| “ | I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you. | ” |
Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius is a Fae Prince, warrior, and formerly one of six elite warriors of Maeve's Cadre. He is also King-Consort to the Queen of Terrasen, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius.
After his blood oath with Maeve ended[1], he swore the blood oath to Aelin Ashryver Galathynius and became the first member of her court.
Biography
Heir of Fire
Rowan first meets Aelin, as Celaena, when he corners her in Varese under the orders of Queen Maeve of the Fae. When they reach Mistward, Aelin discovers that Rowan is responsible for training her magical abilities; under the promise that Maeve will tell her about the three Wyrdkeys. They both agree to the condition, to their chagrin, and head to Mistward.[1]
During the first training sessions, Rowan and Aelin often clash due to her inability to shift into her Fae form, leading to Rowan saying hurtful things.
After one of their arguments, Aelin leaves, saying that she came to fulfil a promise to her friend (meaning her promise to Nehemia Ytger about freeing her kingdom) and training with Rowan is getting her nowhere. When he asks why her friend can’t save her own kingdom, Aelin screams, “Because she is dead!” and after that Rowan lets her leave. Her first night out of Mistward, Aelin is attacked by Skinwalkers, and only survives because Rowan comes to save her. When she thanks him for saving her life, he replies that he only did it because he was bound to a blood oath by Maeve to keep her alive.[1]
One day, another full-blooded Fae comes to Mistward to meet with Rowan. Aelin spies on them, and as a result, she and Rowan fight. Unknowingly, they each say something that really strikes at the heart of the other, Aelin saying, “You left me,” and Rowan saying, “You are nothing to me, and I do not care.”
Hurt, Aelin then storms down to the kitchen, where she encounters the kind old man Emrys, who tries to show her a gift Malakai bought him. Noticing that the blade reminds her a lot of Nehemia and adding to the fact that she is still seething from her fight with Rowan, she snarls about how she doesn’t care about them and she just wants them to leave her alone. She storms out of the fortress, leaving them shocked and confused.[1]
When Rowan realizes she is gone and goes to follow her, he is stopped by Emrys, who admonishes him for his treatment of Aelin, which hurts her rather than helping her. Here is when Rowan first realizes that Aelin is not the child he thought she was.
Rowan goes to meet her, where she is weeping by the lake. He asks her whether she wants to talk, and proceeds after she refuses, saying to her: “I think I’ve started to figure you out, Aelin Galathynius.” After yet another brawl, Aelin goes to Rowan’s room with salve to treat the burns she unintentionally gave him, surprised to realize that she feels guilty. This leads to a heart-to-heart discussion with Rowan, where he talks about his deceased mate. Aelin asks him how he recovered from the loss, and he says he didn't, but that maybe they could recover together.[1]
From that point on, there is no more animosity between them, and they gain a sort of frenemy status. They start trading more and more intimate secrets, telling each other things about themselves and their pasts that they have never told anyone else. During this process, they start to understand more and more that their initial impressions of each other were wrong and that they are more kindred spirits than anything else.
After Aelin “burns out”—using up all of her magic—she is in bad condition, but is amused to find Rowan fussing over her. She is moved to his room, a much more comfortable one, permanently, and ends up sharing a bed with Rowan from then on, even though he claims he was intending to get her a cot.[1]
While she is recovering, Aelin asks if there is any way to increase your magic, and Rowan replies that there is none. However, he mentions “carranam”—a pair of compatible Fae that form a bond that allows them to share magic.
They become close friends, although Rowan denies it. Soon, they start to be able to convey their thoughts to each other with just their facial expressions. They begin to work flawlessly as a team. Meanwhile, Aelin starts to realize just how trapped Rowan is by his blood oath to Maeve, which leads to her beginning to truly hate her aunt, and realising that she does not want to return to Adarlan without Rowan.[1]
When Mistward is attacked by Valg from another dimension, and Adarlanian soldiers, Aelin insists on protecting the border from the Valg princes by herself, saying that Rowan is needed to defend against the Adarlanian soldiers. Reluctantly, Rowan agrees, but orders her not to engage them.
Aelin goes against his orders, fighting the Valg princes, but quickly burns out, only lasting until Rowan’s “cadre” arrive. As soon as they jump into the battle, Rowan realizes that he is free to help Aelin, but when he sees her fire magic dying and her shrouded by the Valg’s dark magic, he despairs. He tries to run out into the dark magic, despite the fact that his ice and wind magic does nothing against the demons—only Aelin's affects them. However, one of Rowan’s cadre tackles him to the ground and pins him, knowing he will not stand a chance. He thrashes and shouts for Aelin, knowing that she’s still alive but that the Valg are draining her life—feeding on her worst memories—but can’t move.[1]
Suddenly, Aelin's magic reignites, and Rowan realizes that she had suffered one of her self-imposed burnouts, but this time she was truly close to a real burnout—one that could kill her. Rowan is released from his friend’s hold and runs to Aelin, cutting his hand at the same time. He offers her his bleeding hand and his dagger, and they both silently understand that they are carranam. He says, “I claim you too, Aelin Galathynius”; a reply to earlier when she had claimed him as her friend, but he did not respond. Using Rowan’s magic, Aelin is able to defeat the remaining Valg.
