crown from her, his honor, rank, position and even his portraits had been stripped out of him into consign to oblivion meaning that his presence was completely eliminated after his defeat and considered him by the entire Ringford Kingdom and its military forces as somebody that somewhat never existed, the reason for this was likely to remove any souvenir out of him that can be used as a remembrance for Melvin so that he couldn't be remembered or be glorified by anyone in the Ringford Kingdom especially the soldiers who were formerly members of his dissolved former battalion group that might serve as an inspiration for another creation of rebellion against the monarchy ruling of Mercedes and this was implemented in the entire kingdom on orders by her.
Appearance Traits[]
Melvin is a tall and considerably handsome young man with long, wavy blonde hair and thin brown eyes. He is visibly slender yet muscular thanks to the manner in which he leaves his shirt and jacket open. The jacket is long and teal green in color with puffy sleeves while his undershirt has a lacy collar and is held at the bottom by two belts. He wears yellow-green striped trousers with similarly colored boots fastened by brown straps and buckles. Like all fairies, he has long pointed ears and has wasp-like wings typical of the male portion of his species.
Personality Classification[]
Melvin in public displays a courteous and gracious role being polite to both the Queen and her daughter. He has a lust for power seeing Elfaria's views as weakening the kingdom as a whole. It is through this desire for power that he has the Belderiver made. He often acts without notice either from the Queen or from her daughter such as when he had Oswald kill Hindel much to Elfaria's shock and alarm. While he dares not go against Elfaria he has no qualms about leading a revolution the instant Mercedes took the crown by succession. Melvin is fearless, reckless and selfish everything he has done he does to further his own goals. This is strongest when he finally tells Oswald that he was an object for his rise to power. However as Oswald learns later on there was, perhaps, a kindness once to Melvin as Melvin took him in when his father was dying. In the end Melvin is a character who wants the Fairy Kingdom to prosper but feels he's the only one who knows how to do that.
Background Story[]
Melvin was born to an unknown sibling of Elfaria's and became her adviser once the inhabitants of Ringford were a unified nation. A fairy in Mercedes's story suggests that, even before Elfaria died, he had ambitions for the throne of Ringford and subsequently made plans to become king over his younger cousin, Mercedes.
Some years before Mercedes's birth and possibly before Valentine fell, Melvin stumbled across a house in the distant wilderness where, inside, he found a dying man and his wife. Before his death, the man entrusted his infant son, Oswald, to Melvin, and the duke initially raised Oswald as his son. Melvin, however, eventually decided to use Oswald as a tool in his plans to become king and began training him to become the next Shadow Knight. When the time came, Melvin had Brom forge the Belderiver and offered Oswald's soul to Odette in order give the sword its dark powers.
Plotline Summary Perspective[]
The Informant[]
Melvin first appeared when he was assigning his foster child Oswald into spying their enemy kingdom Ragnanival but he was stopped by Brom saying that he should not have created his weapon due to the curse it carries and that Oswald would be the next soul to be deemed cursed just like what happened to the previous users of the belderiver weapon but before Brom could complete his explanation Melvin silenced Brom by arrested and throwing him away in the netherworld and advises Oswald not to worry about anything and that everything is fine, he also insisted that Brom was just lying and making a story just to seek an attention to a powerful noble of the kingdom, after this task he sent him into the lost Kingdom of Valentine to assist Queen Elfaria however, Oswald was not able to come over to assist her due to the Halja that interfered demanding Oswald pay his debt to Queen Odette. Because of this Elfaria had no protection when Odin came and mortally injured her. This resulted in Mercedes losing favor in Melvin who was angered by Oswald's failure. However Oswald was worried that the Halja had come for him but Melvin insisted that he should not worry about over them and that he can keep them out and at a bay with the power of his psypher weapon.
Race Uprising[]
after Queen Elfaria's death, Melvin started preparing his revolution to overthrow his younger cousin Mercedes and then he sent Oswald into Elrit forest to find Beldor and ask him to join his rebellion, when Oswald finally was able to convince Beldor to join in their revolution, and thus he launched a coup d’état against his younger cousin Mercedes. However her retaliation and strength proved to be more devastating than he could ever expected, and when she bests Oswald his coup is utterly trounced. Melvin is unaware however, during this time Oswald was weakened because the Halja was prepared at that time to collect his soul due to the deal made by Melvin in trading his soul to the Queen of netherworld in exchange for the powers in the Belderiver. Because of this, Oswald was not able to fight at full strength and was unable to assist Melvin during the revolution. In addition that his soldiers we're also sabotaged by Ingway turning them into frogs so they couldn't assist Melvin during the revolution during the fight leading to his ultimate defeat.
