Aderic and
Ademar Androllius... or "
Ansellidus"
Age (bracket): mid 20s
Physical appearance:
They are identical twin brothers, with wavy, medium brown hair usually kept short and neat. They both have sea-green eyes, only the slightest difference being that Ademar's eyes are about half a shade darker than Aderic's. Barely even noticeable to any but the most intently observant viewer... but even then it could be passed off as appearing different in the current lighting. They are usually clean-shaven, with some light facial hair left to grow on the upper lip. They both have an average, lean build and stand the exact same height; 6'1" tall.
It can be nearly impossible to tell them apart, because Mar is extremely good at impersonating his brother. Very, very few people are even aware that they are twins, rather than one single person, as they are rarely seen in the same place together, and Mar has gone to great lengths to ensure that no one in the area of Minas Tirith would realize this fact, and has gone as far as to discredit the very idea of them being twins, so that most people simply scoff at 'that old made-up tale' if Ric ever tries to tell anyone he has a twin brother.
Personality:
Ademar is cunning, manipulative and arrogant. He tends to think of himself and his wants as being far more important than anyone else's, and he takes what he wants, when he wants it, if he can. He doesn't like for anything to stand in his way, and he is also extremely vindictive and will hold a grudge for the most ridiculous thing that anyone else wouldn't even remember, yet he WILL have his vengeance.
Furthermore, he takes pleasure in watching others suffer, especially if it's someone he has some grudge against. He's extremely possessive and does not like to share anything with anyone; most of all his brother, or his wife. He has a tenacious way of pursuing and getting whatever he wants, using whatever means he must in order to achieve his goal, and it can be very dangerous to cross him, as he can be quite violent when angered.
Despite all this, on the surface, he keeps up a front when dealing with people he wants to impress, acting like a charming and well-mannered gentleman. He takes pride in his good looks and spends a little too much time in front of the mirror, and enjoys gaining the attention of various women, despite the fact he is married.
Aderic is, in a nutshell, lonely. He has always wished for friends, and all through his life, he has tried to be friendly to others, but this seemed to always be thrown back in his face. Growing up, he learned to simply accept that no one liked him, though he couldn't understand why, and accepting it didn't make him any happier. He tries to always be the most polite and respectful that he can be, whether it makes a difference or not. Though he sometimes feels stressed, or rejected, he still struggles to keep his feelings hidden and remain polite, friendly, and appear calm even when he isn't. He also carries feelings of guilt deep inside, which he can't speak about to anyone, for fear they will learn that he is secretly in love with his brother's wife, feelings that he could never act upon because it would be highly inappropriate, and he would never have an affair with a married woman, much less the wife of his own brother.
Ric is definitely not a violent person, and in fact tries his best to avoid violence, but at the same time, he is very loyal to his country and king, and his greatest desire since a young age was to serve his country in some way, which led to him becoming member of the Tower Watch. Aderic frequently doubts himself, and questions his own memory and knowledge quite a bit. He often feels inadequate, yet is proud to have been promoted to Lieutenant very quickly. Due to his lack of self-confidence, he tends to fuss a little longer than most over his looks and ensuring his uniform is perfect, his armor polished, etc. Which can make it appear that he's somewhat vain, but in reality, he has a poor self-image and worries about how he will appear while on duty.
Biography:
Born to a retired army sergeant, Ademar was born a few hours before Aderic. Neither their father nor their mother had much desire for children. After sustaining an injury that left him unable to continue with the Gondorian Army, Adonerius Androllius had decided he wanted to try his hand at farming; his wife, Vialitta, was not terribly supportive, as she would have preferred her husband took up a more profitable career post-retirement. The couple struggled to scrape by with the little they made with their farm, so the arrival of not one baby, but two at once, was quite unwelcome. Vialitta was not a very warm or loving mother, and hardly cared what the boys got up to. She usually couldn't be bothered to actually notice which of her sons she was speaking to, so in all honesty, they could easily have gotten mixed up as infants and neither parent would know the difference, for Adonerius spent more time out in the fields than at home helping care for the babies.. which he considered 'woman's work'.