After the battle, Rowan and Aelin finally venture to Doranelle, where they face their distant-aunt, Queen Maeve. When Aelin refuses to tell Maeve the location of the third Wyrdkey for all of the world, Maeve uses Rowan’s blood oath to force him to kneel as his fellow cadre, also bound by a blood oath, whips him.[1]
This angers her greatly, and her magic ignites. She threatens to burn the city. Maeve answers with an, 'its made of stone." But Aelin smiles and tells her that her people aren't. Maeve releases Rowan immediately. Aelin wants more, and ends up using a ring, a ring that once belonged to Athril, a man who Maeve was once in love with, to get more of what she wants. Rowan knowingly gave it to Aelin, not able to tell her what it meant to Maeve because of his blood oath, but knowing that if she was smart enough, she would realise its worth and use it to negotiate with Maeve.
What Aelin decides to negotiate for is Rowan’s freedom from his blood oath. She threatens that if Maeve does not free Rowan, she will melt the ring right then and there.[1]
Once Rowan is free, he runs to Aelin, kisses her forehead, murmurs her name, and then drops to his knees and offers to make a blood oath to her. Aelin does not want Rowan to be under her control, but after a silent argument with him, she reluctantly agrees, pressured by Maeve’s presence. Rowan does it in order to protect Aelin from Maeve, knowing that if the Fae Queen was aware that they are a team, she’d be less likely to attack Aelin in the future. In the end they reluctantly separate, but agree to reunite soon.
Queen of Shadows
Rowan comes to Adarlan after discovering that Lorcan Salvaterre had gone to Rifthold in search of Aelin, but he later admits that he was happy for the reason to reunite with Aelin. Throughout his stay with Aelin in Rifthold, Rowan is seen to begin developing feelings for Aelin, and he tries to control it in the beginning, but later cannot deny it any longer.[2]
At one points, when Aelin touches his face, he seems to reciprocate her feelings for him for the first time, but he tells her not to touch him like that, despite his feelings towards her. She begins to consider that while he may long for her, he may hate himself for it and not choose to pursue it.
After Aelin is attacked by Lorcan, Rowan finally allows her in, and allows her to touch his cheek. She throws her head back so her neck is exposed, and allows him to close his mouth over her 'life blood', as the only way his primal Fae side could comprehend her trust in him, "No one else, I would allow no one else at my throat."[2]
The night before they leave to bring down the clock tower, they kiss for the first time. Aelin tells him that he made her want "...to live, not survive or exist, live."
Three days after the clock tower is destroyed and the King of Adarlan is killed, Rowan embraces Aelin in a passionate kiss, using his magic to slam the door on Aedion, who had been just outside.[2]
Empire of Storms
Their feelings for each other become stronger as they explore the more physical aspects of their relationship. Individually they both theorise that they may be mates, but due to the fact that Rowan previously had a mate and it is extremely rare to have two in one lifetime, neither voice their idea. After the fight in Skull's Bay, they make love several times on the beach as well as their room, and the others pretend not to notice the 'claiming' that transpired.[3]
Much later on, much of the truth behind their history and relationship is revealed by Maeve, including the fact that Lyria was never Rowan's mate, as she herself had faked the bond. Maeve had then had Lyria and her unborn baby killed while he was away in an effort to 'break' him, and mold him into a member of her 'cadre'. Maeve had always known that Aelin and Rowan were mates, and part of the reason she had pushed so much for Aelin and her family to visit when she was young was so they could meet, and she would have more power over them.
When Aelin came to Wendlyn to train, it was again Maeve who ensured Rowan would be the one to train her, but she did not realize that she had broken him so much, that he did not even recognize his own mate. Following this huge revelation, Aelin is whipped and forced into an iron coffin. Rowan is distraught, and reveals that they had married the night before. He leaves to find Maeve and his mate/wife to free her.[3]
Personality
Rowan is first seen as cold and uncaring, mostly reacting with anger and annoyance at Aelin during the first stages of their training. Later on, Rowan warms up to Aelin and is kinder and more caring, showing worry when she is hurt or weak.
Rowan is devoted by a blood oath to Aelin, and will defend her at any cost. He is loyal and supportive of her choices.
