Rowan of Rin (series) - Premise

Premise

The Rowan stories take place in a fictional world, one that - by Rodda's own description and illustration - is small and its possibilities limited, a deliberate move to make the setting easier to interpret for younger readers. The stories always begin in the small village of Rin, isolated and buried in a lush valley a fair distance inland, at the foot of the forbidden Mountain. West of the Mountain is an unnavigable wasteland, and east of Rin lies a river that runs into the sea. On the coast is the larger, more populous city of Maris, home to the fish-like Maris people, and it is stated in Rowan and the Zebak that Maris is the only point on the coast where ships can land safely, as north and south of Maris the coast is lined by hazardous rocks and steep cliffs. Across the sea, to the east, lies the land of the Zebak; the Zebak territory is a desert, its city encased in steel walls and protected from land threats by the desolate, hazard-ridden Wastelands. On the western continent, a group of people known as the Travellers move in a nomadic fashion between Maris and Rin, trading and entertaining as they go.

The village of Rin was founded 300 years before Rowan of Rin begins, when the Zebak brought the Rin-folk as slaves from their land, to fight against the resilient coalition formed by the Maris-folk and the Travellers. The Keeper of the Crystal of Maris convinced the Rin warrior-slaves to turn against their Zebak masters; the Zebak were ultimately defeated, and the Rin-folk travelled west to find a place to establish a home. In Rowan and the Zebak, it is revealed that the original town of Rin was located inside the walls of the Zebak city, and that the stronger Rin slaves were taken by the Zebak, trained, and forced to fight during the invasion. In Rowan and the Zebak, Rowan aids the last remaining slaves of the first Rin, Norris and Shaaran, flee their Zebak oppressors and arrive safely in the new Rin with a "working girl" grach named Unos.

Rowan is a weak and timid boy, with a strong heart and mind but a frail, sickly body and a love for the gentle Bukshah. He is an oddity in Rin, the people of which value physical strength, chest hair and courage, and is looked down upon by all those that feel ashamed that he does not live up to his late father's reputation. He is designated the role of the Keeper of the Bukshah, a domesticated form of cattle. In Rowan of Rin, he proves himself to be the greatest hero of all the villagers; when his six brave, strong companions fall to the hazards of the forbidden Mountain, Rowan perseveres, faces the great Dragon, and escapes. In doing so, he saves the town by relieving the Dragon of its crippling wound; the Dragon then resumes melting the ice around its cave, causing the stream to flow down to the village.

In Rowan and the Travellers, he again proves his worth when the village falls to the silent, deadly power of the Mountain berries, a new fruit brought down from the Mountain by one of Rowan's original companions, Allun the baker.The berries are in fact the infantile forms of a vicious, carnivorous tree that grows beneath it; in their arrogance, the villagers weed out the natural slip-daisies to make room for the Mountain berries. The Mountain berry juice lulls them into a deep sleep, all except for Rowan, who - due to his hay fever - drinks a potion made of slip-daisy roots. Rowan's sickness, previously causing others to pity and dislike him, led to his being able to destroy the Mountain berries and prevent Rin from suffering the same fate as the Valley of Gold, a beautiful settlement overrun by the Mountain-berries and destroyed by their adult forms.

In Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal, he and his mother travel to Maris, where the great Crystal has dimmed and a new Keeper must be Chosen. Rowan's mother, Jiller, has inherited the role of Chooser from her ancestor, Leith, who came to Maris as a Zebak slave. Rowan and Jiller become acquainted with a Maris man called Perlain. Jiller is poisoned, however, and Rowan must Choose from three candidates instead; he delays, however, applying his wits and the candidates' abilities to finding a cure for the poison and saving Jiller. After the other candidates have left, it is revealed that Rowan's choice, Doss, is a Zebak spy. After briefly bonding with the crystal himself, however, Rowan realises that the power of the crystal is stronger than any other allegiance, and gives it to the Maris man. Doss becomes the new Keeper and repels the oncoming Zebak invasion.

In Rowan and the Zebak, Rowan's sister Annad is kidnapped by a Zebak flying creature called a grach. Rowan, accompanied by Allun the baker, Perlain of Pandellis, the Traveller Zeel and the spirit of the Wise Woman Sheba, ventures across the sea to the land of the Zebak. In the Zebak city, Rowan frees his sister and discovers the last descendants of the original Rin-folk, Norris and Shaaran. Their grandfather, Thiery, sacrifices himself to allow them to escape, back to the new Rin. The Zebak pursue them with a fleet of grach, but the invaders are repelled by the Dragon of the Mountain, whose dominion they had encroached upon. Rowan narrowly saves the townspeople from being incinerated by the Dragon's fire, proving his wits more valuable than the stubborn strength of the village leader, Lann.