The boys often heard their parents fighting and arguing, mostly over the farm and the fact that she wanted him to choose another career. When they finally got old enough for schooling, Vialitta wasn't about to try teaching them at home, but yet the couple couldn't afford the tuition to send both of them to school, nor could they afford to hire anyone to help with the farm. Yet, they were both agreed on the fact they wanted their sons to have proper education so that they would grow up and, perhaps someday, make a lot of money. (In the hope that their sons would then use that money on them, of course) So the couple reached a decision; they would send one of their sons to school for a week, and the following week, the other would go. Meanwhile, whichever remained home, would take on all the chores and help around the farm as needed. They flipped a coin to decide which of the boys would go to school first, and it fell upon Ric. Therefore, they enrolled Ric in school and told Mar that he would have to use his brother's name while he was in school. The parents weren't really sure how long this would last, but they figured it might work for a little while at least, and maybe they would have a more successful crop next year and could afford to send both the boys at the same time, then.
When Ric finally came home from his first day at school, he was very excited, telling about the other kids he’d met, and how he had made friends with them and how he couldn’t wait to go back to school and play with them during recess.
Jealousy burned in Mar like red-hot coals. He didn’t want Ric to have friends without him. He didn’t want to have to share his brother with anyone else, it wasn’t fair! The week went on, every day worse than the last. Ric told of all the exciting things he’d done, and told Mar all the things he had learned in school. Things which Mar was left out of. He hated it, and couldn’t wait to have his own turn at going to school. Just wait til he met those other kids, the ones who had tried to steal his brother away from him. He lay awake each night, thinking about various things he might do to put a stop to this, plotting out how he might prevent this from happening. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone stealing his brother away. Ric was HIS brother, no one else’s! They needed each other, they were twins, and they couldn’t take that away.
At last, the day came when it was his turn to go. He set out that morning, still thinking about what he ought to do. When he arrived at the schoolhouse, though, an entirely different idea began to form the moment one of the boys ran up to him, happily greeting ‘Ric’. He realized that he could use their looking identical to his advantage, and went along. Hearing the boy ask about his brother, Mar realized that Ric had apparently told them that his twin brother would be coming to school soon, Mar thought quickly and “admitted” that he had made up that about having a twin, that he really was just an only child and that he’d become so bored that he made up having a twin, but now he had other kids to talk to so he didn’t need to keep up that charade. Having thus removed himself from the picture, Mar proceeded to impersonate Ric for the entire week.
He learned that this friendly, cheerful boy was named Ryn, and another named Nal. With them was a quiet, pale girl named Iole, and Ryn’s twin sister Cali. Mar was a bit intrigued to learn that there was another set of twins, but he had no desire to be friends with them. He only wanted to make them stop being friends with Ric, so he could have his own twin all to himself. No one else had better try and get between them, either! he raged inwardly. Mar very quickly made all the other children despise 'Ric' as he set about purposely doing and saying mean things, picking on everyone he could, and did everything possible to ensure that no one would still want to be friends with Ric. At home, he told Ric a twisted version of these happenings, making it out to be the other children who had been picking on him.
The following week, Ric returned, somewhat confused, then hurt and sad when none of the other children liked him, and seemed to prove Mar's words to be true. The boy tried very hard to be nice to the others, but they accused him of being mean to them and wouldn't hear anything he had to say. When he reported this to his brother each evening, Mar merely reminded him that it had been the same for him the prior week, and that clearly, these other children are not friendly... they're bullies, enemies, and that the two brothers needed to stick together, and not trust any outsiders. And so, it continued, week after week, Mar found ways to taunt, bully, and torment the other children, using Ric’s name.
This continued all through their childhood, and Mar always managed to convince Ric to believe him, and told him all sorts of terrible things about their classmates bullying him, and treating him badly, when in truth, Mar was the one to do the bullying, and the other children only retaliated back at him. Sadly, Ric was on the receiving end of their retaliation far more often than Mar was, because Mar quickly learned to manipulate things so that he would not be caught in their traps, so to speak. Ric, on the other hand, was oblivious to the need to be wary, other than merely watching out for angry mobs coming to yell at him for things he didn't do.
One day, Mar’s plan backfired on him. He should have expected it. He found himself surrounded by several kids who were very, very unhappy with “Ric” and pulled a humiliating prank on him, in order to prove to the unbelieving teacher that he really was bullying them. As he had a habit of forcibly taking other kid's lunch pails, they set him up... putting a 'spilled' ink well in one of the pails, and then let him take it. After he got in trouble for taking their lunch pails, unable to deny his crime due to the ink all over his hands... he found the seat of his pants had become stuck in glue, and he couldn’t even go to the front as the teacher had ordered, until the teacher became very upset with him for ‘disobeying’ and yanked him up… but the seat of his trousers ripped and showed everyone his underpants.
