Rowan Asclepius

## **Basic Summary (What the party knows about Rowan so far)**

Rowan is a psychic and a member of the Rods of Asclepius, an
organization that seeks out MES patients and provides them the tools to
stabilize their disorder. They also offer some basic education on using psychic
abilities and provide a service of brain-guards for galactic and corporate leaders.
Their primary center of operations is on Farusa in Pusti. Until recently Rowan was
employed by them as an educator there, but he has since fallen into a trying
situation. He is being asked to leave planet for the foreseeable future. (The party
does not know why.) Now, Asclepius does not intend to abandon him, they are
offering substantive support. In fact, they are paying for the complete
refueling of the ship \_\_(ship name)\_\_, an extraordinary extension of their generosity
and well above the average price a passenger might expect to pay.

Asclepius have some presence on other worlds. Likely these
outposts would help Rowan depending on his needs. Likely Asclepius will make it
a point to check in on him from time to time. Eventually they would like to see
him fully under their protection again on Farusa but this will not be for some
time. Further as Rowan goes off adventuring, the decisions he makes may make it
easier or more challenging for that to happen.

Going forward Rowan intends to throw in his lot with the
crew of the \_\_\_(ship name)\_\_. It remains unclear what precisely his agenda will
be. He has some programming experience and is proficient enough to run the ship’s
comms even in combat scenarios. The precise variety of his psychic powers remains
unknown to the crew. But Rowan is essentially charming if not a little awkward
and means to work well with these new friends. Hopefully they will see his
unique skill-set as non-threatening.

## **Physical Description**

Rowan is measurably taller than average and gaunt; he has
also developed a tick. His MES was aggravated and not adequately controlled through
his childhood and young adult years; thereby, there were some abnormalities with
his growth and general development. From physical appearance even passer-byers often
anticipate that he is psychic.

He is well dressed and is aware the etiquette of some of the
highbrow culture on Farusa. Though as the governing structures there are
turning upside down this is becoming less relevant day by day.

## **Goals**

### **Long-Term:**

Rowan wants to continue to support the Rods of
Asclepius in his own way. He intends, on his adventures, to teach those
suffering with MES how to control and mask their psychic powers. He hopes
eventually to have a small posse of trainees skilled in several psychic disciplines.

Rowan wants to explore his telepathic abilities
more carefully. He feels that he might as well now that he no longer needs to
keep them quiet on Farusa.

### **Short-Term:**

Rowan wants to get off planet and start shoring
up a more permanent position on \_\_ship name\_\_.

## **History** **(What the party does not know)**

Rowan can hardly remember his early years or his family, a
consequence of the symptoms he endured related to his MES. All he knows is that
he was born on Pakostas and his family took him to the Animorum Institute when
he began to deteriorate after early onset of MES. He was ten years of age. The
Institute put him into long term care until he could be stabilized and his MES
be put into remission. Unfortunately, some of their scientists, led by Dr.
Julian Ramagi, recognized this was a unique opportunity. They realized they
might have the ability to mold Rowan’s psychic powers. The institute was
desperate to figure out how to develop more uncommon psychic traits among their
patients. For decades it has been their desire to re-establish extensive
research in each of the primary psychic disciplines. So, the powers that be
turned a blind eye as Rowan’s families’ access was gradually taken away. They
were left with few options.

The treatments taken to “stabilize” Rowan’s MES were new and
untested. These resulted in several side-effects that are evident in his
appearance. But still valuable advancements were made as a result Rowan acquired
an aptitude for basic telepathic abilities.

During all this time Rowan’s family had been pursuing legal avenues
to get their son back with help from the Rods of Asclepius. They had a small
but influential presence there. Rory Taggart headed most of the operations
there. He instigated a push to publicize these events. Around the time of the institute’s
first break-throughs Rowan’s plight managed to break into the planetary media
spot-light. This became a major scandal and reduced the public’s trust in
psychics planet wide, not just in Animorum. So much pressure forced the
governor’s hand and Rowan was released back to his family. However, the scars
of his “treatment” were significant; Rowan had very little recollection of his
family. It was also uncovered that the Animorum Institute had plans to reclaim
their “prize” once this all blew over in the press. Due to these revelations
Rowan’s parents took the drastic step of sending their son off world into the
care of Asclepius. Rory took him into his care and brought him back to Farusa
in the Pusti system; this is where Asclepius is headquartered. Rowan was fifteen
years old at the time. His parents hoped to follow him someday and resettle in Farusa,
but this never materialized. Rowan is now left wondering what became of them.

The Rods of Asclepius essentially adopted Rowan and tutored
him in Metapsionics, that he might better control his MES. But because of
political pressures on Farusa it was determined that his telepathic abilities
should be repressed. Rowan quickly became proficient in Metapsionics and his
skills were considerably higher than his peers. In just two years after
arriving on Farusa Rowan was invited to join the Asclepius brain-guard as their
youngest member to date. He was merely seventeen.

He served under Rory, who had made a permanent transition to
Farusa as Asclepius’ ability to retain influence on Pakostas was severally curtailed
by local authorities. Becoming a member of the brain-guard gave him
opportunities to meet and support several galactic leaders and their deputies. Many
of these individuals took a liking to him often telling him stories of the extraordinary
sites of art and culture in their world. It was also here that Rowan meet many
new and important friends among them was Thorin. (In fact it was Thorin who
helped Rowan connect with the crew of the \_\_ship name\_\_.)

Ultimately, this did not last, Rowan began finding himself
listening in some of the emotional experiences of those around him. It was not
malicious but almost seemed to just happen. He tried to mask it by using some
of the cloaking techniques he had picked up. But this only led to suspicion.
Thorin tried to council him but failed to prevent this behavior.

Rowan was soon transferred from the brain-guard to instead
work within Asclepius’ internal affairs. There he began working as essentially
a TA, working one on one with those struggling to handle their powers while Orlaith
Donaghue employed general MES damping to the class. (Orlaith was a member of
the Rods, the leadership board of Asclepius. She managed the research into
treatment of MES and is the most powerful metapsionic in Asclepius, maybe even
on planet.) Rowan was twenty-five at this time and served there for three more
years until present day.

Recently the Galactic Hegemony collapsed and Farusa experienced
overwhelming changes to its leadership. By now The Rods of Asclepius have become
somewhat influential in the local political system. Members of Asclepius felt
that now the need to secure better standing with the public was essential to
their mission. They sought to tread a fine line of being an advocate for
psychics and not appearing as though they were securing political power by
exploiting the psychics unique skills. Because the relationship between
Asclepius and Rowan was well-documented in the press on Pakostas it was only a
matter of time before word would get out to the general public on Farusa. Concern
mounted that if it became known that there was a telepath within their midst,
the public would assume he was being used to advance Asclepius’ political aims.
The Rods, the leaders of Asclepius, determined they needed to get ahead of this
story, but they did not want to disregard their obligations to Rowan. Asclepius
had several outposts on many other planets in this sector that could serve as
havens for Rowan going forward.  So, it
was decided that Rowan should be sent off world for the time being. It was
under these circumstances that Rowan meet the crew of the ship \_\_\_ship name\_\_\_.

Rowan is eager to start a new adventure and go see the places
he had only heard about while serving as a brain-guard. It is unlikely that he
will completely submit to Asclepius’ will and settle quietly on one of their
more remote bases. The prospects of adventuring are simply too enticing. Time
will tell how his relationship with The Rods of Asclepius will evolve.