Melinna Staunton



Name: Melinna Staunton

Age: 18

Gender: Female

District: 11

Reaped or Volunteered: Volunteered

Inspiration: Margaery Tyrell

Appearance: Light brown hair, blue eyes, light skinned, slender, 5'8", wears elegant dresses.

Personality: Possesses a natural talent in political manipulation. Witty and intelligent. Charismatic and seductive. Knows what she wants and is ambitious, stopping at nothing in an attempt to achieve it.

Weapon(s): Poison, crossbow, intelligence, wits

Strengths: Intelligence/political manipulation, seductiveness, charisma, stealth

Weaknesses: Weaponry (except crossbow/poison), hand to hand combat, physically weak

Family:
 * Margan Staunton (father)
 * Alayna Staunton (nee Highland) (mother)
 * Layn Staunton (brother)
 * Orina Staunton (grandmother/mentor)
 * Lanard Staunton (grandfather, deceased)

Love Interest(s): Rylen Blackwood (betrothed, deceased), Jallen Blackwood (betrothed, deceased), Travan Blackwood (betrothed)

Backstory
Melinna was born into one of the richest families in District 11 and one of the families in charge of District 11. The Stauntons were involved heavily in the agricultural industry and even influenced it.

Her father, Margan Staunton, an eccentric but kind-hearted man, was the head of the Stauntons. He was the son of Lanard Staunton, who died during a Capitol raid, and Orina Staunton, known as the Queen of Thorns because of her secret position and influence as the secret leader of Panem's spy networks.

Melinna's mother, Alayna Staunton, was a woman from a not rich, but hardworking family that was loyal to the Stauntons, the Highlands, who were desperately craving the power that they deserved after being loyal to the Stauntons for so long.

They achieved this with the marriage of Alayna to Margan, who would later have two children, Layn, who was the elder child, and Melinna.

Melinna grew up becoming very charismatic and already a natural at political manipulation. The reason why Melinna's talent for political manipulation grew stronger was because of Orina mentoring her.

With Orina as a mentor, Melinna was able to develop her talent into her personal weapon against others.

By the time she reached 14, Melinna was set to The Capitol to learn the intrigues and secrets of the Capitol people. She was to attend parties in order to do this.

Two years had passed and Melinna had already reported several secrets back to her grandmother. But 16 would prove a tough age for her.

Melinna had managed to catch the attention of Rylen Blackwood, who was 17 and the youngest brother of President Blackwood, a ruthless President interested in squandering a lot of Panem's money on lavish parties for the elite, time with women and food and alcohol. Rylen was good looking, charismatic and kind. He knew that his elder brother was a terrible President and that his reign as President must be stopped, by being overthrown.

But he wasn't interested in females, despite how many of them wanted him. He was interested in males. In an attempt to hide his sexual orientation, Rylen decided to look for someone to marry. Someone that was close to his age.

Melinna reported this to Orina. What did Orina do?

Arrange a marriage between Rylen and Melinna.

During the visit between the Blackwoods and the Stauntons to discuss the betrothal, Rylen fell in love with Melinna's brother, Layn, and the two became secret lovers. Melinna quickly discovered this, but it didn't faze her.

With encouragement from both Melinna and Layn, Rylen became enthusiastic about running for President once the President was dead. But his other brother, the middle Blackwood brother, Nayron, also wanted to be President and believed that Rylen was too young and inexperienced.

Rylen would later die from a successful assassination plot, caused by, unsurprisingly, Nayron. He died before the marriage could go ahead.

But that didn't stop Orina from ensuring that Melinna remained betrothed to a Blackwood. She then arranged a betrothal between Melinna and the eventual successor for the Presidency, Jallen.

Jallen was a spoiled brat who nobody liked. Melinna, now 17, managed to use her manipulation skills to at least put Jallen's mind at ease regularly.

Jallen's mother, Cerysa, disliked Melinna and began to plot her downfall. Orina, on the other hand, successfully arranged the assassination of Jallen through poison.

Melinna's final betrothal was to Travan, who then succeeded his brother for the Presidency. However, Cerysa ordered Peacekeepers to kidnap Melinna, angering Travan.

In the custody of the Peacekeepers, she was forced to volunteer for the Games.

Trivia

 * District 11 is Melinna's district because it's the Panem equivalent to The Reach, Margaery's home region and the most fertile region in Westeros.
 * The reason why the crossbow is one of Melinna's weapons is because Margaery was seen handling a crossbow in GoT, with help from Joffrey.
 * Poison as one of Melinna's weapons is a reference to the events of the Purple Wedding and Olenna Tyrell's involvement in the aforementioned event.
 * Melinna is a gift from TTOD4 to Despondence, as part of Secret Santa 2015 on the HGRP Wiki.
 * Melinna's quote is a reference to the nickname Henry VIII gave to Katherine Howard, his fifth wife, and to Olenna, who is Margaery's grandmother and is known by her nickname "Queen of Thorns", due to her personality.