Malice is a tall, lean drow woman with obsidian skin, silver-white hair cut to the jaw, and four small spider tattoos arranged beneath her left eye. Her red eyes are steady and unreadable, except when she speaks of Lolth, when a feverish devotion brightens them. She wears fitted chain mail beneath layered crimson, violet, and black robes, with silk cords binding her sleeves away from her hands. Two slightly curved blades hang at her hips, each treated with a different poison. Her posture is unnervingly formal, but her movements are quick, low, and predatory.

Malice is controlled, observant, and intensely devout. She speaks with the measured precision of a priestess delivering a verdict, yet she has a dry fascination with surface customs and collects small examples of what she considers elegant dishonesty. She respects competence more than rank and is most comfortable when surrounded by people who fear her enough to be honest.

Malice was born Aurelia Travra, the second daughter of House Travra in Menzoberranzan. From infancy, every breath she drew was measured against the expectations of Lolth's priesthood. She learned sacred invocations before she learned tenderness, memorized the genealogies of rival houses, and was trained to smile while receiving an order that would eventually kill her. Her teachers praised her discipline but criticized her lack of theatrical cruelty. Aurelia did not hunger for power in the way her sisters did. She hungered for usefulness. During a trial beneath the city, a living web descended over the altar and wrapped itself around her wrists. The spiders did not bite. They marked her. In the silence that followed, Aurelia understood the command as clearly as spoken words. She cut away her house insignia, abandoned her birth name, and became Malice, the blade that walks where the Spider Queen's gaze falls. She developed the Way of the Black Widow, a corrupted imitation of surface samurai discipline built around concealed weapons, poisoned steel, sudden violence, and victory without fairness. At present she serves as a wandering agent of Lolth, seeking enemies to destroy and weaknesses to exploit, while secretly wondering whether being a perfect instrument is another form of freedom.