Rowan Ardency

Rowan's Ref Sheets (Land Form and Alicorn Form)

The Meaning of Rowan's Cutie Mark

Rowan himself does not know the true meaning of his cutie marks. However, I can tell you, the reader.

The three dark hearts represent three of the deepest, darkest feelings that he can tap into himself, and, in turn, is able to connect to them strongly with others.

Those feelings are: Determination, Devotion, and Desire.

The biggest dark heart is "determination", the medium dark heart is "devotion" and the smallest dark heart is "desire".

Rowan usually carries the positive version of these feelings, or he may feel the negative version of these inside of him when he is at unease. Either one of these feelings amplify his overall magical power.

Determination: If another pony emits or presents this feeling, Rowan has the power to feel exactly what the other person feels. While most of the time the forces of determination can be used for good, at times, it is known that it can be used for evil. When it becomes evil, it changes into Dark Determination.

Dark Determination: This is the strongest dark feeling of them all. This amplifies the ability of evil feelings in order to see one's evil plans through, no matter what! In this case, especially, Rowan is able to tap into these feelings, and may choose to either combat them with his own determined heart, or understand and soften those negative feelings with thoughtful conversation, because he understands this feeling all too well.

Devotion: Devotion is another powerful feeling similar to determination. This is also similar to a kind of attachment a person can feel—whether it is spiritual, religious, or not—but amplified to an unnecessarily strong value. When used positively, devotion can be used in a caring way for family, friends or loved ones. He is also aware devotion can be used in a negative, hateful way. In that case, it will change to Dark Devotion.

Dark Devotion: This describes power to turn devotion into revenge, vengeance or retribution against someone else, or even the entire world, so to speak, or even something as powerful as pure narcissism (which includes devotion to one's self, or feelings that result in hubris) he can tap into another's feelings of strong dark devotion to try and ease them down to normal if need be. This can often be paired with Dark Determination, but those feelings do not have to be together, necessarily.

Desire: Most living things naturally have desires. When put into a positive light, it can show a wanting for friendship, admiration, respect... or even something simple like wanting certain kinds of food or drinks. Desires come in many different forms. It is not the same as greed, which is an exaggerated need for more and more physical belongings, even to an extreme amount. Having healthy desires can actually be beneficial to keep oneself happy. But when used improperly, this changes into Dark Desire.

Dark Desire: When wanting things that are uncouth, meant to be kept secret, or just breaking rules of the norm, such as being taboo, these lead to dark desires. Wanting things is natural, but it is hard to make the excuse to want things that could end up hurting other people in some way. When someone else feels this way, he can try to normalize those feelings as best he can in a polite and kind way. Rowan also sometimes falls prey to this feeling himself, but he is able to try to keep things under control at least.

There are other negative energies, simply referred to as "dark feelings". It is a very generic term that covers the rest of the spectrum of negative feelings. He knows almost everyone may carry some dark feelings in their heart, in order to balance out the positive powers of light, love, magic, and friendship that exist. But not all darkness should be ignored, because it's a part of who someone is. He also knows anyone could feel upset every now and then. Deep, intense thoughts of loss, depression, suffering, agony, malice, hatred, trauma, etc... cause a great weight to be placed upon him emotionally. He bears that weight himself in order to try to help others... the Pony way!

It should be noted that feelings of "darkness" does not activate as strongly with weaker, down-to-earth feelings like stress, emptiness, apathy, rudeness, brattiness, deviousness, passive aggression, cynicism, criticism, etc... Though some of those negative feelings can be felt when directed to his more sensitive side as a pony, his actual dark heart powers only activate the strongest when someone else feels intensely sad or upset at things.

For example, when someone loses all hope, becomes entirely depressed, and is stuck in a feeling of abyss with no way out, that is the true feeling of despair. This heavily negative feeling can be tapped into, and Rowan can choose to relate heavily with someone with this feeling, or be a shining beacon of hope that will help others get through rough situations

When someone truly shows their darker side to him, his empathy grows, and he is able to powerfully relate back. He knows he cannot try to stop people from having these feelings, but his very strong will to try to make friends and make love with everyone (if they ask for his love) is so strong that he is willing to push through with someone else so they can find their most happy place in this world.