[b][i][u][h1]King Ardias de Rochefort the Kind[/h1][/u][/i][/b]
[b][i][h3]"You know what would be best for our people? A whole lot of new bridges. Yeah. And how about some walls? Let's build them around five layers thick and hundreds of feet heigh. And while we're at it, how about a swimming pool for the slums?"[/h3][/i][/b] -- A quote commonly attributed to King Ardias de Rochefort when discussing new public works projects in the capital, usually parroted by his detractors verbatim.
[b][i][h3]"What? I didn't say that so flippantly. I was simply making a series of line items to my Master of Coin about what we needed to shore up our defenses in the future. Here it is in writing from his hand. Besides, what do you have against poor people being able to swim?"[/h3][/i][/b] -- King Ardias the Kind, when questioned during petitioning hours with the above quote.
[hider=Appearance]...given my description below, I am [i]not[/i] gonna go grab an image of Santa Claus[/hider]
	Ardias has aged just as one can expect from a king who is almost jolly to a fault. Though lines have begun to show up on his face from time to time, he maintains a well-groomed, fluffy beard that he rarely shaves; said beard is larger than most of his face when he shaves it. Reportedly, he used to be a gangly figure when he was a prince, but he has since ballooned for the twenty three years he has assumed the throne. He is covered head to toe in finery of some sort routinely. His crown used to be too small for his head, but with the extra hair grown with his beard it now fits him -- and boy is it a magnificent crown; as one of the last kingdoms in the land, Ashkandi's crown is jeweled with one type of precious stone for each of its vassals -- a ruby, a sapphire, a topaz, a garnet, and an amethyst, so the stories go. Ardias' eyes are heavyset with rather large bags as of late, but he counters such obvious stress and age with a big, goofy smile when even the subjects he's most annoyed with show up to court.

[b][u]Class[/u][/b]
	King

[b][u]Reclass Options[/u][/b]
	One does not reclass a King. That's regicide, practically. Maybe. Okay, not really, but the guy's gotta keep his title for life.

[b][u]Age[/u][/b]
	49

[b][u]Sex[/u][/b]
	Male

[b][u]Personality[/u][/b]
	[i]Alignment[/i]
		Lawful Good
"Goofy" is a word that comes up a [i]lot[/i] when it comes to the King's personal life. He's always one to crack a joke with his vassals to lighten the mood, and he more often than not tries to maintain an air of levity among his subjects. His every statement to the public is pockmarked with the kind of japes that make a significant amount of the kingdom take him for a fool. Yet, it is undeniable that he thinks of his subjects first and foremost -- that he doesn't even think for himself, a rarity for a monarch even in Ashkandi. Thus is his nickname "The Kind," because no matter who petitions him he has a kind ear open for them. Towards his children he's a somewhat stern father, but one who always emphasizes that dignity is not just the front one puts up (a lesson that fell on Martin's ears the wrong way, and still hasn't sunk in with Elin), but almost never raises his voice to them.

His relationship with Queen Ylonda was a rocky one at first (see bio), but is nothing short of loving, a relationship that reflects in how he treats the children. His frustrations with Catherin, for example, never manifested in a violent reaction, but he never knew how to draw a bead on what was best for her (see bio; he had nothing but brothers for siblings). He is the only sparring partner of Elin's who does not check his blows, surprisingly.

He does have a habit of making rather baffling political gaffes at court; the example above is not the best of them, but there are times when, especially when finding a proper suitor for Catherin, he would insist that "look, my daughter just likes big brains," or words to that effect.

[b][u]Biography[/u][/b]
	Ardias de Rochefort was the eldest of seven children born to the previous king of Ashkandi, Linus de Rochefort the Protector. All of his siblings were brothers -- and most of them had succumbed either to early sicknesses in childhood, or in battle against the Darkness after he became king. Nevertheless, Ardias grew up as a passive child for the most part, one who the significantly more brutal King Linus believed would be a weaker ruler, hated by his people for not being able to protect them from the encroaching darkness sweeping across the world, or even against other human foes. And so, the majority of Ardias' education from his father was spent trying to get him to be able to make the harder choices of rulership. His friendship with Ser Nikalos would prove to be a counterweight to King Linus's insistence that a more kind rulership would end in disaster, proving that his subjects didn't always need to be coerced in order to protect them. In the time that it took Linus to attempt to teach Ardias what it took to be king, three of his younger brothers succumb to sickness at a young age.

	When he came of age, his marriage to Lady Ylonda of Londium was arranged for him by his own parents, against both of their wishes. The marriage to the public went without incident, but once the doors were closed they were a cold couple. All the public knew was that it took several years time for Ylonda to be pregnant with their first son; by that time, Linus de Rochefort was aging to his last breath and anticipating that Ardias would be a far weaker ruler. On his death bed, he had no faith in his son, a fear that would haunt Ardias' rule forever. The crown didn't even fit Ardias at first, and he didn't even look half as fierce or strong as his father when he was crowned. The first bright star of good news came with a turn in his relationship with Ylonda, which had been significantly less sour with the birth of Prince Martin. In fact, even as the Darkness approached Ashkandi's borders once again, the two of them got over their differences in surprisingly quick time. Rumors spread that it was Ardias that spent an entire night with her trying to figure out how to run the state that King Linus had left behind -- indebted from the most furious, costly attempts to end the threat outside Ashkandi's borders and even more costly attempts to rush construction of defenses on Ashkandi's borders -- as well as raise a family. It would have seemed that the two of them agreed that the best way to do so was to not make Linus's mistake of assuming manpower and coercion alone would slay the Darkness, and, judging by Ardias's later policies, to concentrate on defending from the Darkness.

	Such policies have worked ... thus far. He spent his first years of rulership maintaining the kingdom's wellbeing, and has succeeded at stemming the advancement of the darkness to this day, even if the first years were costly. See, the first years of his rulership were spent securing a border -- he drew a line in the map of Ashkandi and said "The Darkness will not cross this line." Securing that line for the sake of building a wall that would last against The Darkness ended up costing the lives of two more of his brothers, of the three who volunteered (though, rumors exist that one of the two slain was captured instead, his fate unknown). They are deaths that weigh heavily upon him, enough so that he looks upon Martin's posturing with fear, and fears for Catherin's learning of magic -- enough so that he assigned his best knights (sans Ser Nikalos) to be in Martin's retinue, and ... the best of the knight's recruits plus Ser Nikalos to look after Catherin (the princess did not take kindly to as large an escort as her brother's).