Rowan

"Your presence is an affront to all that the Creator deems sacred! Be gone!"

Rowan is a "Minstrel of the Creator" - that is, he is the self-appointed High Priest of a religion that only he seems to acknowledge. Despite giving them the grandiose title of "The Creator," Rowan believes that the being that created Shantania was not a god or god-like being, but rather a bored arch-mage looking to use the universe as a sandbox. (He is ultimately taken by surprise to learn that he isn't entirely wrong.) Rowan does not have answers for Everything; when a difficult question arises about his faith, his most frequent response is to shout "SILENCE, UNBELIEVER!" and to angrily wave his "scepter" at them (actually a discarded walking crutch with an iron ball affixed to the top).

Though Rowan is not entirely sane, he is still useful in battle, as his scepter is essentially a long ball mace that he generally wields like a light mallet or an iron-shod staff. He has dubbed the staff his holy symbol, calling it "The Creator's Tower," and when he wishes to declare his authority over something, he jabs the Tower into the ground before him, and declares the immediate five feet around it his "church," shooing away commoners and unbelievers.

The wagon train meets Rowan shortly after their first battle with bandits at the Oasis. He is surprisingly educated, despite not being an avid reader, which grants him an in with Argur and Gaiana, and he also seems to be aware of The Finders without ever having met one.

Through Supports with other characters, Rowan eventually reveals that his ramblings are not of his own invention, but from strange visions he experiences while he sleeps. Helena will discover that he is not plagued with such visions if he does not sleep with the Creators Tower in his arms. The ball affixed to the Tower is just something he found on the ground one day, as he tells it, but the stronger mages of the party wonder if it once served some higher function. Lynia accidentally discovers it is tied to the Cloudbreaker, as a brief contact between the two creates a feedback that neither can explain. Through flash backs on the path to the best ending, it is revealed that the ball once belonged to Kasiell and was a memory device used by the Creators.

Mechanics

The Creator's Tower is a Strength-based weapon with a range of 1 tile, that functions as both a Weapon and a Counter-Weapon. Rowan never gets especially fast, nor does he get a particularly long movement, but he can eventually learn the Medic skill from Helena if he builds support with her.

Skills

• Silence, Unbeliever! - Rowan "shushes" his target, preventing mages and healers from using their spells, but raising Rowan's Profile stat for the next turn.
• Banish Thee! - Rowan places the Creator's Tower in the ground and shoos everyone away from him, shoving anybody directly adjacent to him one tile away (if they are capable of moving in that direction).
• Smite Thee! - Rowan aims the Tower directly at the head of his target, dealing roughly half the damage, but stunning the target for the next turn and turning them away from him.

Quotes

• "Foul heretic!"
• "I purge thee from this land!"
• "Silence!"
• "Creator smite thee!"
• "Die, by the very weapons you adore!"
• "F-forsaken..."