Yulassetar Crade

Overview

Yulassetar Crade, often called "Yul", is an extramuros (outside math walls) wilderness guide and cousin of Ganelial Crade. Based around the city of Norslof, he is experienced at leading trips into mountains and deep-cold country. After assisting Fraa Orolo with winter gear in town, he encounters the traveling company and decides to accompany them north, quickly becoming a key fixer and field cook alongside Cord, Sammann, and Fraa Erasmas. Later in Old Mahsht he helps the group navigate a violent street incident and subsequent departure. He continues to travel with the company as they move by ferry to Ecba, near Orithena. Afterward he is admitted with Cord, Gnel, and Sammann as a guest within Orithena and housed in a separate lodge set apart from the cloister, where they are allowed to keep jeejahs (portable communicators). He joins the table for a formal welcome.

Appearance and Traits

• A big, bearded man who arrives in a mud-splattered fetch (truck-like utility vehicle) with a wooden cabin on its back; he can deploy a fold-out counter and stove to serve hot drinks and meals.
• Calm, sociable storyteller with a guide's habit of making new companions feel at ease; shifts readily from anecdotes to practical problem-solving.
• Prefers robust, understandable praxis: builds and tunes his own burners from scavenged parts and favors gear that can be repaired in the field.
• Curious about geology and deep time; keeps fossils and books at home and describes deducing the great age of the world from years spent as a river guide watching canyon walls.
• In group downtime, tends to puncture abstract debates with plain talk and humor, but will weigh in on pragmatic angles (e.g., security and deception) when it touches on action.

Roles and Actions

• Outfits travelers for the far north: sources affordable suitsacks and shows how to modify or replace gear with inexpensive items from non-specialty shops; offers to supply gaps from his own stock.
• Solves camp logistics: cooks large meals from a portable kitchen, advises on fuel and melting snow for water, and teaches practical driving and winter-travel habits.
• Vehicle preparation: helps fit studded winter tires and swap lubricants and coolants to low-temperature formulations; consolidates supplies into his cabin-fetch for the push toward the sledge port.
• Prior contact with Orolo: according to his cousin's account, hosted Orolo overnight in the back of his fetch, advised him on clothing, obtained a used suitsack, and helped him catch a northbound drummon (large road vehicle).
• Old Mahsht incident: when a mob corners Erasmas in the streets of Mahsht, Yul and Ganelial arrive with a three-wheeler and fetches to extract him. Yul uses a long firearm to disable a would-be sniper and deter further attack, then discards the weapon into the river at Sammann's urging. He invites avout (cloistered scholars) from the Ringing Vale to evacuate with the group and helps pack them onto vehicles for a rapid exit.
• Field medicine: at a riverside picnic ground after the escape, Yul leads improvised first aid using a homebuilt kit: mixing sterile saline, flushing and dressing lacerations, and coordinating gluing, taping, and stitching with available materials until Erasmas is stabilized.
• De-escalation and logistics: helps calm the situation when constables arrive and, after Erasmas declines to press charges, works with the police captain to clear the group to leave. Yul also coordinates with Magister Sark to arrange a coach for the Valers to travel south.
• Southbound travel: remains with the company on the long drive toward the coast, cooking breakfasts and suppers while the group camps to save money; helps provision by buying food from farmers. He continues onward with the others by ferry to the Island of Ecba.
• Ecba camp: at a shaded cove on Ecba, Yul shows how to anchor stakes deeply in sand to tension sun-blocking tarps, handles water logistics by filling military surplus bladders at the town's desalination plant, and starts his fetch's engine to take part of the group on a slow circuit of the island.
• Orithena approach: while Erasmas seeks entry at Orithena, Yul waits outside near the souvenir stand by his fetch with Cord and Sammann. They agree that if communication proves impossible, the others will return after three days to coordinate next steps.
• Orithena guest: following new arrangements, accepts lodging inside Orithena with Cord, Gnel, and Sammann. Attends a welcome dinner and is formally toasted by Fraa Landasher. Allowed to keep jeejahs (portable communicators) and other personal devices in a guest lodge set apart from the cloister; joins a guided visit to the dig on the following day.
• Orithena incident, probe landing and response: present when a Geometer (off-world visitor) probe descends into the excavation pit. At Orolo's shouted directions, he and Ganelial retrieve the probe's parachute with a small crew and help spread and anchor it as a canopy to delay aircraft. Yul estimates shroud-line length by counting fathoms with his arms and helps organize people to radiate outward on the lines. He then drives his house-on-wheels down the ramp into the pit—onlookers infer he intended to set up cooking equipment—and fetches reflective emergency blankets so the team can work near the still-hot hull.
• Probe access and extraction: helps clear bystanders by barking orders to "move back," climbs onto the improvised ladders near the hatch, and uses Sammann's jeejah (handheld communicator) as a night-vision viewer. He reports dark stains on the occupant's clothing and assists Cord as she removes access panels and operates T-handles to equalize pressure. Together with others he helps free the strapped-in occupant and carry her carefully to the bed of Gnel's fetch, where the concent's physician later declares her deceased.
• Soldiers' arrival and collars: when soldiers of the Sæcular Power (state authority) enter the compound, Yul at first resists being fitted with a flashing collar, negotiates to apply it himself, then tests and confirms he can pull it off over his head due to his small skull and thick neck—scraping his scalp and ears—before replacing it.
• Evacuation: as aircraft gather overhead and soldiers order an evacuation in response to an approaching volcanic cloud, Yul's vehicle is seen moving with engine running and lights on; Cord is in the cab. He is involved in ferrying people toward the ramp amid crowding.

Relationships

• Ganelial Crade: first cousin; the two share similar tastes in vehicles and weapons despite religious differences. Ganelial calls Yul an apostate from their ark. Their easy back-and-forth continues during the island camp and into the Orithena response.
• Cord: the two quickly fall into an easy partnership marked by sharp, playful banter and close collaboration on mechanical tasks; they become a couple during preparations to head north. At Orithena they work in tandem on the probe access and extraction.
• Fraa Erasmas and Sammann: traveling companions who rely on Yul's practical knowledge; Yul ferries Erasmas on errands through city traffic and adapts to Sammann's route research. At Orithena he takes and uses Sammann's jeejah to see inside the darkened capsule.
• Fraa Orolo: previously assisted Orolo with cold-weather outfitting and onward transport from Norslof; at Orithena he acts promptly on Orolo's shouted instructions during the landing.

Current Status

Present at Orithena during the probe's landing and the subsequent intervention by soldiers. As aircraft lift off and the evacuation proceeds under pressure from an oncoming volcanic cloud, Yul is last seen within the compound near his vehicle with Cord; his immediate whereabouts after liftoff are not specified.