InsaneJournal

NAME: Thorfinn Alistair Rowle / close family calls him "Finn"
AGE/BIRTHDAY: 23/ 4 December 1957
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood. And not half-giant, contrary to popular belief. Pureblood.
FORMER HOUSE: Slytherin, graduated 1976
HOMETOWN: Wilton, Wiltshire
OCCUPATION: Unemployed rich kid / Currently Voldemort’s unpaid intern of mayhem and domestic Death Eater terrorism. Formerly Beater #1 of the Falmouth Falcolns until a death that he caused during a match banned him from play permanently.

FAMILY:
Argus Arnold Rowle. Father, graduated Slytherin ‘50. Distant and usually busy with the family company of four centuries - charmed textile manufacturing. Argus stays away from the house for the most part, too ashamed to associate with what his son has done to their family’s prestige. Practical and Type A-personality to a fault, closely related to the Goldstein line of Jewish wizards, though of a branch of the family tree not practicing the religion.
Annelise Hildegarde Rowle (formerly Mulciber). Mother, graduated Ravenclaw ‘53. Upper crust society lady turned housewife. Spoils her son rotten, is only now suffering the consequences. Makes concessions for her son and his behaviour, coddles and has certainly helped fuel his lack of remorse.


Mulciber. TBA. Cousin, closest thing to a brother Thorfinn has ever had. Nearly inseparable since their days as kids and well on into school.
Zylphia Derwent. zylphine. Formerly betrothed, ex-fiancee. Thorfinn has since broken the engagement after Zylphia threatened to out the Death Eaters' location after the birth of Draco Malfoy - which Rowle considered an unforgivable betrayal of trust. Currently remains with the Death Eater ranks overseas, a giant thorn in his side.


SEXUALITY: Heterosexual.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Currently single and unattached - since breaking his arranged engagement to Zylphia Derwent.
CHILDREN:: He wouldn't be a good Pureblood male if he didn't want to have children at some point, and he does. It's the right thing to do. Even if the thought terrifies him in a way, after a brief pregnancy scare with a girl he had a brief affair with.
PETS: An Airedale puppy he named Macduff. Though Alecto Carrow has since given it a proper name, "Macduff Rowle-Carrow."

LOYALTY/ALLIANCE: Death Eaters. Marked shortly after his Quidditch incident. Loyal to Death Eaters and the overall cause of Pureblooded wizard dominance in the face of the threats to it by muggles and those wizards who too closely associate with muggles.

ROLE IN THE WAR: He’s six foot five and sixteen stone. His role in the war is essentially physical intimidation and domination. After his expulsion from the Quidditch pitch, the young man proved quite an effective muscle for the Death Eater cause. Thorfinn was sent with the task of setting fire to houses, physical torture of those contrary to their political ideals, being the muscle and the threat of bodily injury behind the message of hate and wizarding purist dominance. He’s powerful and dominating and Voldemort knew this quite well. He may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer in terms of planning and machinations as much as his other colleagues, but he’s the overgrown school bully who can quite literally kill with his bare hands if need be. Thorfinn is a loyal fighter for the cause, and follows direction exceptionally well. He's also proven to be particularly adept with explosion curses and hexes, casting lethal, forceful Expulsos, his specialty.

POLITICAL VIEWS: Muggles are dangerous, dirty, violent and stupid creatures who only want to destroy themselves and the world around them, as he sees this all throughout his idea of muggle and magical history. They burnt his kind at the stake, they caused wars and spread disease and ruin worlds and now have bombs. Their squabbling even carries on over to the wizarding world, as his parents do remember the muggle blitzes of the second World War. Muggles are a danger to the world and Thorfinn subscribes heavily to the idea that they can only be stopped by enslavement by Pureblooded wizards. Mixed bloodlines only further the stretching of the Statute of Secrecy, and their world as they know it could be ruined by this miscegenation, as he thinks of it. Blood purity is of most importance to a world going to shite, and Thorfinn believes it can only be stopped through physical violence and terror. He’s a poster boy of the Death Eater cause in that way. He doesn’t approve of werewolves and vampires and other “creatures” being brought into the ranks, and thinks it’s a joke to give them any thought that they have any sway. He might as well have “Magic is Might” tattooed on his chest. He remains paranoid about muggle technology and convinced that their harnessing of atomic energy will cause the end of the world. However, the journeys overseas have caused him to test how willing he is to interact with muggles - as he has had to branch out and eat at muggle restaurants.

