Melcendre is a human bard in the service of Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons. She has dark curly hair and a smoked-honey voice. Since she is not of noble blood, she doesn't wear a mask.
Background
Melcendre is a bastard daughter of a milkmaid and a soldier on leave. She grew up on a farm, and then fled to find a new life and a new name.
Involvement
Melcendre, whose name was a last-minute addition to the guest list, attends a banquet in the royal palace in Val Royeaux along with Gaspard. She sings a song and Gaspard notes that the melody is similar to 'King Meghren's Mabari,' starting a series of insults aimed at provoking a duel between him and Teagan Guerrin, the Fereldan ambassador. However Empress Celene wittily turns the clash into a feather fight.
Next morning, Melcendre lures Ser Michel to a tavern in the slums with a note, catching his attention by scratching out "de Chevin" on it. She attacks him backed by six armed men and manages to neutralize him with choking dust which was based on deep mushrooms. Then she comes to the warehouse where Michel is kept bound and reveals that she has learned of his past. As his patron, Comte Brevin de Chalons, had past away, his library was donated to the University of Orlais, which contained among it a list of financial transactions, including how much he spent getting Michel into the Academie de Chevaliers. She had found out that Brevin had a forger create documents that claimed Michel was a distant relative of the Chevin family. Only those of noble blood are allowed into the ranks of the chevaliers, and Michel is a commoner and an elf-blooded human, a fact that would disgrace the Empress. Melcendre intends to provide the information to Gaspard, but Michel knocks her down and strangles her before finishing her off with her own dagger.