Alexander Ashford, 6th Earl Ashford

Alexander Ashford was the son of Sir Edward Ashford, co-founder of the Umbrella Corporation. His children were Alfred and Alexia Ashford.

Background
The year is 1983, and I'm afraid that my only daughter has become obsessed with the Veronica virus.

Alexander, the son of wealthy aristocrat Edward Ashford, aided his father in research on the Progenitor virus. However, he neither possessed exceptional knowledge nor interest virology, and instead used what he knew of genetic engineering to become an Umbrella researcher. His most notable achievement was the discovery of the human gene that regulated intelligence, but despite this, he remained a relatively minor scientist and was never truly rewarded.

Hoping to put his discovery to good use in resuscitating the Ashford family's reputation, he used advanced cloning techniques and strands of DNA stolen from the corpse of the Ashford family matriarch, Veronica, along with his own DNA, to create a pair of twins, whom he named Alfred and Alexia. Alfred was of above normal intellect, but not a genius, whilst Alexia possessed unmatched intelligence, and went on to become a Chief Senior Researcher at Umbrella at the mere age of ten. The creation of these twins was horrifying at best. Finding it unbearable that anyone should find his records, Alexander hid them in a secret room at the Antarctic Base.

However, over a decade later, Alfred found the secret room, but was unable to open the doorway, requiring three family gemstones to open it. He easily accessed two of them, as they belonged to him and his sister, but tricking his father into surrendering his was another matter. He eventually succeeded, and opened the door. He read the records and went mad from the revelation that he was merely the unintended by-product of his father's experiment, and to the atrocious truth behind the experiments that ultimately resulted in his and his sister's creation.

Around this time, Alexander started to express concerns surrounding Alexia's obsession with the T-Veronica virus, a viral strain she had developed by combining the Progenitor virus with Queen Ant's DNA, and, in particular, her twin desires to experiment upon her own body with it and to release it into the world. His worries increased to the point that he installed an experimental anti-B.O.W. weapon known as the "Linear Launcher" in the facility as a last resort to stop her if she carried through on her plans.

Transformation


Embittered at his father for not making him as intelligent as Alexia, Alfred trapped him and used him as a guinea pig to test Alexia's experimental virus strain, the T-Veronica. Within two months, he mutated into the abomination known as "Nosferatu", and the twins, disgusted that he was a failure even as an experiment, chained him in a secret room in the Antarctic base.

He was held captive for 15 years but managed to escape after Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside attempted to escape the building by using a digger to drive through the wall. He quickly undid the majority of the chains around before heading off in pursuit.

Nosferatu made it to a heliport just as Claire and Steve arrived on the roof and fought Claire. He, however, was killed due to damage to the chest and the two escaped.



Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game
Noseferatu, the creature that Ashford becomes, is an Infected card in the Resident Evil DBG, introduced in the second set Alliance. He has no effects, but he is still a dangerous enemy because of his unique amount of health, 55. If the player Explores with enough weapons to deal 60 Damage, this is a safe zone to kill anything in the game except the bosses. But early on, the most reliable amount is 40, since that is the average amount of Health among all Infected. Noseferatu's unique health can be a hindrence for players trying to deal this amount. In addition, because the Infected's Health is not an even number, Carlos Oliveira cannot properly utilize his Level 2 effect (which allows him to get a card from his discard pile if he kills an enemy with damage equal to its health) unless he's equipped with a knife to add 5 Damage. Noseferatu is worth 4 Decorations.

Trivia

 * Alexander makes an untransformed appearance in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, noting his concern about Alexia's obsession with T-Veronica.


 * Alexander's abomination name, Nosferatu, is derived from the Greek nosophoros ("diseased/plague carrier").
 * In Resident Evil Code: Veronica, it is possible to kill Nosferatu with a single shot to the heart with Alfred's sniper rifle, but it requires extreme accuracy. If the player hits it, a special animation will be shown of Claire saying "Gotcha!" and while shooting him in the heart.
 * In Code: Veronica, there are two special cutscenes other than the one mentioned above. The first is if you weren't able to shoot out his heart with one shot. After multiple shots, Claire will exclaim "I got you now!" and shoot out the heart. The second is if you use a knife, where the killing scene will be replaced with Claire saying the same thing, but stabs the heart instead.
 * In The Darkside Chronicles, both Claire and Steve fight Nosferatu in the compound below the helipad. He doesn't expel poisonous gas in this fight but he does spit a bile like substance at you if you take too long to incapacitate him, and will occasionally attack by using his tentacles to pull a chunk of ice out of the ground and throw it at your characters.
 * The blue herb will not cure its poison.
 * If Claire is poisoned during the fight, Chris will have to look around the Antarctic base to find suitable cure for her since a blue herb will not cure its poison.