APPEARANCE: At first glance, anyone would comment with how handsome that young man is. And really, if you look at him without knowing anything about him, he is a quite handsome, strapping sort of man. He’s very tall, standing at six foot five, with broad shoulders and a strong, muscular upper body built up from Quidditch. His height is primarily from his long legs, as opposed to his torso, which means he finds it difficult to sit in cramped, small spaces often. His family often comments on his prominent profile and large nose, "a Goldstein trait" as his father calls it. With bright blue eyes, a square jaw (“nice bone structure,” as his mother calls it), and dark blonde, well-combed hair, he doesn’t exactly look like your garden-variety terrorist, much less a hulking villain in a dark robe. He looks more preppy, and he certainly dresses that way, too - preferring plain, comfortable clothes and has no problem wearing a simple tie and suit if the occasion calls for it. Thorfinn has a very low, deep voice - slightly snobby, often sounding entitled, not often using muggle slang as he's simply not used to it, with the exception of a few cutting curse words. You'll practically never hear him say "yeah" or "okay," as his mother has taught him better than that. It’s slightly unsettling when you hear him swear in his voice, actually. He can raise his voice loudly and not actually yell, though a few can push him to get to angry, screaming matches. He’s very unapproachable, as a blonde, giant athlete of a bloke isn’t really the easiest for anyone to speak to - smiles of a genuine variety not grounded in sneering or sarcasm are extremely rare, and he often keeps a stoic, tight-lipped expression on his face to command respect at all times. Thorfinn, despite his physical prowess, is a tad on the clumsy, lumbering side, and takes heavy, obvious steps as he walks. Clearly he is more graceful on a broom than on the ground, and is still getting used to being out of the sky so often.

CHILDHOOD:
The Rowles were never as notable in English Purist society as say, the Malfoys or the Blacks, by any means, and some always thought of them as somewhat lessened by the fact that they made their own fortune in the charmed textile business - manufacturing and importing, mostly, a business started by the Goldstein family, Jewish wizarding merchants and the closest relatives to the Rowle name. Argus Rowle followed the same path his father and so on and so forth had gone down, in inheriting the company and furthering the legacy. Some of the old Purist families think of the Rowles as “nouveau riche,” and their Pureblood lineage as not as noble as others, as their bloodlines are muddled and lost before the company was established centuries previously, but the Rowles always tried to keep their heads high and become assimilated in the society. When Argus married a daughter of one of the Mulcibers, however, their title was pretty much established. Annelise and Argus had a pre-establised and conventional marriage after graduating from Hogwarts, moving into the family manor in Wiltshire. Their first (and only) child, Thorfinn, was born some years later, much to Annelise’s dismay, as she’d been whinging to Argus for years and years that all of her friends were having children before she did - like any proper Purist lady.

Argus decided they had one son and that was enough, as any other children would just be expensive and after all, Thorfinn was a healthy boy with good Rowle genes, and any other child would just be a disappointment. As a result, Thorfinn was absolutely spoiled by his mother, and given a healthy ego to match as a result. He was the pride and joy of the small family, given all of the grounds to run about on, all the house elves to bully and boss around, told he was the best and the brightest, bought all the best magical tutors and playmates and given the best Quidditch trainer and nannies the Rowles could afford. Anything to ensure her son would grow up to be healthy and smart, regardless of what all the pampering and instant gratification would later do to him. He was very healthy, that was for certain, with natural, seemingly inate athletic ability that was allowed to blossom and grow, which was at least something Annelise Rowle did well for him. He spent much time with his cousins on the Mulciber side, which had the same passion for bossing around the house elves as he did, and everyone always loved to comment how Thorfinn latched onto his Mulciber cousin like two peas in a pod, how he seemed to learn from Thorfinn, how well they’d do together in school. That was, after all, what children were raised to do - to go to Hogwarts, to get sorted into Slytherin like any decent family’s children were (leaving the fact out that she herself wasn’t, though according to her, women weren’t as important in terms of house as men were), to make connections and perhaps have that help them rise to glory and political power.

