Father Ariandel

"When the Ashes are two, a flame alighteth. Thou'rt Ash, and fire befits thee, of course..."

- Father Ariandel

Father Ariandel is the titular secondary antagonist in Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel. He is a religious leader who seeks to destroy the Painted World for a new one to be created.

He was voiced by William Gaminara.

Biography
Father Ariandel was the keeper of the Painted World of Ariandel, presumably the last one who restored it. As the pigment of the painting started to rot from the flame that kept his world alive, he was met by Sister Friede, who manipulated him into stifling out the flame, letting his world die out for a new world to be created by the next restorer.

From there, Ariandel locked himself within the bottom of the Ariandel Chamber, tying himself to a chair in front of the cauldron holding the flame supporting the painting, flailing himself to bleed onto the fire and prevent it from spreading. By the time the Ashen One encounters Ariandel, he has become corpse-like from being anemic, although beckoning Friede to give him back his flail. Then Friede arrives and convinces Ariandel that she will instead kill the player and use their blood to stuff out the flame, advising Ariandel to look away.

But when the player instead kills Friede, Ariandel goes on a panicked frenzy, freeing himself from his restraints to smash the cauldron against Friede's unkindled blood to revive her, causing the flame to go massive and engulf the entire room with fire. Once Friede has her unkindled ash relight and is brought back to life, Ariandel targets his rage at the player.

While slower than Sister Friede, Ariandel is still a powerful foe, able to cause massive damage to the player by smashing the cauldron onto them. He can even use the flame itself as a weapon, such as blowing into it to create a wall of fire or by creating a large fiery explosion. Once Ariandel goes down, he drops a Titanite Slab. But as he dies, he declares that the ash of Friede and the player will remain fulfilled even after they die, and revives Friede again, this time with the dark to turn her into Blackflame Friede.

Trivia

 * Ariandel resembles the Corvian enemies.
 * Ariandel has a Scottish accent.
 * Despite using fire as his primary weapon, Ariandel is weak to fire.
 * If there are summoned players/NPCs in the battle, Ariandel targets the player who attacked Friede last.