History

Rowan was born the second youngest of four siblings. Their childhood was ordinary, if somewhat overlooked - their eldest sister Willow was unruly and frequently at odds with their parents, while the second eldest Dara blossomed into his healing magic early and so was eagerly groomed to take over the family clinic. Between them, there was little attention to spare for Rowan, who was a relatively quiet child. When their youngest sibling Feá was born, this attention thinned further and they were mostly left to their own devices.

The neglect inevitably sowed some resentment in Rowan, but they never really found a way to manifest it. They were too sensible and too plain to compete with either elder sibling for the spotlight - Willow won all the negative attention and Dara all the positive - so they stayed reluctantly in the background and developed a particularly sharp tongue to snatch a place in family conversations. As they grew older, it occurred to them that Feá might be similarly neglected and they started to look out for them. The two grew close and this connection went miles to salve Rowan's loneliness.

Rowan's healing magic eventually surfaced, a little late but still pleasing news to their parents. Rowan too was relieved, since they did sincerely aspire to be a healer. They were apprenticed at their family clinic, the Birchbird, for several years and did well in their studies, but growing friction with Dara led them to seek work elsewhere. They settled into a smaller clinic near the outskirts of town, whose healers were often hired or called out as paramedics. Here, Rowan found the skillset they really excelled at - emergency treatment. While their bedside manner was lacking, they were swift and level-headed in a crisis, and soon callouts became the bulk of their work. It wasn't pleasant work by any stretch and Rowan picked up their fair share of traumatic sights and experiences, but it was something they felt alive doing.

While their work life was steady, the situation with their family just grew more sour over the years. Rowan became increasingly opposed towards Dara's carefree - and in their opinion, lazy and spoilt - attitude, especially in regards to his running of the Birchbird Clinic, but had little sway over their parents' belief in him. After letting the now-disowned Willow stay at their place for a while, Rowan got overly caught up in her venom towards Dara and their parents, and joined her convoluted vendetta against them. It took Feá slapping the sense back into Rowan for them to take a much-needed step back and, finally seeing the overblown mess for what it was, they left Iadlain entirely to avoid getting pulled back into all the machinations.

Rowan moved in with an old colleague, Myrtle, who had set up a healing practice in Linhythe a few years back. They spent about two years there, intrigued (but sceptical) at the different healing methods in a place that relied less on magic, and sharpened their surgery skills. Keeping in touch with Feá, they learned that Willow had left Iadlain a few months after they did, probably because Rowan had been her main financial support. Eventually, Rowan was abruptly called back home - Dara's irresponsibility had finally come to a head and he had eloped with a married lady to Atros knows where. With their father's health declining, the family needed help to run the clinic.

The time away had done Rowan good and, more firmly grounded and pragmatic than ever, they returned without a fuss. Things weren't exactly agreeable back home, with their parents still upset about Dara and lacking regard for Rowan, but they decided not to care about that and worked diligently for the Birchbird. It was nice to be back in Iadlain, despite everything. By the end of the year, their father was no longer working, Rowan was doing most of the clinic management, and their mother grudgingly passed over the reins to them.

Life smoothed out from there. Rowan ran a tight ship with the clinic and started taking on apprentices, finding that they rather liked teaching. They continued to do some field work but risked themselves less now that they had larger responsibilities. Years passed peacefully, until whispers of an impending war seeped in from the rest of the Empire. It remained distant to Rowan, until Iadlain's overzealous foreign ambassador sent military recruiters knocking at clinic doors. Exasperated but cornered, Rowan enlisted to keep their less experienced colleagues from being roped into it - objectively, they were the most equipped to deal with a battle situation anyway. For about a year, they served as a medic in the Koben military and saw through the annexation of the north continent. Their post in the North Colony ended when the ambassador for Iadlain was killed. A new ambassador was instated, who returned many of the forcibly-recruited Iadlish back home, Rowan among them.

The respite only lasted so long, however, as later that year a new warfront broke out with Reluir, and the world grows increasingly unstable. Healers with battle experience seem more necessary these days than ever, so Rowan has given up on thoughts of cutting back field work for now.