Annelise, however, was already telling him what a good Quidditch player he’d grow to be. He’d be as tall as his father, as strong as his uncles on the Mulciber side, and be a big star - he’d have his face on all the Quidditch banners and have a broom even named after him. And that would bring money. And happiness. Lots and lots of happiness.

But he had to get to Hogwarts first.

HOGWARTS:

As predicted, when Thorfinn got his letter and entered Hogwarts in 1969, he did his family proud and was sorted into Slytherin. It was most certainly because of his name, really, as Thorfinn proved to not be as ambitious and cunning as some of his housemates. His sole goal was Quidditch, and to make it on the team as soon as he could, and that would hopefully allow him to skate on by everything else. His ambition only applied to fame and glory in the Quidditch pitch, and he almost felt as if he was powerless if he wasn’t on the house team. To make up for this, he had to prove his power by bossing those around who he thought were lesser than him - his classmates who weren’t in Slytherin, mostly. He got in fights and scraps with other students, trying to assert his authority and power, what he was used to doing at home - he was alpha male in the Rowle household, and this school was a waste of time if they didn’t realize that. Surprisingly, Thorfinn didn’t make much in the way of friends outside his own house, but he didn’t treat those around him much better, either.

It got worse when he finally made it to the Quidditch team as a Beater for Slytherin in his second year. The bully got his validation and proof that he was as good as he thought he was, and even worse - he was given a bat to hit bludgers with. His prowess on the pitch grew, as did his ego to match, but conversely his grades started to slip. Thorfinn was always an average student, skating by and doing just what he had to do to stay on the team, thinking he could always just have his mother send a howler to a professor who got too mouthy with him. He knew better than to start fights with professors, he just felt as if they were wasting his time. Many times he paid other students to do his homework for him, or borrowed inventive ways to cheat on exams to get decent marks. His mind was always on Quidditch.

Meanwhile at home, Annelise was taking her job as a Purist society wife very, very seriously, and perhaps still sticking to old, out-dated traditions. She was arranging a marriage for her son to the daughter of one of their family friends and obviously, a good Purist girl - Zylphia Derwent. The situation was awkward already for two adolescents, and the Rowle’s son almost saw it as a joke - or at least someone to pick on and boss around because after all, they were going to be married later on so she might as well get used to following orders. Their relationship pretty much carried on this same pattern, with some complication later on, as they started to mature together and thought perhaps they’d been tricked into fancying eachother. It was indeed a long story, one with the details still muddied due to who you ask, but one thing remains - it’s complicated. Thorfinn would never admit it, but even early on, she maintained the advantage in their fights - as he can tell you from one occasion involving having to apply ice potions to his groin after being kicked by her. Nevertheless, Thorfinn never took it too seriously, as other girls were certainly attracted to the Slytherin Quidditch player, and willing to make up for "attention" that Rowle didn't get from Zylphia.

Thorfinn excelled at Quidditch and was indeed a force to be reckoned with on the pitch, especially during his growth-spurt before fifth year. He grew very, very tall, over the rest of the students, which didn’t exactly help him grow more humble. No, now it was easier for him to throw smaller kids into walls, get people in headlocks, and generally be a feared bully all through the school. It’s no wonder his cousin was also becoming quite a good bully with his own group of friends himself. He had a good role model to look up to, though while the younger Slytherin Purists wanted to start playing with dark magic, Thorfinn didn’t think he had to rely on that for everything. He was scary and better than everyone on his own. At that time, politics didn’t play as much of a part in his life in the sheltered school, apart from thinking all the mudbloods interacting with muggles was dangerous to their way of life - he was still too busy with his Quidditch game.

In his seventh year, it all paid off. A scout from the Falmouth Falcons came to see a match and the tall Slytherin beater was a major standout. The team was known for a rough game already, and Thorfinn played a brutal game - one people would definitely want to see, one the Falcons were already known for. At the same time, other teams wanted him as well, but even before his final exam marks came back, he was signed to the team. As a result, he was so excited he only got average NEWTs scores, keeping him effectively out of a position at the Ministry, but he didn’t care, and his parents certainly didn’t care either. He was going to be a Quidditch star.

