Ardeth Coldblade

Ardeth Coldblade grew up as a member of the Steelbone clan of Dwarves,
which had its home in the Moon hills to the north of Fallcrest.  Her
mother, Igrid was a blacksmith who specialized in weapons dedicated to
the service of Moradin, and her father, Morib, was a scholar and
chronicler of the clan’s history.  Ardeth was a cheerful child who
felt a keen sense of duty to her clan, and who greatly loved her large
and boisterous family.  She had two older brothers, Thrin and Droin,
who were apprenticed to her mother, and a younger sister, Idra.  Her
childhood was by in large a happy one, and she looked forward to life
as a respected craftswoman and servant of Moradin, to whom she was
dedicated at birth.

However, when Ardeth was twelve years old, everything changed.
Attacks on her clan’s stronghold, and the rich mines it protected,
increased in frequency and severity.  At first it seemed random, but
more and more it seemed that a diabolical hand was moving against the
Steelbone.  This was confirmed when, in the wee hours of the morning,
a horde of zombies and skeletons swept through the fortress and, aided
by a powerful warlock, killed most of the clan.  Igrid hid Ardeth and
little Idra, who was only two years old, in a chamber she hid behind
one of her husband’s bookcases.  Through a crack in the wall, Ardeth
watched as much of her clan, including both of her brothers, was slain
outright.  That her mother and father were spared seemed accidental,
an oversight, until the dark caster entered their chambers and laid
down his demands.

The warlock, Verth, was a servant of the lich Zelodin, who needed
minerals and gems native to the region for a powerful ritual he was
preparing.  Verth would spare Igrid and Morib, provided that Igrid
forge weapons for the use of his thralls, and that Morib help
translate the clan’s mystical texts and secret documents.  Each was
threatened with the death of the other as an incentive to behave.
What Verth didn’t know was that their fear for their daughters, hidden
below, provided a much keener whip.
For nearly a year, Igird and Morib slaved for the lich’s servant,
watching helplessly as their kinsmen were transformed into his undead
minions.  Some few others had been spared because Verth valued their
skills, but many, many more were vacant eyed zombies, slaving in the
mines to gather the lich’s materials.  Then a group of heros came to
the fortress, seeking to bring an end to the lich’s evil.  They were
led by Dorin the Grave, a brave Cleric of the Raven Goddess, who
brought swift death to the warlock’s thralls.
Although half of the party was lost in the struggle, they fought their
way through to the warlock’s lair.  There they confronted him, and
attempted to wrest from him knowledge of his master’s whereabouts.  He
grabbed Ingrid and pressed a knife to her throat, threatening to kill
her if they offered him harm.  Igrid, unwilling to even unwittingly
protect the life of so vile a creature, grabbed his wrist and thrust
the knife into her neck, ending her own life to avoid saving his.  The
warlock, in a last gesture of rage, filled the room with dark fire,
killing all of his remaining captives and scarring the adventurers
mightily.  He died without giving up his master’s secrets.
Dorin and the others searched the fortress for survivors and renegade
undead.  Ardeth, hidden in her secret room, made nary a sound, but
Idra, exhausted, terrified, and hungry, soon began to cry.  Dorin and
the others discovered her and, after a struggle in which she,
convinced they were the lich’s servants, tried her best to kill them,
convinced her that the ordeal was over.  However, she also soon
learned what it had cost her.

Distraught at the loss of her family and clan, Ardeth allowed herself
and her sister to be taken to the Raven Goddess’s temple.  Because
they valued her valor in attempting to fight them, and because they
pitied her loss, the adventurers served as an informal family for her,
and for her sister.  The temple became their home, and there Ardeth
grieved and eventually came to terms with her family’s death.  The
clerics taught her to honor her mother’s sacrifice, and no one had to
teach her to loathe the undead.  When she came of age, she vowed her
service to the Goddess, making herself a sword to be wielded against
the unnatural darkness that took her home, a champion of the natural
order.

Ardeth is a rather cold, intense woman with black hair and very dark
blue eyes.
She is passionate in her hatred for all types of undead and in her
desire to avenge her kin by destroying
Zelodin and all of his kind.  She is not made reckless by her anger,
however; it is a cold rage that allows her to respect the value of
planning.  She has developed a great
respect for the natural order of things.  As night follows day and
winter follows summer, so death follows life.  She is not unkind to
the dying or the grieving, but she does see death as life’s last gift,
and serving in the hospices the Raven priests run for the terminally
ill has made her respect its value.

She is protective of Idra, her only kin, and has gone to great lengths
to give her a relatively happy childhood.  Idra does not remember her
home or her first family, and grew up playing with the ravens in the
temple aviary.  She is a happy, pretty dwarven girl with a fondness
for music and carving.  Ardeth intends to find her a craftsman to
apprentice to when she finishes her schooling.  Other than Idra, Dorin
and the adventurers who saved her stand in place of her family and
command a great deal of her loyalty, while the servants of her Goddess
hold the devotion she might otherwise have given to her clan.