Suur Maroa

Suur Maroa is a Centenarian (hundred-year order member) avout (cloistered scholar-monk) active at the Convox (rare world convocation) hosted at the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh (mathic monastery). She identifies herself as a Fifth Sconic (Sconic Discipline sub-sect) and works among theor-oriented teams examining evidence related to the visitors.

Context and first appearance

At Tredegarh during the Convox, Maroa visits the quarantined Fraa Erasmas (Fraa Erasmas) in a sealed housing module. Removing her suit helmet to speak more comfortably, she introduces herself - "Suur Maroa. Centenarian. Fifth Sconic" - and immediately focuses on empirical questions tied to smell and materials from the visitors' probe.

Roles and actions

• Interviews Erasmas about whether he detected any odors from the parachute, hatch, and interior atmosphere of the landed probe, distinguishing engine plume (assessed as steam) from cabin odors.
• Infers from his account that organic compounds from the probe's occupant produced a detectable smell, hence can interact with human olfactory receptors.
• Proposes a laboratory follow-up: obtain a sample from the recovered body and expose it to olfactory tissue to study response.
• Notes that some of the reactions involved in smell are quantum in nature and quips that "our noses are quantum devices."
• Offers practical political caution: advises against second-guessing field choices, observing that many at Tredegarh are competitive and would claim they could have done better.

Affiliations and discipline

Maroa is aligned with the Sconic tradition; she styles herself a Fifth Sconic and works within that framework of inquiry (see Sconic Discipline). She operates inside the Tredegarh Convox structure among hierarchs, theors, and research Laboratoria focused on the visitors known as the Geometers.

Description

The narrator describes her as attractive and roughly fifteen years older than him; she speaks crisply, with a theor's focus on extracting usable results from imperfect field observations.

Relationships and interactions

• Speaks directly with Fraa Erasmas, eliciting detailed sensory recollections from the Orithena probe encounter.
• References the broader Convox community - "theors" pressing for answers - and shows comfort coordinating across teams.

Current status

Present at the Tredegarh Convox and engaged in planning olfactory experiments using material recovered from the probe's deceased occupant. She expresses little concern about space-germ infection risk in light of the evidence available to her.