"I am what you made me." — Rowan Damisch, Scythe.
Rowan Damisch is a former scythe apprentice and vigilante known as Scythe Lucifer. Scythe Faraday chose him for apprenticeship along with Citra Terranova, with Rowan later being taken on by Scythe Goddard.
He is the main male protagonist of the Arc of a Scythe series.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Tyger Salazar often splatted and Rowan was always by his side during revival. The one time Rowan did splat, he found it a monumental pain. He ended up behind his schoolwork, his parents levying many forms of punishment-which they promptly forgot to enforce. One of the perks of being the so-called lettuce of the family. Being the lettuce of the family meant being the part that no one really paid attention to. Rowan lives with his cousins, second cousins, siblings, half-siblings, and his grandmother, with a new husband and a baby on the way.
Once, when hiking with his family, Rowan had gone off on his own and had encountered a mountain lion.
Scythe[]
He was giving comfort to a boy at his school, Kohl Whitlock before Kohl got gleaned, when he first encountered Honorable Scythe Faraday.
Scythe Faraday invites Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova to the Grand Civic Opera. After some consideration, Rowan shows up at the Grand Civic Opera, where he meets Citra Terranova. Scythe Faraday then he asks them both to become his new apprentices and begin training with him. Faraday teaches them both how to become a scythe, though double apprenticeships are formerly unheard of in the Scythedom.
At the Vernal Conclave, Rowan purposefully failed his test answering Scythe Curie's question, claiming that he had no fears, so Citra would not face the punishment by herself. Scythe Curie then confronts him. It is then determined by a suggestion from Scythe Rand that Scythe Faraday is not allowed to have two apprentices and that at the end of the apprenticeship, the winner must glean the apprentice who was not chosen. This causes the relationship between Citra and Rowan to be strained and awkward. The two share a kiss, but they decide they can not love each other because it is safer that way.
After the supposed self-gleaning of Scythe Faraday, Rowan is sent to Scythe Goddard to complete his training. Rowan makes an internal decision that he will let Citra win because he does not want to kill her. Upon arrival at Goddard's mansion, Rowan finds a massive party has been thrown for him, where he meets Esme.
Goddard's training techniques are extremely different from Faraday's, who is an old guard scythe, and views killing as something never to enjoy. Goddard is a new order scythe, who enjoys taking lives and does so with extreme bias. Goddard turns off Rowan's nanites so he can experience the pain of being beaten by Scythe Chomsky and Scythe Rand. In the time he is at Goddard's mansion, Rowan develops a friendship with Scythe Volta and Esme, and becomes a close friend with Volta, learning more about his life and feelings as well. Rowan's new training is very physical, and Goddard forces Rowan to train his body into a weapon of death. Soon into Rowan's training, Goddard replaces the training dummies with real people (who agree after being paid for their role); Rowan thenceforth practices killcraft by rendering hundreds of people deadish during training, each day killing twelve people and leaving the thirteenth alive.
Rowan joins Goddard and his team on their mass gleanings. Because he is not a scythe, Rowan cannot glean anyone, so he is in charge of making sure no one escapes while causing havoc as well. Rowan goes against Goddard's orders, however, and secretly helps people escape some of the mass gleanings. Some of the time, however, he is used as a weapon caddy by Goddard, reloading or switching out weapons, and cannot help any of the victims.
At the Harvest Conclave, Rowan sees Citra for the first time in four months. She tells him about her research on Faraday and her theory that he was murdered, instead of a self-gleaning. He acknowledges the possibility that Faraday might have been murdered and has his suspicions on Goddard. Later Rowan and Citra face off in a competition in the martial art of Bokator. At first, Rowan tries to purposefully lose to Citra, but she does the same, making it look like Rowan is winning the match. With 10 seconds left in the match, Rowan intentionally breaks Citra's neck, disqualifying him and rendering Citra deadish. For killing Citra in such a brutal way, Goddard throws a party for Rowan where he runs into Tyger, his old friend, who is now a professional partier after his family threw him out. Rowan later asks Goddard if he had killed Faraday, for he was having some second thoughts. Goddard takes this as an insult and storms off.
Goddard and his team attempt a mass gleaning at a Tonist Cult. Just like the other gleanings, Rowan secretly helps people escape. He finds Volta covered in blood gushing from his wrists outside a classroom because Volta felt guilty for gleaning the children, noticing how he was becoming a mindless killing machine. Before he self-gleans, Scythe Volta tells Rowan his real name, Shawn Dobson, and has Rowan promise to be a better scythe than he was. Rowan then finds Goddard, who wants Rowan to glean the last remaining Tonist; instead, Rowan decapitates Goddard, breaks Rand's spine, and strikes Chomsky with a Tonist mallet. He then sets the building on fire and escapes by wearing Goddard's robes and ring, telling the first responders that it was a scythe matter and that they are not to intervene.
