Malice is a tall, lean Drow woman with dark violet skin, long white hair braided with black silk, and pale lavender eyes that reflect red in torchlight. Her face is elegant but severe, with a narrow jaw and a small scar cutting through her left eyebrow. She wears fitted studded leather beneath layered crimson, violet, and bone-white robes, with one sleeve deliberately removed to expose her left arm. Fine spiderweb tattoos circle her wrist and shoulder. Her curved blade hangs at an unusual reverse angle, ready for a sudden draw, while several narrow throwing knives are concealed in her sash and sleeves.

Malice is disciplined, observant, and unnervingly sincere in her devotion. She speaks of Lolth with the intimate certainty of a daughter speaking about her mother, yet she treats herself as an instrument rather than an individual. She respects competence wherever she finds it, especially in enemies, but admiration only makes her more determined to kill them properly. Beneath her composure lies a constant hunger to receive another sign that Lolth still considers her useful.

Malice was born Aurelia Travra beneath the choking splendor of Menzoberranzan, a daughter of House Travra raised for one purpose, to become a priestess of Lolth. From infancy she was taught that obedience was the purest form of devotion and that personality was merely a weakness waiting to be exploited. She learned sacred rites, the names of favored spiders, and the elegant cruelties expected of a daughter of a noble house. Yet in the practice courts she was drawn less to ritual than to movement, the silent turn of a wrist, the deceptive step, and the instant when an opponent realized too late that the contest had never been fair.