The whole ordeal was beyond humiliating... not only was he furious about having been caught and punished, but for them to do that to him was too much. He vowed in his mind that he would make those pranksters pay for this, and that one day he would get back at them in full. Before, his purpose in bullying them was merely to antagonize them into disliking Ric, so that he wouldn’t make friends without Mar… but now, he had a score to settle and he was determined that he would hate that group of kids for the rest of his life.
At home, the brothers were not very happy. Their father yelled at them often, belittling them for the least little mistake, and as the brothers got a little older, Mar began to work things to his favor in whatever way he could. If it was Ric's turn to go to school, but Mar wanted to go, he would remind his brother of how miserable it was, and bring up how the other kids were probably waiting to beat him up or something, and then offer to go in his stead. Ric, then, would usually agree and then be stuck having to do all the farm work in Mar's stead, and be yelled at by his father if he messed up.
Since even their parents could hardly tell them apart, Mar used that to his advantage more times than he could count. If Mar was supposed to do a chore, he would pretend that he was actually Ric, and then sit back and watch as they griped at Ric for not doing what Mar was supposed to do. Ric, meanwhile, was nearly desperate to earn his parent's approval, if not their love, so he would simply do as they asked without much complaint.
As the brothers grew older, their father became increasingly more frustrated by the fact that they so often whined about getting picked on at school, and so he decided that they were going to start learning to use swords. He set aside a bit of time every day and made them practice against each other. Mar took to it far more readily than Ric, and therefore he learned more swiftly. Ric found it frustrating that he was never quite as good as Mar, but still tried. This training continued as they moved into their teen years.
Ric began to feel a desire to serve his country in some way, though he wasn't sure exactly what he'd like to do. He spoke of it to Mar, and the brothers discussed it, and ultimately agreed that they ought to join the guards. Though, Mar pointed out the way all of their fellow classmates bullied them mercilessly, and suggested they ought to venture to another area to enlist, and so, together the brothers went to enlist as city guards in one of the cities further from Minas Tirith.
Their first day in training, they met a young man about their age, and kept talking to them and being friendly. Mar was quite caught off guard by Reilly, and before he quite knew what was happening, Ric had eagerly taken up with him and the two struck up a friendship. Ric was overjoyed to finally have made a friend, and he invited Reilly to join them at their meals and to go swimming during their free time. Mar was not happy, but he knew his brother, and knew that if he openly showed hostility toward this intruder(as he saw him) Ric would be upset with Mar, and he didn't want to turn him against himself. He therefore endured Reilly's seeming never-ending cheerfulness and optimism, and pretended to like him as well. Realistically, he was angry, feeling as if this outsider was trying to drive a wedge between himself and Ric.
Ric, meanwhile, was delighted. He'd always watched from afar as the kids who seemed to hate him and Mar would hang out together and have fun, and he was never welcome to join them. He and Reilly got along very well, and since Reilly wasn't familiar with using a longsword, Ric offered to teach him. Reilly, in exchange, offered to teach both brothers some fighting techniques he had learned from his father, who once traveled in far-off lands. Mar was at first skeptical about what this guy could possibly know that would be useful to him, but soon changed his mind when Reilly demonstrated how easily he could disarm an opponent through use of a simple motion.
Upon learning that Reilly came from a family of Nobility, Mar became intensely more intrigued. He had, of late, begun to think how much better life would be if he possessed great riches, or became Lord of an estate, or hold some title of Nobility. Trying to contrive some sort of a plan in which he might manage this, Mar began to ask Reilly many questions, and asked him to teach him some of the things a nobleman should know. Ric was a little baffled by Mar's sudden interest in nobility. Reilly seemed a little puzzled as well, but being willing to help a friend, he taught Mar as much as he could about how to act as a nobleman, and various other things that someone of status would learn from an early age.
