Ardrith Redsinger

Ardrith Redsinger is a necromancer who is a known member of The Gilded Fist. The middle child of Raudir Redsinger and Siladria Dreadsong, and the twin brother of Silrah Redsinger, Ardrith is what you would consider a typical Redsinger: murderous, power-hungry and above all dangerous. He currently resides in Redkeep, a property owned by Lothrin Nightbinder, where he conducts most of his work both for the Gilded Fist (along with some personal projects).

History
Ardrith is the second born of three, with barely five minutes separating him and his elder twin sister Silrah, who allegedly practically dragged him out of their mother’s womb with her umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. He was a rather quiet child, barely crying as a baby and preferring to talk less than your average child as he grew up. While he did not particularly get along with his father, he was and still is adoring of his mother, desiring to mimic her as much as he possibly can due to seeing her as practically perfect. From a young age he would insist on dressing up in fancy gowns like she did and would implore her to do his makeup and hair in fancy styles similar to hers.

Due to his sadistic streaks and already developing obsession with death by the age of six, Ardrith never made many friends and consistently scared away other children, often by showing them the corpses of animals he had “found”. The only child nice enough (or more likely stupid enough) to approach him in an attempt to befriend him was Zanarrin Brightmourn, who Ardrith immediately latched onto in the possessive manner he does, claiming him to be his best friend almost instantly, something which persists to this day, despite its consistent ill effects on Zanarrin’s mental stability. With Ardrith’s possessive and controlling nature and Zanarrin’s weak will, it was no surprise that over the years Ardrith essentially manipulated him into being practically the perfect “friend” who would listen to near anything he says, just how Ardrith likes it. With both Ardrith and Zanarrin having significant sadistic streaks, Ardrith found it easy to coerce Zanarrin into joining him on murder sprees, which Zanarrin did with ease throughout their teenage years and beyond.

To the utter horror of his father due to Ardrith’s already developing sadistic streak, at around the age of seven Ardrith developed magical ability, showing a quick aptitude for Arcane magic. He trained as a mage for a good portion of his life, though that obsession with death he always had drew his interest more towards the necromancy end of the spectrum. He dabbled as much as he could in this area at this point, but due mostly to lack of resources available to teach him he never progressed far, though of course that didn’t stop him from attempting to resurrect animals he had killed, using his arcane power to try to bring them back to life. This never worked particularly well, with any successes dying again rather quickly without a constant flow of arcane magic within them.

For most of his life until well into his early 200s the only sibling Ardrith had was Silrah, until their mother fell pregnant again. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen complications during labour, Siladria did not survive though her baby, Halyrian, did. Siladria’s death practically broke Ardrith along with Raudir and Silrah and caused him for a good time to become obsessed with the idea of bringing her back to life, so engulfed by his grief. When he realised he would never be able to resurrect her, he grew despondent enough that he for a good while would barely even speak, and had difficulty sleeping or eating. The only thing that kept him focused during this time was Siladria’s dying wish: for him to protect and look after Halyrian. The role as Halyrian’s primary guardian was one Ardrith had never considered he’d have to do, but it was one he ended up embracing well, which was a very good thing indeed. With Siladria’s death, Silrah turned on Halyrian, accusing him for their mother’s death and making multiple attempts on his life from practically days after he was born. Ardrith devoted himself to protecting and raising Halyrian as his mother had asked and continues to do so to this day. (It’s honestly a surprise Halyrian turned out as nice as he has with Ardrith as a main role model.)

Ardrith’s interest in necromancy never really waned, though he was not presented a real chance to learn about it further than he had already explored until the slow rise of the Lich King and necromancy. This led him to meeting and working with Cordelia Lowe and Valder Sweeney, though later on in their time knowing each other some of Valder’s opinions and methods disgusted Ardrith enough that he completely cut contact with him following the war against the Lich King. After managing to find enough information to teach himself the basics of Necromancy, Ardrith ended up following the call to Northrend, where he joined the ranks of the Scourge as a necromancer, though he made sure that this fact was never truly known publicly. It was during his time in Northrend that his usage of Necromantic power ended up causing him to become a type of undead, although he never formally died. It is unknown even to Ardrith at what point he went from being considered living to being considered undead, though he does not particularly care that much when that point was.

