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.

Long-Term:
1.      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.

2.      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:
1.      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.