Deirdre's daughter by Cortland and the thirteenth witch. She represents the fulfillment of her ancestor's most powerful genetic traits and paranormal abilities.
Carlotta, Rowan's great-aunt, is her guardian. She named her Rowan for the small tree with red berries associated in Britain with the Druids and believed to have the power to ward off witchcraft and evil.
Born, November 7, 1959, Carlotta immediately took Rowan from her mother and gave her to Ellie Mayfair and Graham Franklin to adopt. Carlotta believed this would break the hold on the family and end the chain of evil. Ellie is made to promise that she will never tell Rowan of her family heritage or allow her to return to New Orleans. Though Rowan grows up knowing nothing of her mother or ancestors, the Talamasca keeps track of her, keeping a large file of her and her family.
At age thirty, she is five foot, ten inches tall, with blond hair and gray eyes. She is brilliant, aloof and independent. She has many of Petyr van Abele’s traits, but resembles Julien the most. She possesses an extra set of chromosomes that lie dormant until Lasher activates them.
Rowan pursues a medical career, becoming a neurosurgeon and gains a reputation for being the best doctor in her program.
Rowan possess an innate diagnostic skill and can transmute matter to heal or kill. She has killed three times in her life that she knows of, simply by becoming enraged (the Talamasca believe it to be six).
Eventually, the Talamasca approach Rowan with the files they have kept on her and her family, she declines, remembering her promise to Ellie not to look into her family history.
In her spare time, she likes to take her forty-foot cabin cruiser, The Sweet Christine, out in the ocean. One day while out on the ocean, she spots a man in the water and pulls him onboard. Though he has drowned, she senses life in him and brings him back.
She later learns the man is Michael Curry and he has acquired a psychometric ability that he did not possess before the drowning. They meet sometime after the accident and fall in love, though Michael leaves for New Orleans.
The night that Michael leaves, Deirdre dies and Lasher appears to Rowan outside her window at the exact same moment. Carlotta calls to inform Ellie about Deirdre, not knowing she has passed away. She is forced to speak to Rowan and informs her of her inheritance. Defying Ellie's last wishes, she goes to New Orleans for her mother's funeral. Once there, she finds she has many relatives that she has never known.
Carlotta invites Rowan to First Street and whilst there, informs her of all the evil that has happened, things that Carlotta herself has done in the name of goodness. Rowan uses her power to kill Carlotta, but it looks like she has suffered from a heart attack.
Michael arrives at the First Street house with the Talamasca file on the Mayfair witches. He offers it to Rowan and she reads it, finding all about her family and how she acquired her powers.
Michael takes over the houses renovations and soon get married. Before long, Rowan is pregnant.
Michael worries about Lasher and what he will do next. Rowan dismisses his fears and sets about building a state of the art medical centre, using legacy funds.
Rowan is confident that she can use her power to rid the house of the spirit. Her over confidence in her own abilities to control Lasher, make it easy for him to seduce her.
On her wedding night, Lasher finally appears to Rowan and informs her that she is the doorway. Secretly, she starts to spend time with him to learn all she can from him. The more she learns, the more she succumbs to his gentle, pleasurable, innocent aura, allowing him to give her sexual pleasure. She becomes addicted to it.
Eventually, the scientist in her wins and she decides to help Lasher become flesh, believing that once he has come through, she will be able to control him.
On Christmas Eve, Rowan gives birth to her child with Lasher's spirit infused into it. She is enraged, but unable to kill him for tricking her. She uses her powers to help his cells adjust to his control and then he quickly grows into a tall, thin man with black hair and blue eyes. She feels possessive and protective, excited and ambitious. She created him and she erroneously believes she can handle him.
When Michael returns to the house, he sees what Rowan has done. Michael and Lasher fight, with Rowan eventually leaving with him.
Thinking she has control of Lasher, she willingly accompanies him so she can study him. He drinks milk from her to grow, while doing this, he has sex with her and she becomes pregnant. She miscarries several times, but eventually a fetus begins to grow. Lasher then forces Rowan to stay with him, dragging her to Donnelaith.
Soon, Lasher ties Rowan up, knowing she wants to escape from him. Lasher has named the child
Rowan is carrying, Emaleth. While tied up, Rowan talks to her, instructing her to go to New Orleans should she be born.
Rowan eventually escapes, getting a lift with a truck driver who takes her as far as St. Martinville.
When she realises she is giving birth, she goes out under Gabriel's Oak and has Emaleth, she then enters a coma. Emaleth, having grown to full adulthood, alerts people to Rowan's condition so she can be found.
An emergency hysterectomy is performed. With Rowan no longer able to bear children, the family lawyers name Mona as the next designee of the legacy.
Emaleth comes to First Street and gives milk to Rowan, reviving her from the coma. She screams for Michael to kill Emaleth, which he cannot, so she does it herself. Mourning the loss of her child, she sits mute and distant under Deirdre's Oak for three weeks. Nothing seems to reach her, until when Beatrice announces that Aaron has been killed. She rises and asks to see the body.
Rowan decides to help the Talamasca find all responsible for Aaron's death. She goes to London. While there, she hears of Ashlar, another Taltos and meets with him. Ashlar informs Rowan that Stuart Gordon is one responsible for Aaron's death. He pulls a gun on Ashlar, but before he could shoot him, Rowan causes him to have a heart attack.
Michael and Rowan travel with Ashlar to New York, where he tells them his story. Rowan regrets her loss of Emaleth, but Ashlar assures her that it is better for the human race that there are no female Taltos.
Upon returning home, Rowan finds that Mona has given birth to another Taltos, Morrigen. Rowan is unsure what to do. She doesn't know if she should kill the Taltos or allow it to survive. Morrigen smells Ashlar's scent on Rowan and demands to know where the male Taltos is. While Rowan decides what to do, Ashlar makes a trip to New Orleans and finds Morrigen himself. Ashlar leaves with Morrigen, leaving Rowan to live with the pain of not having honored her friendship with Ashlar by telling him of her knowledge of a female Taltos.