Ardrith was partially involved with the fall of Silvermoon, although he made entirely sure that he was never anywhere near the front lines, preferring to work behind the scenes to ensure that he would never be formally associated with the Scourge by Silvermoon. He feels little remorse for his actions in the destruction of his homeland, only ever interested in the power and knowledge working with the Scourge had given him. However, when word came to Icecrown during the war against the Lich King that there was a chance the Scourge was the losing side, Ardrith near instantly quietly packed up his notes (and the notes of a few other Necromancers that he “borrowed” as he left) and left Icecrown, not once looking back.

After he abandoned the Scourge as it fell, Ardrith returned to Silvermoon where he ended up becoming involved with the Gilded Fist and more secretly, the Veiled Grasp. During his time so far within the Gilded Fist Ardrith has managed to anger Lothrin several dozen times due to his consistent disobedience and inability at times to follow orders if he doesn’t feel like it. This has led to him being punished for his actions and caused him to develop a spiteful streak and a dislike of Lothrin and his methods.

His involvement in the Gilded Fist also caused him to end up on the opposing side to Zanarrin, who at the time was a member of the Nightguard. Despite their technical enemy status, Ardrith still considered Zanarrin his best friend, occasionally informing him of any plots or plans that may affect him in an attempt to ensure Zanarrin stayed alive. Unfortunately, this didn’t work as Ardrith wished, as Zanarrin was murdered by Bluebell. This was also surprisingly the day that Ardrith first encountered Yah’ja, a mummified Sandfury troll he accidentally somehow resurrected when he walked over her grave. He has no idea how to get rid of her but considers her useful enough to keep around despite the fact she is consistently hungry for flesh.

Following Zanarrin’s death (which Ardrith found out about when he walked in late to a Veiled Grasp meeting with Yah’ja in tow) Ardrith consistently pestered Lothrin to allow him to resurrect Zanarrin, giving the reasoning that Zanarrin’s information on the Nightguard would be useful to Lothrin. Lothrin however was more aware that Ardrith’s interests in Zanarrin were definitely not to do with his usefulness to the Gilded Fist and refused to let Ardrith resurrect him. Somehow in the end however Ardrith did manage to convince Lothrin and now Zanarrin is part of Ardrith’s “collection” of undead, and most definitely Ardrith’s favourite of the bunch for several reasons.

Ardrith continues to work with the Gilded Fist currently, although his attention is more divided, much to Lothrin’s chagrin. Ardrith has been recently in secret considering ways to take over the Gilded Fist and depose Lothrin, tired of Lothrin’s consistent mistreatment of him. Ardrith has also very recently adopted a child, a half-troll, half-blood elf daughter named Azali (though more commonly known as Azi) who he removed from the corpse of a cousin of his, Nadori Redsinger, who he had been paid to murder. Ardrith had intended on also resurrecting Nadori but unfortunately Yah’ja got to her corpse first, leaving Ardrith with no corpse to resurrect and a tiny, very premature baby to look after. He has devoted significant time so far to keeping her alive, pouring large amounts of his own arcane power into her to keep her living though that wasn’t enough. He ended up having to go to the “Swamp Witch” Yazali, who cut off and tied one of her braids to Azi’s wrist with the instruction to Ardrith to keep it on until the next full moon to ensure Azi survives.

Ardrith’s main focus now is on ensuring Azi survives and caring for her, along with ensuring Halyrian’s safety. His drive to work with Lothrin wanes every day at this point, and it may not be long until he might be convinced to seek other alliances to ensure his safety and the safety of those he cares about.