At some point after completing training, Mar began speaking with various shady type people, trying to find out ways he might be able achieve his desires of being rich and powerful. He kept his brother from learning of this, and to all appearances, continued to do his duty and serve as a guard, but he made quite a few contacts with criminal types, bandits and pirates and the like. Soon after this, the three young men were relocated to serve in Minas Tirith. Ric had a bit of trepidation about returning there, but he felt sure that it would be alright now. They were grown now, and he and Mar would be there together, along with Reilly. But Mar, upon learning they would be serving together in
that city, refused. He felt somehow inside that he still did not want anyone there to discover that he and Ric really were twins, and he knew there would be no keeping such a secret if they were serving together in the same city. He resigned from the guards, stating he no longer wanted that life, and refused to go to that city. He let Ric believe it was because he didn't want to encounter the 'bullies' from their childhood.
Ric and Reilly both tried to talk Mar out of his decision to quit, but he was determined, and the friends were disappointed that Mar would not be serving alongside them anymore. They went together to their new post, both wishing Mar had come along so that the trio would not be broken up, but they also didn't want him to be unhappy if he didn't want to be a city guard anymore.
Having already been feeling dissatisfied with the idea of being a guard, Mar didn't need much of a reason to quit anyway. Soon after this, he encountered a man covered in burns, who was asking around for the house of Raxelilta. Mar recognized the family name of his childhood nemesis, Unalmis, and sensed somehow that this man had a very different intention than that which he claimed. Therefore, he was all too happy to point the man in the right direction, and further got caught up in the matter by helping the man abduct Nal. Not knowing exactly what he was getting involved with, Mar still went along with the stranger to Umbar, where he watched an entire shipload of sailors being brutally murdered, sacrificed to Sauron. Mar was fascinated, rather than horrified, and wanted to learn more about this sort of thing.
Upon his return to Gondor, Mar had pledged his service to the Dark Lord, and was delighted to know that Nal was meant to become a sacrifice as well, once he was no longer useful to Pharak. On his way back onto Gondorian soil, in the Ithilien forest, Mar encountered another of his enemies, Ryn, one of Nal's best friends. Alone. Mar still hadn't forgotten his vow of vengeance against them, and when Ryn figured out that he and Ric were actually twins after all, Mar could not let him return to tell anyone of his secret, especially now that he had a new purpose in mind for this deception. He slew Ryn there, and fled before any other rangers discovered him. (Click
here to read more)
Shortly after the war had concluded, Mar continued doing Pharak's bidding and got involved in a rather risky undertaking involving a crystal which is rumored to hold great power of darkness, supposedly crafted by Lord Sauron as a sort of 'copycat' of the silmarils. His job was to acquire this crystal and bring it to Pharak, so that the Sauronic worshippers might use it in a very important ritual, in the hope of possibly restoring their fallen diety to power. Mar spent quite a while searching for this important relic and found it at last, only to have it stolen out from under him moments later. He was furious, and caught a glimpse of the thief as she fled, but he was unable to capture her at that time.
Meanwhile, having acquired great wealth through service to his new deity, Mar continued working to achieve his previous goals of entering into the Nobility, and it seemed his best chances of this was to marry into it, so he began trying to arrange a marriage between himself and some young lady that would give him the desired status, but it proved more difficult than he hoped, until at last he had a bit of success; remembering that Reilly had a couple of sisters, and that his family was bordering on 'poor' he was able to strike up an arrangement with Reilly's father for his eldest daughter. The same day that he found and lost the crystal, he went to meet his future bride and her family, still frustrated by the recent theft.
As it turned out, the thief was the younger of the two sisters, who returned just after he arrived, all flustered as she prepared to tell her family what had happened. But Mar was too quick, and captured her and her entire family, but she no longer had the crystal on her, and no amount of torture to her or her family members would make her talk. Mar took great delight in torturing him, in an attempt to make his little sister talk. But even that didn't work. But despite killing Reilly and the parents in front of the girl, she still refused to say where she had hidden it. To make matters worse, she then escaped from him and he has been unable to find her since, which has been a major frustration for him. Considering how important this crystal was to him and his associates, Mar is desperate to get it back before Pharak finds out that he had it and then
lost it so easily. He even sent carefully forged papers with orders for Reilly to tell him he had been reassigned elsewhere, so that he might capture him as well. He forced the older sister to marry him, in part so that he could keep her near, and try to use her to draw her sister out, hoping to recapture the girl.
