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| “ | But I remember once when a tinker with a funny accent gave me a draft of some heady brew from a green glass bottle. And I had rare expansive dreams, Nanny, of the Other World—cities of glass and smoke—noise and color. | ” |
| — Melena regarding drinking the Miracle Elixir from a stranger (the Wizard) | ||
Melena Thropp was a Munchkinlander aristocrat and the mother of Elphaba, Nessarose, and Shell.
Story[]
Born into the noble Thropp family of Munchkinland, Melena is the daughter of Lady Partra Thropp and Romen Skarr, as well as the granddaughter of family patriarch, Peerless Thropp - the Eminent Thropp. At birth, Melena is titled the Thropp 2nd Descending, heiress of the Thropp Family.
She elopes with Frexspar the Godly to escape her life at Colwen Grounds, after the two met during a ball her family is hosting. Frex was initially requesting an application for the family estate’s patronage, however, Melena ends up running off with him instead. Although she loves Frex, she unfortunately comes to hate her life as a commoner in the fishing village of Rush Margins. She is a very flirtatious woman and is implied to have had an active sex life before she married Frex.
Frex often would travel for work, being away from home for days on end and Melena would invite travelers into the house for conversation. One such time she invites over Oscar Diggs, the future Wizard of Oz, who drugs and sexually assaults Melena, ultimately conceiving her first child, Elphaba, however, Frex would always believe himself to be the true biological father.
After Elphaba is born, Melena is initially repulsed by her daughter’s green skin and sharp teeth but eventually grows to love her deeply. Melena also develops an affair with the Quadling glassblower, Turtle Heart (her husband, Frex, also starts a relationship with Turtle Heart), and while pregnant with her second child, Nessarose, Melena and her family are forced to flee back to Colwen Grounds, where Turtle Heart is ultimately sacrificed by the Munchkinlander populace, who though his death would end the drought. The guilt of Turtle Heart’s death leads Melena and Frex to become missionaries in Quadling Country, where tragically dies giving birth to her third child and son: Shell.
