Rowan Sunstone

"Being a bard has always been about the music for me. Art from the start, that's what I've always loved."

— Rowan Sunstone

An Adventurous Life

Rowan Sunstone, a wood elf of the House of Paduk in the Echovad Forrest, took up the profession of bard in his angsty teenaged years. A dreamer and visionary, as a young child he spent every waking moment playing his lute, and eagerly leaned into the professional music training his parents were able to afford. As music is directly linked to Sorcery in elves, they saw his neglected academic studies to practice songwriting as a positive thing. Rowan grew into an extraordinarily talented composer, lyricist, and lutist. He learned the rare skill of rousing and tapping into the subconscious magic fields produced by elves when they are emotionally moved by music. The sixth child of his parents, Rowan had no well defined future as did his three older brothers, and he had no interest in the military. Instead, he set his sights on becoming a bard, and spent most of his time split between his first love music, and on social settings perfecting skills of persuasion and negotiation.

2495328393 by Terry Cassis with Shutterstock AI

Sunstone left home when he was a very young (for an elf) at age seventeen, looking for adventure and intending to seek his future and fortune. He traveled for a while, playng for room and board in different taverns throughout the former kingdom of Dryadae, making a living for himself as a musical performer of note. When he arrived in Fellalond he found himself tangled up in resolving an unfortunate incident between the Grekelski and the Brotherhood of The Green Lady, and exercising his negotiating skills, was able to come to a resolution which, while not ideal, headed off violence between the lizard people and the Echovad Forrest's chief enforcers.
Eventually Rowan made his way across Steelsong Pass where he played for the Damien in the Hall of Judgement, and was asked to negotiate a contract for the Steelsong for magically neutral clay from the the White Cliffs of Breshnok in the Human Kingdom. He was accompanied in this endeavor by an adventuring party that included his future wife, Zinnia Heathdriver. The negotiations for Breshnok clay did not go well, when the party discovered that Lord Falkron Breshnok was being controlled via magical means to deliver the full production of the precious white clay from the Breshnok mines to an obscure group, known locally as Rams Horn International. Rowan and Zinnia uncovered the nefarious doings of this group, a cover organization for a cult of eldritch worshippers who used the clay to create portals for the eldritch to cross the weave. Rowan broke the spell on Lord Breshnok, and the party identified the source of the spell to be Lord Grantham Hampt, who was later found to be instrumental in the formulation of the Short Spell Plague. The adventurers worked with Lord Breshnok to raise an army and overthrow Lord Hampt at the Battle of Delrin's Gate.

A Family Man

"My Father would not like you - not even a little a bit."
"Why not? Does he hate Haflings?"
"No, he hates slutty bards."

— Corona Sunstone speaking to Richard JustRichard

Sunstone is currently married to Zinnia Heathdriver Sunstone, the human barbarian warrior who was lauded as the hero of Delin's Gate where she anchored the front line offense during the assault on the castle of Lord Hampt. The romance of Zinnia Heathdriver and Rowan Sunstone was immortalized by the bard in ballads that are sung throughout human and elven lands as masterpieces of passionate romantic music. Rowan's romantic ballads have garnered him immense popularity, and a widespread cult following.
Rowan and Zinnia have one living daughter, Corona Sunstone, and two children, twins, who were stillborn. Corona Sunstone is a member of the Knife Brigade, an adventuring team made famous in the Tales of the Knife Brigade written by the bard Thoven Chorter. Rowan is a dedicated family man and fiercely resents the sterotype of promiscuious bards though he is the first to admit that it is well based in fact. The Sunstones are well liked by all their neighbors, and are pillars of respectability in the community of Styx in spite of their adventuring past.
Zinnia and Rowan have retired to Styx where their most stressing daily challenge is laying the dead on a daily basis. Zinnia is a high productivity Pile Tender, while Rowan tends their home, crestes items of fashion for the local merchantile, and composes music which he plays at the local tavern every Friday night while jealously protecting his tip jat. Twice a year the Family journey's to a major kingdom to keep Rowan's work in front of the general public, and to refresh his Masterharper standing with the college of bards.

Bard to the Dead

Rowan has cultivated a peculiar skillset, being able to lay the dead of the Pile (with some notable local personalities). He has refused to share the secrets of this necromantic power, but it is notable that the rate of post burial spontaneous resurrection in Styx has dropped markedly since the Sunstone family joined the community.