The Rowe Family

For as far back as any resident of Quintessence can remember, a Rowe has almost always been the leader of their grand alchemical city. The qualifications to become the leader of the city has always been to have the best balance of alchemical and democratic skills, so once every few generations somebody who was not a Rowe would be able to lead. This family has always been the kind who would bo laid back enough to always think to themselves "Oh, I didn't make it this time. Oh well!  It's time to focus my time and energy on something else!" and then go about their merry way. This is actually how The Edmund School of Alchemy had begun, back when Edmund Rowe did not win the election and decided to start his school instead.

It was in this timeframe, between Edmund's loss and his start of the school, that the Rowe's also recieved their curse. Rowe's almost always procreate between 3 and 10 times each generation (there may be a Rowe in your home city and you never even noticed) so nobody knows exactly which Rowe it was who caused the family curse or if it was one of Edmund's siblings or his children. The only thing the VERY old members of Quintessence know is that this curse actually turned out to be a blessing. Ever since the family recieved the curse, the leader of the city was always a Rowe. Everyone knew that even though the Rowe's found it difficult to stop talking they were always completely honest. Everyone knew that if you couldn't trust a politician who always spoke the truth then who could you trust? However, this blessing within a curse has led to an unfortunate side-effect for the whole city that Amelia Rowe, the eldest of the current generation of Rowes, is starting to get close, uncomfortable glimpses of.