Personality
Ardrith has a personality which most people would revile: he is self-obsessed, power-hungry, temperamental, sadistic, possessive, manipulative, and has a distinct lack of empathy for nearly everyone. The only part of his personality which can even slightly be considered good is his care for those people he considers important, with that list being alarmingly small, including only Siladria, Halyrian, Zanarrin, and Azi. Outside of this, he does somewhat in a way care for his other close family members, Silrah and Raudir, but these are more complex situations without the true care that Ardrith harbours for his favourites. He is surprisingly gentle with children especially those he cares for himself, and would do anything to protect Halyrian and Azi, though he does also have a tendency to baby Halyrian due to being overly protective, despite the fact Halyrian is an adult.

Ardrith also is in many ways an antithesis to his twin sister Silrah, though they both have horrendous murderous tendencies and sadistic streaks. Where Silrah is quick to anger visibly, Ardrith is quieter, possessing a cold rage when truly angered. He, unlike Silrah, actually likes children and has always been rather jealous of the fact she has three children, especially since she is considered more successful than him due to her marriage and children. He has consistently attempted to try to one up her in many areas throughout their lives, and still tries to do so today.

Ardrith also uses his good looks and his ability to somewhat charm others with them to seduce powerful individuals at times and try to get them in his favour. He is most definitely not above sleeping with someone out of spite or to gain influence and power and uses these kinds of methods where needed to help his own plans.

Ardrith’s obsession with his appearance is largely caused by self esteem issues surprisingly. Though he is naturally very vain he also has an absolutely terrible relationship with food to the point of disorder. He hates going outside without looking his absolute best and will delay anything to give himself the time to look as perfect as he can, otherwise refusing to go anywhere.

Appearance
Ardrith is tall and rather lithe, with the elven grace that most blood elves have. Standing at 6ft tall (up to 6’7” with his high heeled boots on, which he commonly wears) he’s quite the dominating and androgynous figure in most situations. Generally preferring to be seen with a full face of makeup and dressed perfectly when in public, there’s unfortunately no denying that Ardrith is a very attractive elf, despite his terrible personality. Even with his makeup removed, he still is attractive, though it becomes more apparent that he’s not exactly living. With very pale skin and slightly glowing yellow eyes, Ardrith could be more likened to a very well-preserved death knight than a living being. The fact he doesn’t possess a heartbeat and has colder skin to the touch generally gives the game away on the fact he’s undead, but he’ll never outright tell anyone this fact, much preferring to have people believe he’s still alive.

Abilities
Ardrith's true speciality as a necromancer comes in his ability to raise the dead, which does generally seem rather obvious for a necromancer. However, his main talent is how easily he is able to raise and command the dead, with mass resurrections of corpses on a battlefield taking him practically no time to pull off, causing him to be a rather formidable opponent in these scenarios. These resurrections generally are more focused on providing Ardrith with an army of sorts under his command with no real mental capability, the undead he raises as part of this being no more than mindless zombies.

He is also capable of more involved and complex resurrections, ranging from the act of reviving someone as undead with full mental capability (although with the ability for him to take control at any moment) to being able to reform bodies and resurrect individuals who have been deceased for a long time, though this takes a very large amount of time and is very draining, sapping him of large amounts of power whenever he attempts it to the point that he usually sleeps for days following this kind of spell.

Outside of this, Ardrith's ability with other necromantic areas is average, and his ability in a close combat situation is low, due to his lack of physical strength. He is however rather handy with a knife and generally has at least three on his person at any one time, concealed beneath his outfit. In situations where close combat is needed, he generally goes for surprise attacks, trying to get the upper hand as soon as he can before he is overpowered. He tends to be ruthless in this sense, not stopping until he’s sure his opponent is most definitely dead.

Ardrith was a mage trained in the arcane arts before he took on Necromancy as a discipline and is still capable of many arcane based spells today, though his ability to use them is significantly weaker than it was originally. Using these kinds of spells tends to drain him more than his general necromantic ones and so he tends to only use them sporadically at this point.

Trivia

 * The largest scar on Ardith's body is on his torso which was caused by an attack on him by Silrah when they were 14. This scar stretches both around half his stomach and into his back on one side and if asked, Ardrith claims it was caused by Silrah driving an axe into his side during one of their disputes.
 * Ardrith's middle name is Raudir, though he hates this fact and tries to hide that this is the case, insisting his name is just Ardrith Redsinger.