POST-HOGWARTS:
Thorfinn effectively coasted through training, though was known to get into some little squabbles with his older teammates. They complained he was too rough, didn’t want to cooperate, but the managers and coaches of the team thought he’d work through it. He was a first string beater as of February the year following his Hogwarts graduation, something his mother was terribly proud of, which gave her bragging rights all throughout the right circles, or so she thought. His father always maintained it was good he was given something to do, as his son was as dull as those bludgers he was sent to smack around the pitch day in and day out. Being a professional athlete, and a Quidditch player at that, brought with it prestige and attention that even the spoiled rich boy had never experienced before. Women threw themselves at him, his fiancee was actually being somewhat nice to him because he was a professional athlete, he was allowed to spend more time away from his mother, he was able to spend money how he wanted without having to go through his parents, and generally lived it up. Thorfinn was popular and praised for something he’d been doing for years - quite essentially, kicking arse and playing a game he loved. It was the life, it was. Sure, there were some complications - there was increased media attention, as the press wanted to know more about his life, and pestered his family members and his betrothed fiancee. It made it difficult to keep his infidelities and "life as a popular Quidditch player" difficult, as rumours swirled of affairs and women and parties, which the press latched onto voraciously. Yet Thorfinn never saw a problem with it - he was a Quidditch player. These things were to be expected.

That life came to an end a few days following his twenty-first birthday. During a match with the Appleby Arrows, a team known for their skilled seeker, Randall Quinnfirth, a terrible accident happened. Well, perhaps it was intentional, but official investigation has been over and the case is officially closed. At any rate, in a “freak accident” as the papers called it, Thorfinn hit Quinnfirth’s skull rather than the bludger itself, causing instant brain trauma and death even before he hit the ground. It was a gruesome media frenzy that Thorfinn didn’t do anything to stop or remedy. In his opinion, it was Quinnfirth’s own fault that he got in the way, it was a stupid mistake - not on Thorfinn’s fault, mind you, he said in press conferences. The more press conferences he made, the worse it became. Thorfinn was not at all sorry for what he’d done, and showed pure annoyance at the constant barrage of questions. The young man showed no remorse and went as far as to snap angrily during one interview with the sports section of the Daily Prophet, quoted as saying “He’s married to a muggle, clearly his head was not in the right place.”

Speculation ran rampant as to whether or not it was premeditated, and that just poured more fuel onto the fire. The victim’s family called Rowle a murderer in the international wizarding press, people wrote in and began boycotting the Falcons, and the Quidditch team had no choice but to fire the young man. The British Irish Quidditch League took it even further, and wanted to make an example of this tragedy, and banned Thorfinn Rowle from taking part in a professional match of Quidditch ever again, for the rest of his life.

The twenty-one year old thus was into a forced, unpaid retirement only years after his career had started. Forced to move back in full time with his mother and father, he didn’t leave the house for a good five months, mostly spending his time breaking things and being fed by the house elves and trying to get rid of everything that reminded him of Quidditch. . .which was everything in his room. It was only his fiancee who was able to coax him out of his self-imposed exile in his own home, by giving him a ‘tough love’ sort of talk, which really only amounted to “how am I supposed to marry you now?” Well that was the question, really, as the purist circles had begun to turn themselves away from the Rowle family. The way Thorfinn had conducted himself was appalling and not at all gentlemanly, as one just couldn’t come out with their political feelings that way in public, even though they all did agree with him behind closed doors. Regardless, Thorfinn picked up the pieces and tried to fix his ruined, job-less life, even if the women in his life essentially did the job for him, naturally.

However, it was around this time that Voldemort himself approached the vulnerable young man, and offered him a way to regain what he’d lost in the “act of valor for the fight of wizard dominance.” He wooed him with such grandiose talk, glorifying what Thorfinn had done, telling him what great deeds he could do for the cause. Thorfinn was just wounded enough that he had nothing else to lose, so he agreed. He had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, and he was emotionally numb when he took the dark mark.

The incident with the Arrows had left its mark on the young man as well, and he never fully recovered. He found it satisfying to purge his anger with the evil deeds Voldemort had him do, which has been his life for the past year. After Voldemort’s death, it was Thorfinn who was left behind in England to keep the fear of angering Death Eaters alive - he burned houses, he tortured, he did these things because he had nothing else to do with himself, and it felt good to feel powerful after everything had been stripped away. It was he who burned the homes of those who celebrated a little bit too vocally after Voldemort’s death by Dumbledore, he who kept the families of those targetted as terrorists in fear, and tried to keep that feeling of danger in England. He has no other lows to sink to, so why not be the sacrificial lamb of purist society? He can take the blows. With every deed and every pain, he forgets about the one mistake that he ever had to pay for.