In Rowan of the Bukshah, the village is plagued by a particularly long, harsh winter. The villagers, led by Sheba, flee to the coast, leaving behind Lann, Bronden, Norris, Shaaran, and Rowan, who insists on remaining to care for the restless bukshah. One night, ice creepers - enormous, snake-like monsters that radiate coldness - come down from the Mountain, feasting on Neel the potter, who had been hiding in the bukshah shed. Rowan, Norris, Shaaran, and Zeel follow the bukshah up the Mountain, to where the ice creepers have their nest, and aid the bukshah in breaking seals on the ice creepers' caverns, causing the heat from the Mountain to destroy most of them and end the Cold Time.

In each of the novels, Rodda reveals a little more about the history of Rin and its people. By the end of the series, the whole truth is learned:

Long before the time of men, the bukshah travelled up the Mountain every winter to feast on a grey fungus produced by the ice creepers. The bukshah were sustained for the winter, and the heat from the river of molten gold at Mountain Heart radiated into the ice creepers' cavern, maintaining a balance that controlled the population of the ice creepers and subdued the elemental rage in Mountain Heart. The valley behind the Mountain was eventually settled, and named the Valley of Gold. The people of this Valley learned the secrets of Mountain Heart, and deliberately prevented the bukshah from travelling up there; the fungus, uneaten, caused the river to flow with greater pressure, giving the people of the Valley more gold and riches. However, this also made the ice creepers more populous, causing the first Cold Time. The people eventually alllowed the Bukshah to climb the mountain again, and the balance was restored - but they never told their Traveller friends the Mountain's secret. Many years later, the people of the Valley of Gold discovered the mountain berries, but that winter, before the berries completed their life-cycle, the Zebak took a foothold in Maris and messengers were sent to the Valley asking for reinforcements. The people of the Valley left for the coast, but the keeper of the bukshah remained with the keeper of the silks, and soon one warrior returned - the people of the Valley had been captured by the Zebak before they'd even reached the coast. When the Bukshah left the Valley for Mountain Heart, the three companions followed them, hiding in the cave after the beasts had left. As the snow receded, the Mountain berries in the Valley spread, and overnight the abandoned Valley was overrun by the devil trees, transformed into the abhorred Pit of Unrin. The Mountain wall, undermined by the roots of the trees, collapsed, and Mountain Heart was blocked, sealing the companions inside. The people of the Valley of Gold,enslaved by the Zebak, founded the first village of Rin behind the walls of the Zebak city. Above their abandoned home, the companions lay dying and the Bukshah were kept from Mountain Heart, leaving the creepers to breed and multiply.

Hundreds of years later, the Zebak took the strongest of the Rin slaves as warriors to fight against the Travellers and the Maris-folk. The cunning works of the Keeper of the Crystal of Maris led to the Rin slaves turning against their Zebak masters, defeating the invaders. The Rin people then headed west and settled at the foot of the Mountain. Minds wiped by the Zebak, they remained unaware that half of their kinsmen were still enslaved across the sea, keeping their sad history recorded on silk paintings, as the people of the Valley of Gold had done also.

300 years later, the Zebak devise a plan to invade Rin via the air, using flying creatures called grach, then taking the Travellers and Maris-folk by surprise through a land attack. Rowan of Rin travels to the Zebak city to find his sister, and returns with Norris and Shaaran as well, the last two survivors of the original Rin slaves. Shaaran brings the silks with her to the new Rin, causing the leader of the Travellers, Ogden, to suspect that the people of Rin and the people of the Valley of Gold are one and the same.

A second Cold Time begins; the collapse of the western face of the Mountain prevented the bukshah from accessing the Mountain heart, allowing the ice creepers to spread their deadly winter across the Rin valley. The villagers flee, but Rowan - with Norris, Shaaran, and Zeel - follows the bukshah up the Mountain, clearing the remnants of the rockslide and allowing the bukshah to feast on the grey fungus and destroy the encroaching ice creepers. There Rowan finds the remains of the Valley of Gold's keeper of the bukshah, and also their silks. He sees that history narrowly avoided repeating itself, and that Rin almost suffered the same fate as the Valley. With the silks intact, their people's full and vivid history can be told.