Death Confession[]
Melvin is mortally wounded and hides in the palace slowly dying, a weakened Oswald approached him and asking if it was him or not as his own vision is failing due to his injuries and the curse eating away his body. Melvin scolds Oswald calling him a worthless fool and that he should have prepared a substitute replacement for him. Oswald is shocked and questions if he did really trade his life for the weapon's power. Melvin unable to no longer hide the truth, laughs confirming Oswald's suspicions. Oswald dejected and disbelieving asks Melvin, what is he to the fairy to which Melvin cruelly states that Oswald was an object, a tool for him to become the king of Ringford kingdom. Shortly after this declaration Ringford Soldiers find him and call his name to be arrested for his treason. But it's too late Melvin begins to succumb to his wounds realizing his time is up he confesses his real name, 'Nidhogg' the one who chews on the roots of the ash tree, to be accepted in the heavens. Melvin passes on leaving Oswald to question what kind of life he had. The Ringford soldiers move to apprehend Oswald, when suddenly a Halja appears and the Ringford soldiers, out of fear, run away not wishing to die. The Halja mocks Oswald saying that the life he had been chasing was just a mere illusion and shortly afterward kills Oswald taking him into the Netherworld.
Relationships[]
Fairy Queen Elfaria of Ringford Kingdom[]
Melvin served loyally at his aunt's side, although he recognized that Elfaria didn't have the greatest trust in him. He constantly pushed her to mass-produce the Belderiver and became infuriated when she refused to. Before her death, he continued to emphasize that he did care about his family and that he would help her daughter become a good Queen. Unfortunately, in the moments before Elfaria was mortally wounded by Odin, he showed cowardice and hid behind her when the Vanir's forward headquarters was attacked instead of protecting her. Following her death, he ultimately betrayed the trust that Elfaria had in him and instigated the rebellion that almost resulted in Ringford's collapse.
Fairy Princess Mercedes of the Ringford Kingdom[]
When Mercedes was younger, she often looked up to Melvin as her older brother while Melvin may have viewed her as a younger sister. Unfortunately, come the time when it was apparent Mercedes would eventually take over as Queen, Melvin had begun making plans to take the throne from her. Following Elfaria's death, he openly expressed hatred of the idea of Ringford's fate being left in the hands of a "lass" and gathered the fairies who believed that he would be better off taking over Ringford's government in a rebellion. Melvin was not above killing his cousin, although when Mercedes and those loyal to her marched against Melvin's forces, he did offer her the chance to live if she backed down. Shortly before a weakened Oswald arrived, Melvin lamented over how he could have been beaten by such an inexperienced girl as Mercedes.
Oswald the Shadow Knight[]
Oswald and Melvin have a strong relationship with one another, he considers Oswald as his family as he was his stepson that he adopted and raised to become a soldier for the kingdom of Ringford. However at some point this bond relationship was shattered when Melvin decided to give the Belderiver to Oswald to become the Shadow Knight. Since then he saw Oswald as a mere object for his goal to becoming King this revelation broke Oswald who had come to see Melvin as his father.
Brom the Blacksmith[]
Though melvin and him never had any forms of friendship but he somehow choses and entrusted him as the crafter of the belderiver psypher, that melvin eventually payed for, as a deal with him for his psypher building services, at some point, melvin was thankful of him at first temporarily and he considers brom as one of the helpful people for his cause, as he could use him later for building many psypher for every ringford soldier if the first belderiver had became successful in it's testing trials in which where he was actually intending to use him for, however as brom's concerns for oswald grew and grew slowly overtime, it made him to have a courage to tell oswald to admit the real truth about his psypher weapon and this move of brom had declined melvin's trust and his worthful figure look of him and because of this he became epistemophobic towards brom and started seeing him as a threat to his future plans which prompted melvin into throwing him away in the netherworld to prevent brom from telling oswald the hidden dark reality of his psypher weapon.
Official Artwork and Merchandise[]
Trivia[]
- Melvin's true name, Nidhogg (Níðhöggr), is the name of the dragon that nibbles at the roots of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. Nidhogg's name was also where Norse vikings derived the term níð from, which is a social stigma implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain.
- Curiously Mercedes' true name is Yggdrasil the world Tree, which Nidhogg, in mythology, will nibble at the roots, setting Melvin and Mercedes to be opposed with each other despite being related.
- Melvin has been known to be compared to Gul'dan from the Warcraft Franchise who was the creator of The Death Knights and The Ogre Magi/Ogre Mages. Melvin and Gul'dan the Destroyer of Dreams were both quite similar. Aside from the fact that Gul'dan is an Orc, a clan Chieftan, advisor, Elite Necrolyte/Necromencer and a full ranked Warlock/Diabolist and Melvin is a fairy and just an advisor, as well as the fact that Gul'dan is mad/insane and Melvin is only overly ambitious.
- Both Gul'dan and Melvin were cruel traitors and unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow their leaders (for Gul'dan it was Orgrim Doomhammer and for Melvin it was his cousin, Mercedes).They both created powerful Classes of Warriors (For Melvin it was the Shadow Knights and for Gul'dan it was The Death Knights and The Ogre Magi/Ogre Mages). Also the only thing they achived was making their children suffer (for Melvin it was Oswald and for Gul'dan it was Garona Halforcen. Noted: Oswald isn't Melvin's true son and Garona isn't the daughter of Gul'dan. Technically, they made people who loved and looked up to them as fathers, suffer).
♦ Odin Sphere Characters ♦
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Supporting Characters
Belial ♦ Brom ♦ Griselda ♦ Hindel ♦ Ingway ♦ King Edmund ♦ Master Krois ♦ Matthew ♦ Myris ♦ Odin ♦ Queen Elfaria ♦ Wagner ♦ | |