For his final test to be ordained into scythehood, which involves rendering a loved one deadish, Rowan shoots his mother before the instructions are read, while Citra, who had to kill Ben, talks through it with her brother and quickly stabs him. At the Winter Conclave the next day, Citra is chosen to enter the Scythedom and is told to glean Rowan. Instead, Citra punches him in the face, getting his blood on her ring and granting him a year's worth of immunity. Rowan tells Citra that he loves her, then grabs three blades and escapes. Several scythes try to stop him, but Rowan manages to get outside into a car waiting for him with Scythe Faraday at the wheel.
Thunderhead[]
Rowan calls himself Scythe Lucifer and is ending corrupt scythes who are gleaning with cruelty, bias, and without compassion. When Tyger Salazar finds Rowan and tells him his father was gleaned by Scythe Brahms, Rowan then goes after Brahms. However, he is captured by Brahms, who is secretly working for Scythe Rand and held hostage by Rand. While in the custody of Scythe Rand, Rowan is forced to fight his friend Tyger, who thinks that he is being trained to become a scythe. Tyger never wins, and Rowan doesn't let him.
Later, while Rowan is being kept in a room, the door opens and Tyger's body is rolled in with Goddard's head reattached to the top of Tyger's. Rowan is horrified. From then on, Rowan is forced to fight Goddard, so that Goddard can keep training Tyger's body to be one suitable for a scythe. Rowan never lets Goddard win, and in his anger, Goddard kills him over and over again.
Goddard takes Rowan to Endura to face charges for his crimes. When he's taken there he tells himself that he's ready to be gleaned. His only regret was that he wouldn't get to see Citra again.
He vows to himself that if he sees Citra at the assembly, he would smile and wink at her as one last act of defiance.
The next morning, Rand comes into Rowan's room and helps him escape. She tells him the way to get out of the building and warns him to get off of the island as quickly as possible.
Rowan meets with Citra on the streets of Endura as the island begins to collapse. Rowan warns Citra that Goddard has something terrible planned and that they have to flee the island. After seeing there was no way off the island, Curie takes Rowan and Citra to the Museum of the Scythedom and through the locked doors into the Vault of Relics and Futures. There, Curie closes the door on them, trapping them inside. Rowan realizes that she did this so that when the island sinks, their bodies would be rendered deadish until the ruins of the island are searched and they can be revived.
The Toll[]
3 years after Endura sank, the vault Citra and Rowan were trapped in was lifted from the sea. He is revived in Amazonia.
Rowan is captured by Scythe Goddard, who wants to have Rowan executed publicly by burning him. He escapes gleaning at the last second thanks to the scythes from the LoneStar region; they later ask him to work for them in exchange for his and his family's safety. Reluctantly, he accepts.
While on a mission in the Land of the Rising Sun, he is approached by a robot who turns out to be Cirrus Alpha, who is talking to him on behalf of the Thunderhead, asking him to get on a ship. He arrives in Kwajalein, where he finally reunites with Citra. They both decide to board one of the colonizer ships.
The following day, Goddard attacks the ships with missiles. While Rowan and Citra attempt to get on one of the colonizer ships, Citra is badly struck by debris from a missile, which renders her deadish. At first, Rowan wants to be rendered deadish too, but Cirrus convinces him not to, and he decides to wait for her to lead the ship and make sure they all arrive safely to their destination. After arriving, Rowan turns his first corner, so he looks 18 years old again, and Citra awakes to the sight of him, who had waited 117 years for her.
Physical description[]
Rowan has dark hair and lightly freckled skin. Due to his training with Scythe Faraday, and later Scythe Goddard, he is extremely physically fit. Through his extensive and brutal apprenticeship, Rowan gained the skills necessary to become Scythe Lucifer. [2]
Personality[]
Prior to his scythe training, Rowan tended to do things not because they were right, but because it made someone happy. Rowan is selfless and empathetic. Rowan is still a teenager, having a crush on Citra, and looks at a girl during Goddard’s party. Rowan has one of the most mortal feelings in the post-mortal age next to Scythe Faraday.
While training under Scythe Goddard, he began to enjoy his training in the art of killcraft, a fact for which he loathed himself, being morally opposed to taking any enjoyment from gleaning. Despite his moral concerns, however, he consistently pretended to go along with Godddard until the attack on the Tonist monastery and Volta's self-gleaning. After (temporarily) killing Goddard instead of the Tonist curate Goddard intended for him to kill, Rowan became Scythe Lucifer.[2] Rowan is still emotional, rather than ruthless - he wants to see Citra, and he cries after his father’s gleaning - and chooses to be a vigilante in order to improve the corrupted Scythedom.[3] He endures a lot of mental pain and doubt as Scythe Lucifer, thinking of Citra to sweeten the moment, or just wanting to be numb.[4]
Gleaning method[]
Scythe Lucifer only gleans corrupt scythes. His victims each had a merciful death and were found consumed by fire under mysterious circumstances.