Meanwhile, Ric missed having his brother around, but adapted fairly well. Aside from having to occasionally see the people who used to bully him growing up, Ric enjoyed having his friend around, and they got a place together so that they could share the rent. The two had plenty of good times together. He watched as his friend met a girl and fell in love, and was happy for them. The friends survived the war together, manning the walls and defending the city, clearing away rubble as the enemy began to wreak destruction, until it was all over. Then, they helped with the aftermath of the war, and gradually things returned to some state of normal. And then, one day, Reilly was packing his things quickly and said he'd received orders to go somewhere else. Ric was sad to see his friend go, and disappointed that he would be alone there in the city without any friends, again. But orders are orders, and he said a reluctant farewell to his friend and watched him leave.
Several weeks later, he got a visit from Reilly's fiance asking if he had heard from him. Ric regretfully told her he had not, and then became slightly worried to hear that she hadn't, either. She asked him to look into it, and he promised that he would the first chance he got. He kept his word, and on his next off-day, he went to try and find Reilly, and discovered that he never arrived at his destination. Ric made several attempts over the next few weeks, but could find nothing, and eventually, their superiors declared Reilly to be MIA, and the case was put on a back burner. There was nothing more Ric could do, and although he hated to do it, he had to drop the matter for the time being. Ric later received a letter from a jeweler in town, and learned that his friend and roommate had an unpaid bill, having commissioned a ring to be made for his beloved. Feeling sorrowful for his missing friend, as well for as the fiance that had gone in search for him, Ric ended up paying for the rest of the ring and put it on the nightstand in Reilly's room, in the hope that he might someday return, and give it to her.
Meanwhile, he was surprised to learn that Mar had gotten married, and now resided in a castle estate in the area of Dol Amroth, using the name "Ansellidus" instead of his own. When he inquired to the reason for this, Mar would only say that it had something to do with being called after the name of the estate on which he now lived, or some such thing. Though somewhat puzzled by this explanation, Ric let it go, and came to visit his brother and meet his new sister-in-law. He liked her immediately, though perhaps because he sensed a sort of sadness in her that he understood all too well. Missing both his brother and his friend, Ric began to visit Mar's estate occasionally, but more and more often, Mar was not home when he came. Alyssa acted as a gracious host, however, in his stead, and would invite him to walk with her in the garden or just sit and talk, always in open view of others. Ric came to like her better the more he got to know her, until one day a harsh realization struck him; he was in love with her.
Furthermore, he was beginning to learn things about his brother that he didn't want to believe. Yet, he felt sure that Alyssa would not lie about Mar hitting her. She told him of other crimes Mar committed, too, though Ric didn't want to believe that either. He has since then begun to question a great many things about his brother, and isn't quite sure how to handle the matter. Though he feels very reluctant, he's started to dig into some different matters, acting upon Alyssa's suggestions, and trying to find some sort of evidence to prove the truth of these claims, all the while feeling like he has somehow betrayed his brother. Though he initially felt that it would be best to simply stop coming to visit, he also couldn't simply abandon her. Aside from wanting to see her and talk with her, he also worried about her, fearing that his brother might be much more dangerous than he ever realized.
At some point Mar decided that he didn't like for his parents to live so near to Minas Tirith, for fear they might spill his secret, so he bought them a much better, bigger plot of land on the other side of the country, and helped them move to their new farm; thus fulfilling their dreams. This was a win-win for him, as it further cemented in their minds that Mar was their favorite between the two sons, though by this point, he didn't even really care what his parents thought of him. It did give him a bit of satisfaction though, knowing that he's their favorite. It also put them further away, so they were less likely to spill the beans to anyone about him and Ric being twins.
Currently, he is simultaneously obsessed with finding the thief who stole the crystal from him, and gaining status in the world of nobility, and using whatever means he can to climb the ladder of 'success'. He impersonates Ric frequently after realizing he can use Ric's position on the Tower Watch to his own advantage in some ways. To further utilize his brother's position, Mar decided he would rather have a higher rank which ought to allow him better access, etc. So, while pretending to be Ric one time, he paid someone off to give 'himself' a promotion to Lieutenant, so when Ric received the promotion he was quite stunned and felt very honored, yet wasn't sure he deserved the rank. But, as he knew nothing about his brother's involvement, he accepted that it must have been duly earned somehow, and took great pride in his new rank. Despite this, he still feels it his duty to try and find proof of his brother's crimes, and began keeping a journal in which he writes down any clues and circumstantial evidence he comes across, yet none of it has so far added up to anything solid that wouldn't be tossed out of court, should he try and bring the matter before a judge. So he keeps trying, feeling as if his efforts are in vain.