Physical description
Rowan is tall and broad-shouldered with every inch of him seemingly corded with muscle. Like all Fae, he has delicately pointed ears and slightly elongated canines. He is described as having an accent, almost like a purr. He has tan skin and a wicked-looking tattoo etched down the left side of his harsh face that starts at the temple and flows over his jaw and down his throat where it disappears beneath his clothes.
He is handsome and has pine-green eyes and long gleaming silver hair. He later cuts his hair to a shorter length, claiming that shorter hair is more useful for fighting.
Like other Fae, he has an animal form, which is a white tailed hawk.
Abilities
- Wind magic: Rowan posseses the ability to control and manipulate wind however he pleases. He can make cold breezes and warm breezes, and can put out Aelin's fire with a thought. His magic also goes as far as to let him steal all of the oxygen out of the air for however long he needs to.
- Ice magic: Rowan can control and manipulate ice.
- Lightning: It is mentioned on a few occasions that Rowan has the ability to create lightning, but it is unknown to what extent.
- Healing: Like all Fae, Rowan has advanced healing, and great control over it.
- Immortality: Rowan, like all Fae, is immortal and cannot age or die unless fatally wounded.
- Shape-shifting: Rowan has an animal form as well, which is a white-tailed hawk. Even in this form, he can still control and use his magic.
Relationships
Lyria
Lyria was Rowan's believed mate. She was a flower seller in the markets of Doranelle. Their relationship, however, cost his favor with Maeve. When Maeve requested his presence to fight in an unnamed battle, he jumped at the chance to redeem himself, leaving Lyria in their mountain home. When he had been fighting for several months he heard rumors that the enemy was trying to reach Doranelle through a mountain pass. Upon hearing this news he returned home immediately, only to find her dead, murdered by soldiers. After he killed those responsible he went mad for ten years wandering the earth in his hawk form, and then Maeve found him and offered him a position among the Cadre. She has been dead 203 years, 27 days according to Rowan.[1]
Maeve later reveals in that she tricked Rowan into believing that Lyria was his mate. It was Maeve who sent the troops through the mountain passage and ultimately killed Lyria and their unborn child.
Aelin Ashryver Galathynius
Rowan and Aelin first meet in Wendlyn when he is given the orders from the immortal Queen Maeve to take Aelin to see her. Upon meeting in Mistward, Maeve gives him the order to oversee Aelin's training before she is allowed into Maeve's realm in Doranelle.[1]
The relationship between Rowan and Aelin in the beginning is strained, to the point of getting into fistfights and beating each other to a pulp. However, after going through a lot together; such as fighting to get rid of Skinwalkers, and hunting for dead bodies which were washed up on shores, a slow understanding starts to develop between them both. They soon start building a relationship as friends and Aelin/Celaena even remarks that she 'had loathed him', because she felt that she was looking at a 'mirror image' of herself.
Rowan and Aelin's relationship grows even more, they become more than friends but less than lovers, when they become Carranam, during the battle of Mistward, thus 'claiming' each other. Rowan even proves his complete loyalty to Aelin when he swears the blood oath to her, after Maeve freed him from her blood oath due to Aelin forcing her hand.[1]
They have some parallels in their lives, such as their respective lovers being killed in gruesome manners and that 'collecting scars' was a result of self-inflicted 'punishment for (their) sins' due to their inability to protect others from themselves. They both share similar tattoos, Rowan's one stretching from the left side of his face to his torso; and Aelin's on her back, over her three main scars she received during her time as a slave in the Salt Mines of Endovier.
During his time in Rifthold, Rowan's relationship with Aelin grows very quickly. When they see each other after being months apart, Aelin embraces him and starts to cry, stating how much she had missed him. She later bathes him and contemplates about their relationship, how "the lines have always been blurred for them".[2]
After the battle of Skull's Bay it is revealed that Maeve led Rowan to believe that Lyria was his mate, and then had her and their unborn child killed to break him. His real mate was Aelin, and they were married discreetly by Lysandra and the captain of the ship. He now seeks to find a way to free her from Maeve.[3]
Aedion
When Aedion and Rowan first meet they are wary of each other. Aedion is eager to learn from Rowan and test himself against him, and is later furious when it is revealed that Rowan swore the blood oath, as he believed it was his by right.
The two eventually come to respect each other, with Aedion even referring to him as brother. When Aelin faces the King of Adarlan, Aedion and Rowan battle the Wyrdhounds in the catacombs of the city and Aedion risks his life to protect an injured Rowan.
Gallery
Trivia
- In Queen of Glass, Rowan's name was originally Raonn.[4]
- Rowan smells like snow and pine, just like Terrasen.
- His favourite food is a type of meat on a stick available from a street vendor in Doranelle
- Carranam is derived from the Gaelic phrase "mo anam cara", which translates to "soulmate."[5]