Scythe Lucifer granted Scythe Brahms a chance to repent rather than facing gleaning. In return, Brahms gleaned Rowan's father. Rowan returns in anger to kill Brahms, but is captured instead.[2]
After being saved from Goddard's theatrical funeral pyre, Rowan is coerced into killing scythes chosen by LoneStar scythes, who indirectly threaten his family to ensure his compliance.[4]
Relationships[]
Romances[]
- Citra Terranova: Citra and Rowan met for the first time at the Grand Opera, thinking someone had set them up for a date. Later on, Scythe Faraday reveals to both that they have been chosen as scythe apprentices; both accept the apprenticeship and move into Scythe Faraday's house. Despite being rivals, Rowan finds himself attracted to Citra, and both of them start to develop feelings for each other, going so far as to kiss. After being forcibly separated, they reunite at the sinking of Endura where the pair consummates the relationship before going deadish due to hypothermia. They are separated after revival. They reunite again on the atoll and decide to board one of the rockets together, but Citra is unexpectedly rendered deadish from a flying piece of metal. She is kept preserved with the rest of the dead colonists. After a little over a hundred years, she is revived on their new planet and is reunited with Rowan.[4]
Friends[]
- Tyger Salazar: Tyger was Rowan's best friend previous to his scythe apprenticeship, even though they were very different. Tyger often splatted and Rowan was always by his side during revival. Rowan invites Tyger to Scythe Faraday's house when he is away.[2] Rowan warns Tyger about working under Scythe Rand, but Tyger ignores his warnings and is gleaned. His body is used to revive Goddard. Tyger was picked to be used because of his connection to Rowan.[3]
- Scythe Faraday: Scythe Faraday was Rowan's first mentor. He taught Rowan and Citra to glean with compassion. Scythe Faraday goes as far as to fake his death to save Rowan's life (and Citra's). After Rowan finds that Faraday is still alive, he stays with him for a while, before becoming Scythe Lucifer, which Faraday advises against, but does not stop him. He was the first one to introduce Rowan to the world of the Scythedom and is a fatherly figure, and a friend to Rowan.
- Scythe Volta: He was Scythe Goddard's junior scythe when Rowan became Goddard's apprentice. Rowan realizes Volta leans more towards the teachings of the old guard because he feels bad for gleaning like a new order scythe, and they become close friends. Volta had wanted Rowan to split off together from Goddard for good if he was ordained.
Enemies[]
- Scythe Goddard: Once his mentor, he always hated Goddard's methods and ideology, but hid it. Goddard, not realizing this, praised and was generally proud of Rowan. He didn't realize that Rowan wasn't actually bloodthirsty (for example him secretly helping people escape mass gleanings), and as a present gave Rowan the 'privilege' to glean one of the Tonists. After he's revived, he's disappointed that Rowan wasn't who he thought, and that he couldn't and wouldn't ever be his junior scythe. Right before Rowan's scheduled execution, Goddard, as warmly as a heartless monster can be, greets him. He says that Scythe Lucifer was an entity that could be put to good use for the world and insists that what's good for himself is to the world's benefit too.
- LoneStar Scythedom: Despite freeing him, the Texas Scythedom only did so to have Scythe Lucifer glean scythes they disliked. They threatened him by telling his family was in their custody, they could talk to him, and that terrified Roman imagining his mother telling him to kill. It didn’t last long, thanks to Cirrus.
Appearances[]
- Scythe (first appearance)
- Never Work with Animals
- Unsavory Row (mentioned only)
- Thunderhead
- Anastasia's Shadow (mentioned only)
- The Toll
Gallery[]
.jpg "Rowan Damisch (Scythe Lucifer).jpg (64 KB)")
Quotes[]
- "People believe what they want to believe."[2]
- "But I do want to save the Scythedom. And I believe this is the only way to do it."[3]
- “It’s my pleasure to be your displeasure.”[3]
- “Better to be numb than plagued by longing for something that could never be.”[4]
- "Kind of like dying in his sleep." … "It's how they say all mortals wanted to go. In their sleep, peacefully, without ever knowing. I guess it makes sense?”[2]
Trivia[]
- Rowan's parents had seen so many birthdays that by the time Rowan was born, they had stopped celebrating them. Rowan never had a birthday party and was lucky if his parents got him a gift.[2]
- Rowan founded a club at school called the Iceberg Heads, which had nearly two dozen members. Tyger often joked about breaking away to start a "romaine revolt."
- When it was Rowan's turn to make breakfast during their scythe apprenticeship, Citra called his hash browns "hash pales" because Rowan never cooked the potatoes long enough.[2]
- Rowan loves dogs, but Scythe Brahms dog Requiem made him wish there were canine scythes.[3]
- The first word Rowan says in the entire series is "Hey." when greeting Tyger from his splat, and the first thing he says to Citra upon her waking up at the end of The Toll is "Hey".