Adrian Ivashkov

> **Adrian Ivashkov is a** royal Moroi and the son of Nathan and Daniella Ivashkov. He specializes in spirit and self medicates with smoking and drinking to numb its influence. He meets Rose Hathaway in Frost Bite and instantly becomes obsessed with her. In Spirit Bound she agrees to date him in return for giving her money to find Dimitri Belikov in Blood Promise. In Last Sacrifice she cheats on him with Dimitri Belikov; he later finds out and they break up. A month later, at the beginning of Bloodlines, he moves to Palm Springs with Eddie Castile to protect Jill Dragomir from a radical group of Moroi that are against the queen Lissa Dragomirs politics. He then meets Sydney Sage, an alchemist that is also assigned to protect Jill. He and Sydney slowly develop a deep friendship throughout Bloodlines and she inspires and encourages him to start taking art classes at Carlton College. At the end of The Golden Lily he admits to having feelings for Sydney and kisses her which leads them to start dating at the end of The Indigo Spell. In The Fiery Heart he is diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and starts taking mood stabilizers. He stops taking them in Silver Shadows because of the kidnapping of Sydney but later when he gets her back, he starts taking them once again. He and Sydney get married at the end of Silver Shadows. In The Ruby Circle they adopt Declan and move to Maine to have a safe life together. In the epilogue Adrian is revealed to have started working as a kindergarden art teacher.
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## Appearance

Adrian is described by many to be extremely handsome (as well as hot), even for a Moroi. He has deep, dreamy, emerald green eyes that Sydney describes as the deepest shade of green in the world. His green eyes are said to be similar to the Dragomir's eye color. He stands "a little shorter than Dimitri" according to Rose, has a normal Moroi skin color, and has a model body type that can be compared to art. His hair is dark chestnut brown and it is said to be styled to be messy like he just rolled out of bed.

## Personality

Adrian Ivashkov is a brave, selfless, impulsive, and open-minded Moroi. He is also willing to give his loved ones anything if they need it, like when he brought Jillian back from the dead (making her Shadow-Kissed). He is also very intelligent, using words to out-match his opponents rather than engaging in physical fights. He is sometimes rebellious, as he noted to Dimitri that he doesn't follow rules—they are mainly guidelines to life. Sydney describes Adrian as arrogant, cocky, and annoying, but she also thinks he is funny. According to Jill, Adrian always feels his emotions very strongly.

According to Sydney, Adrian has something of a split personality; one moment he could be happy and outgoing, while the next he can become distant and speak in riddles. Adrian is emotionally damaged due to both his father's verbal abuse and the effect of spirit. Both cause him to experience extreme depression, which causes him to drink heavily. Of course, his heartbreak over Rose didn't help matters.

Adrian frequently tries to prove himself, though he doesn't like to show it. He wants others to think he is worth something; this is particularly obvious with Sydney Sage. Adrian carries a lot of self-doubt and also low self-esteem. He believes he will become what everyone thinks he is already: a failure, though let's be real he's far from that!

According to Carlton's psychiatrists, Adrian suffers from bipolar disorder, meaning that his high and happy moments are too high, making him impulsive, while his low and depressive moments are too low to the point of inducing suicidal thoughts.

## Relationships

### Family

* Nathan Ivashkov
* Daniella Ivashkov
* Tatiana Ivashkov

Adrian doesn't have a perfect, or even great, relationship with his family members. Adrian and his father, Nathan, have never seen eye to eye. For example, when they have lunch in San Diego, Nathan insults his son by criticizing everything Adrian has ever done in his life, causing the two to have several fights. But after Queen Vasilisa speaks to Nathan about Adrian (Sydney Sage's idea that Nathan would listen to Queen Vasilisa more than anyone else), Nathan sends Adrian money and a new car.

It is noticeable that Adrian cares greatly more for his mother, Daniella, than his father. When he visited with his father in San Diego, he even begs permission to see his mother in prison. Adrian says all he wanted was to see or hear from her, because he missed her. When she released from prison, she goes to Palm Springs to get Adrian and bring him back to court with her. As of when Sydney and Adrian are married in Vegas, Daniella, unlike Nathan, was fully supportive of the young couple.

His late great-aunt, Tatiana Ivashkov, loved her great nephew dearly, and he comments that they used to smoke cigerettes in the throne room. However, she disapproved of his relationship with Rose and tried to set him up with Lissa. He was greatly upset when she was murdered by Natasha Ozera, getting heavily drunk to avoid his grief.

### Romantic

* Sydney Sage
* Rose Hathaway
* Avery Lazar

Sydney and Adrian first run into each other at the Moroi court, although they did not speak to each other at the time. Their first proper introduction was in Palm Springs at Clarence Donahue's house. Adrian helped Sydney track down the source of illicit tattoos that used vampire blood and saliva, as well as helped to expose Keith's involvement with the tattoos to the Alchemists. Sydney, in return, gets him out of Clarence's house and into an apartment of his own, Keith's old one (which was offered to her at first). She also helped him apply for art classes at a local college.

