Meilge

King Meilge ap Eiluned is the Unseelie king of the Kingdom of Willows and a member of the Shadow Court. He serves as one of the main antagonists in Changeling: The Dreaming.

Meilge served as a captain in the Accordance War, during which time he was captured by commoner forces and tortured. The experience left him with terrible facial scars and blind in one eye, and with a burning grudge against High King David for not ransoming him. Instead of staying on near David's court, Meilge returned to the Kingdom of Willows, where he had once claimed lands. His cousin, King Barabas ap Eiluned, granted Meilge lands in the heart of Atlanta, but the traditional aristocracy of Willows viewed Meilge as a carpet-bagger and kept him a social outcast.

Meilge instead spent several years building a criminal empire, hoping to buy the respect of his peers. During this time, he began habitually wearing a white-and-gold mask to conceal his facial scars. This Alabaster Mask is not merely cosmetic: it prevents others from guessing Meilge's true intentions and forces them to see everything he does in the best possible light. Even his words are warped into something his listener wants to hear, and which makes Meilge look honest, sympathetic and friendly. With the aid of the mask, he achieve a high position in Barabas' court, and when Barabas "accidently" died during a commoner revolt in 1990, Meilge was easily chosen as his successor.

Meilge is both a political Modernist and a champion of social modernity; he rules from a high rise in Atlanta's central business district and has publically cultivated the loyalties of the commoners. He also continues to run organized crime in Atlanta and has joined the Shadow Court, with the goal of seizing the High Kingship from David.

David's whirlwind romance with Meilge's ward Faerilyth ni Eiluned seemed to play right into these plans, and when David visited the Kingdom of Willows in 1998, Meilge had him drugged and bound with cold iron. With David missing, Meilge supported Faerilyth as the new High Queen, hoping to swiftly replace her once all potential challengers had been dealt with.