After the Dark Lord's death, Thorfinn found himself called out to Peru after the move from Romania. He quickly found himself clashing with the other young members in the ranks, as he didn't quite agree with how they were conducting themselves, but felt more initiative to prove himself and fight for the cause and find the Horcruxes before the other groups did. His progress was slightly swayed at first when he requested that a girl he was "seeing" at the time join him in Peru, a girl named Isabel, and a daughter of the Burke family, but his distraction proved to be useful when he found Tom Riddle's diary while looking for a gift for her. She became his motivation and something to fight for, as he was convinced he was going to leave his betrothed fiancee for her and marry her instead, and that was the idea through New Orleans and New York City. A brief pregnancy scare, increased bickering, his pressure for her safety, and other differences led to their rushed relationship ending, and perhaps they got too heavy too fast, but for a few months, Thorfinn did feel as if he did love her. For those months, he did feel like he was useful and strong and that he could better himself for her, and wanted to be better for her - and she supported his work for the cause, as a Marked Death Eater. Since she left him upon their quick return to England, Thorfinn's tried to keep the affair quiet, as he'd rather just forget about it and move on - which is proving to be more difficult, especially as Zylphia joined him in Egypt. Still, some of the Death Eaters there from the beginning know of how deeply it has affected him so far, and how it's led to his behaviour and intentions in breaking his engagement to Zylphia.

FIVE THINGS: Five things you've always wanted to RP out/explore about this character but have never gotten the chance to do before, why you picked this character, things you're most looking forward to playing out with this character, etc. Try to include at least one plot idea for your character. Providing this information helps the mod and other players build plots around your character.



• Reason 1 - I picked this character because one) We needed more Death Eaters, and two) for some reason I only feel I’m good at playing spoiled bratty boys with conservative political leanings. Which doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know. One of the best characters I ever played was a spoiled purist brat boy at a game filled with sues he didn’t quite fit in with, so I feel like this is a second chance to really let that kind of character grow.



• Reason 2 - Someone needs to keep those damn Death Eater kids in line. Running around with spiders and muggles and mucking everything up. Yep. The party don’t start ‘til Thorfinn walks in. I love that kind of interaction, and can’t wait to play that out and see what happens.



•Reason 3 - While Thorfinn can totally work as a standalone character, or else I wouldn’t have brought him in, I would love Love LOVE him to have a turbulent, complicated relationship with his betrothed future-wife. A girl he thinks he can totally control who has to teach him how to act around people, and who uses him for her own gain. He may think he's the big man of the house, but it's her who has full control over him. That would be awesome and I would give my first-born if that were to happen. But if not, it’s totally still cool. He’s not made to be shipped, though it’s awesome if he were able to have some girl to fight with and whine at. It just has the makings for a great, complex relationship, I think.



• Reason 4 - Just the sheer comedic value of dropping a painfully English rich kid in the middle of the Peruvian jungle and all the other odd places they’ll go. He’s so xenophobic and deserves to be uncomfortable and pay penance for everything he’s done. I’d like to explore just what these Death Eaters will do for glory and serving their dark lord.



• Reason 5 - I love playing narcissistic, stupid guys who are always so self-aware of how they look and what they act like, but don’t have the best intelligence quotient. I just love that, and can’t wait.



STRANDED: Your character is stranded on a deserted island. Which three items would your character would take with him/herself of personal value/ couldn't they couldn't live without and why? What one person would they pick to be stranded with? And alternatively, what would make this island their personal hell?

Three items on a deserted island:
1) His wand. What, like he’s really going to be stuck anywhere with that? Please. That would make him worse than a muggle, and he’s not that great at wandless magic yet.
2) Non-perishable food items. Canned beans. Something similar. He doesn’t know how to cook. That’s women’s work. Or something you have house elves do.
3) House elf. Better yet, just bring a house elf so you don’t have to actually do the work yourself.

One person he could be stranded with:
A girl. Doesn't matter who at this point to him. So she can take care of him. With food. And healing charms that he can't remember. And maybe even sex if it's not too much to ask.

Personal hell:
A muggle living area. Muggles and their radiation and atomic energy and disease and all. No. Keep him as far away as possible.