In *The Golden Lily*, Adrian and Sydney's friendship deepens, with Sydney buying him a slush to cheer him up after a disastrous meeting with his father. Adrian in turn takes self-defense classes with Sydney (although he later quits because he cannot be around her without putting his feelings for her aside) and buys a Mustang and feigns ignorance of a manual transmission in order to have an excuse to be around her. Adrian finds himself falling in love with Sydney, which scares him (Moroi and humans being together is taboo, Keepers aside). He finally gives in to his feelings and shares a kiss with Sydney. However, Sydney tells him that they can't have feelings for each other. She then leaves his apartment, breaking both of their hearts.

In *The Indigo Spell*, Adrian dances with Sydney at Sonya and Mikhail's wedding and even tells Marcus that she is very important to him. Throughout their time together, their sexual tension increases. Adrian has curbed his drinking and smoking habits to please Sydney, who makes him happy. At the end of *Indigo Spell*, they finally begin dating.  They share their first day as a couple in South California; they have dinner together (fondue, Adrian's favorite food) and watch the sunset after spending all day in the Greek architecture-inspired Getty Villa museum.

In *The Fiery Heart*, Adrian and Sydney keep their relationship a secret from all except Jill, who can see into Adrian's mind. With the presence of her sister, Sydney begins to sneak off during her last period study class to be with Adrian. Adrian also begins to take mood stabilizing pills so that Spirit does not get to him as much on Sydney's urging. Later, Adrian and Sydney progress even further in their relationship, both emotionally and physically. By finding Adrian's "love phone" in Sydney's car, Zoe (Sydney's sister), uncovers their relationship and notifies the Alchemists. This results in Sydney's kidnapping, and the book ends with Adrian going back to his drinking ways to drown out sorrow and Spirit alike.

In *Silver Shadows*, Adrian and Sydney are still in love but cannot be together since Sydney is being held in a re-education center after the Alchemists found out that she was in love with Adrian. Adrian begins the difficult search for Sydney, and after near 4 months of searching, finds her. Soon after, while on the run from the Alchemists, Adrian and Sydney get married. Adrian gives her an engagement ring made with rubies from his Aunt Tatiana's cuff-links, and they both return to Court to escape the Alchemists. Once there, Sydney is given sanctuary by Lissa when the Alchemists try to take Sydney away and to annul the marriage.

He first met Rose at a ski lodge in Idaho, where he made his feelings for her very clear by inviting her to dinner and sending her presents. Throughout *Shadow Kiss*, he flirted with her to the point that his great-aunt thought they were involved with each other. He funds Rose's trip to Siberia on the condition that she gives him a chance when she gets back. The pair date each other, although Rose continued to work on her quest to restore Dimitri to a dhampir. Eventually Rose broke up with him, because she was still in love with Dimitri. Adrian accused her of not caring, pointing out that he, Eddie, Sydney, and Jill were "victims" of her happy ending. Rose concluded that she can't be his crutch, and that he needed to find his own strength. By the end of *The Golden Lily*, when Sydney points out that he still loves Rose, Adrian comments that while he still is hurt by what she did to him, he is over her and is now interested in Sydney.

In *Indigo Spell*, his feelings for Rose seem to be nearly nonexistent. He tells Sydney that he knows about Rose's epic love for Dimitri and has accepted this. Adrian sees Rose again in Dallas, when a spirit user had turned a Strigoi back into a Moroi, and he realizes he feels no romantic feelings towards her at all, even calling her "little Dhampir" and restoring their friendship.
Adrian was close friends with Avery Lazar, and may have harbored some romantic feelings for her. But after it was discovered that she was a spirit user, he speculated that she used compulsion to get him to like her.

### Friends

* Jillian Dragomir
* Christian Ozera
* Jaclyn Terwilliger
* Lissa Dragomir

Adrian views Jill as a little sister and describes her as pure and innocent, which is the reason he brought her back to life and formed their shadow-kissed bond. However, he does feel somewhat frustrated that she can feel everything he feels, and he tries to cut back on his alcohol consumption for her sake. Jill is very protective of Adrian.  She feels his connection with Sydney and wants their relationship to blossom.  Whenever Adrian is upset, Jill starts showing similar mood swings.

Jill used to have a crush on Adrian back when they were in the Moroi world. After he brought her back to life, however, she quickly got over her crush on him. He normally calls her "Jailbait." The one time he called her by her full name was when Jill was using her water element and scared Sydney Sage.
Adrian and Christian meet in Frostbite. Although they don't initially get along—Christian is jealous of Adrian's friendship with Lissa—they eventually become friends. They constantly tease and insult each other as a sign of affection. They also help each other and their friends when the need arises as shown in *Last Sacrifice* when they worked together to help clear Rose's name. Things are awkward between the two since his aunt killed Adrian's aunt, but Adrian still asks Christian for culinary advice.

Adrian initially did not like her when they met, because Sydney had complained about her passive aggressive methods of teaching her magic (which was completely against Sydney's belief system). However, they seem to both have made positive impressions on each other after a short time, as Ms.Terwilliger allows him to call her Jackie, and Adrian is more open minded about Sydney learning magic than he was before he saw her natural talent.

