Grandsuur Ylma

First Appearance and Context

During the opening of the gates at Apert, a woman from extramuros who recognized Grandsuur Ylma approached her at the Day Gate of the Concent of Saunt Edhar. The visitor explained that her late father had supported the concent and used to enter to attend lectures and read; the family brought a potted sapling to be transplanted on the grounds as a memorial.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

Ylma holds the Grandsuur title among the Avout. In this scene she serves as a point of contact for visitors and donations, stating that the transplant would be acceptable if the specimen were "of the One Hundred Sixty-four"—a rule the visitors affirmed they had followed.

Beyond gate duties, Ylma teaches novice students in orbital mechanics. As described by a peer, her curriculum initially has students compute satellite motion using Saunt Lesper's coordinate framework before introducing the more intuitive Orbital Elements; this progression emphasizes fluency in fundamentals prior to changing representations. The same discussion situates this approach alongside configuration‑space methods credited to Saunt Hemn.

Relationships

Instructor to Barb, a newly collected novice whose quick progress in orbital studies is noted.

Descriptions/Characteristics

No physical description is provided. Ylma speaks with formal authority and applies stated rules when evaluating a requested donation. Her pedagogy favors working through coordinate-based calculations before shifting to more conceptual representations.

Current Status/Location

Present within the Concent and active as an instructor, including teaching sessions on orbits to fids. She is subsequently seen traveling by punt with Grandsuur Tamura along the river inside the grounds.