Rowan Umberend
- Phoenixborn of the Abylon Outskirts. Member of the Vermillion Council.
- Double agent/traitor from within the Vermillion Council seeking to use all the knowledge about Phoenixborn for himself. This led him to the historic battle site of Abylon, where he excavated the physical and temporal surrounding ruins in search of the dark history and power of the Chimera of ages past.
- Speaks the language of ruin, and upon its head his stamped the name of Blasphemy.
- Within the depths of the excavated ruins, Rowan is able to use his superior knowledge of Argaian history to discover dark and powerful Red Raindrop artifacts. His insatiable appetite for knowledge could be the catalyst for undoing all that the Phoenixborn had done to save the world from the chimeras of the Red Rains.
- Quotes:
- “The past is my schematic for the future.”
- “Why should we fear what we once defeated?”
- “Time passes so cruelly, no?”
- “If my expulsion from the Vermillion Council has provided benefit, it is that I am never again required to share space with Rowan Umberend.” - Darius, Terminal Amurai
- He did it. He has reignited the Red Rains and the Chimera has returned. This led to his trial.
Short story
“Excerpt from the transcript of the trial of Rowan Umberend
ADJUDICATOR VIPER:VIPER: Rowan Umberend, you stand before a council of your peers, accused of reigniting the Red Rains and returning the Chimera to an unhappy world. How do you plead?
ADJUDICATOR GILSTREAM:GILSTREAM: No answer, sir? It was you who surrendered to us.
ACCUSED: I have surrendered to no one. I came to speak.
ADJUDICATOR VIPER: We ordered you surrender yourself and you appeared.
ACCUSED: Order me as you wish. Condemn me as you will. In the end it does not matter.
ADJUDICATOR DIAMONDCREST:DIAMONDCREST: You should not dismiss these accusations so readily! Your crimes are worthy of death.
ACCUSED: Yet you will not kill me. You cannot, for every Phoenixborn is now more valuable than ever before. You will all thank me in time, for you will see all the lives I have saved.
ADJUDICATOR ROARKWIN:ROARKWIN: You mock us by claiming yourself savior?
ACCUSED: Already you feel it, brother! Those tugging fingers that clawed into your brain, that told you to crave the deaths of your peers. They have left you as they have left me. Left us all! The Phoenix shall not torment us as long as the Chimera run rampant! Their rebirth is our stay of execution. Savior? Yes! I have saved us all.
ADJUDICATOR VIPER: And what of the villages swept away in rivers of blood? Of towns decimated by the predations of your new monsters?
ACCUSED: The farmer regrets the cattle lost to the wolf and so kills the wolf. Inconvenient, yes, costly perhaps, but the farmer knows there will always be more cows.”