Adrian and Lissa are friends, and he affectionately calls her "cousin" (a common form of address among royals). He helped her with learning about her Spirit powers—teaching her dream-walking and reading auras—and she tries to teach him how to heal people.  Even though they are both Spirit users, they have a lot to learn from one another. They continued to be close friends even after Lissa became queen. Adrian also likes to call her Lissa and tries to get others to say it, including Sydney Sage. However, Lissa is somewhat irritated with him, when he caused a rift between the Alchemists and the Moroi by marrying Sydney.

## Rivals

* Dimitri Belikov
* Brayden Cartwright
* Marcus Finch

Originally Dhampir Guardian Dimitri Belikov was Adrian's rival, as they both were in love with Dhampir Rose Hathaway. Adrian disliked Dimitri, because everyone believes Dimitri is perfect, and Dimitri disliked Adrian for not following rules and his excessive drinking. In the end, Rose chose Dimitri as her love, breaking Adrian's heart completely. Soon after, in Palm Springs, Adrian begins to let go of his rivalry with Dimitri because of his growing love for Alchemist Sydney Sage. Though at some moments there is tension between the two, it is later found out that Adrian does in fact respect Dimitri; in return Dimitri believes that Adrian is a good person and also respects him. In *The Ruby Circle*, it is revealed that they are actually cousins.

Adrian had some rivalry with human Brayden Cartwright during *The Golden Lily*. When Sydney begins her relationship with Brayden, Adrian is surprised at how much it bothers him that she's not single. He continually points out what he believes to be faults in Brayden, but it only ends up annoying Sydney.

Adrian believes that Sydney is only dating Brayden because of his car and therefore his "status symbol," and because he is smart and smells like coffee, according to Sydney. Adrian interrupts them at the Halloween dance, and Adrian scoffs at Brayden calling Sydney's outfit "historically inaccurate." He sees it as an insult to her, saying he would have called her "the most beautiful creature in the world."

Adrian also calls Brayden a variety of wrong names throughout *The Golden Lily* to the point where it annoys Sydney. Adrian also has lots of incidents that involve Sydney having to spend time away from Brayden and more time with him. Adrian was visibly happy when Brayden broke it off with Sydney.
Adrian and Marcus Finch have an uneasy relationship. At their first meeting, Adrian attacked Marcus when he found out that Marcus had harmed Sydney. Marcus in return was annoyed by Adrian, even calling him an "asshole." Eventually Adrian became jealous of Marcus because he was human and Sydney was also a human, and relationships between vampires and humans are taboo. But this was later laid to rest when Sydney decided to not go away with Marcus to Mexico but stayed with Adrian. This tense relationship continues when they met again in *The Fiery Heart,* though they are both devastated when Sydney is taken by the Alchemists and to the re-education center after Zoe snitches on Sydney and Adrian. They become friends as they collaborate to free Sydney from re-education. Marcus seems to be aware of Sydney and Adrian's relationship, but is non-judgmental.

## Etymology

***Adrian***is a Latin Origin name meaning "*From Hadria*".In the German form of the name *Adrian* means "Dark". It was a popular name in the Roman times and the Middle Ages but became rarely seen in modern times. It was used regulary in Christianity for many years. Adrian was used a lot during Shakespearean times, as it was used in the play *The Tempest*, in which it means "Lord".

***Ivashkov*** comes from the profession of fishing, called "Fisher", which was given to fishermen. But over many years, the name has come from different areas in the Western Civilization to mean "Favored of God".

## Trivia

* Richelle Mead has said that Adrian is one of her most complex characters due to his Spirit influence, as she believes that Adrian uses his sarcasm and humor to hide the insecure and emotionally damaged man that he is. She also states that he is her favorite character to write about, besides Rose Hathaway.
* Adrian's Spirit influence and darkness is worse then Lissa's or Sonya's, as Adrian will get attacks from the Spirit that can make him see things that aren't there or hear voices (schizophrenia) and he is even prone to violence under the influence of Spirit. He copes by drinking and smoking to undermine the effects of Spirit.
* Richelle Mead has stated on her blog that Adrian listens to classic rock music.
* In an excerpt of the Fiery Heart that Richelle Mead posted via social media, it says that Adrian listens to Pink Floyd. Later is found out that he likes Fleetwood Mac, especially the song *Rumours*.
* Adrian is a founding member of *AYE, Alpha Yam Ergo,* a fake Greek fraternity used to get into a college party.
* Adrian and Dimitri are the only two major characters in the Vampire Academy series not to have attended St. Vladimir's Academy during their youth.
* Adrian states that he is only important and amazing when using Spirit; otherwise he truly believes he isn't talented at anything else.
* He was very close to his great-aunt Tatiana.
* The ruby-encrusted cufflinks he sells during the events of *The Fiery Heart* were given to him by Tatiana as his twentieth birthday gift.
* Like Sydney, Adrian's birth-flower has connections to his character of him being moral integrity, strength, remembrance and infatuation. It is also considered to be longest lasting flowers out of the birth-flowers.
* Adrian is the first of the main characters of both series (excluding Sonya) (VA/BL) to get married.

## Sources

* Character Biography
* http://carpewiki.wikispaces.com/Adrian+Ivashkov