Fraa Erasmas

Fraa Erasmas is an avout living within a Decenarian math. He is first seen inside the New Library, accompanying Fraa Orolo to interview an artisan from extramuros who has been permitted inside to address a rotted rafter before Apert. Erasmas attends as Orolo’s amanuensis, charged with writing down the exchange.

Background and Language

Erasmas came from extramuros before being Collected into the math ten years earlier. He demonstrates fluency in both Orth and Fluccish, switching to Fluccish to accommodate visiting artisans. During a later exchange with Quin, he clarifies that a seemingly crude term used by Orolo is an ancient Orth word and observes how Kinagrams have supplanted Logotype outside the walls, even recognizing a commercial mark that has evolved over a decade.

Roles and Duties

• Serves as amanuensis for Fraa Orolo, taking notes during interviews and discussions in the library.
• Observes the Cartasian Discipline while working; at one point he stops writing when Orolo warns that a visitor may be repeating information obtained through channels that fall under the Discipline’s prohibitions.
• Tends practical duties in the math, such as winding the great clock when it chimes Provener.
• Serves on the clock‑winding team chosen from his crop; he has performed this duty for more than seven years alongside Lio and two other peers.
• Performs kitchen service and garden foraging when needed, shown chopping carrots in the Refectory kitchen and gathering produce from tangles; when nearby beds were exhausted he crossed the river to find ingredients for stew.

Relationships and Affiliations

• Works closely with Fraa Orolo, who invites him to assist with inquiries about the world outside the walls; in private conversation he addresses Orolo as “Pa,” underscoring a close mentor‑student bond.
• Lives under the authority structures of the math (e.g., the Warden Regulant and the Ita are referenced in relation to supervising visitors and observance of rules).
• Longtime peer of Lio; both were collected in the same crop and selected for the clock‑winding team. Erasmas often corrals Lio to keep schedule; Lio’s occasional lapses have drawn penance from Suur Trestanas (the Warden Regulant).
• In a kitchen dialog, Orolo pointedly addresses him as “Fid Erasmas,” echoing the term for fids used in mathic instruction; their exchange draws onlookers.

Notable actions and observations so far

• Participates in Orolo’s theoretical discussions (e.g., about whether loosely linked causal domains could drift in time), engaging with thought experiments and pushing back until a simpler explanation can be chosen.
• During a library conversation with the talkative visitor Quin, he mediates a misunderstanding about an Orth term, helping keep the exchange civil.
• Connects the artisan Flec’s interests to a movement calling itself the Warden of Heaven and notes that he had not heard of it before this discussion.
• In a later exchange he worries briefly about the possibility of another Sack and presses distinctions such as “reforms” versus “changes in the maths”; the discussion touches on the Sacks as rare events in long history and on preparations for Apert.

Traits and Impressions

Erasmas is conscientious and observant, often self‑aware to the point of acute embarrassment when situations become socially awkward. He balances deference to the Discipline with curiosity about extramuros and tries to translate between mathic formality and visiting artisans’ vernacular. Physically capable and practical, he was selected as one of the relatively large boys for the winding duty and shows attention to rules (e.g., which plants are permitted in the herb beds).

Current Status

Resident within the Decenarian math, active in scholarly and practical duties including assisting Fraa Orolo in the library and maintaining timekeeping tasks at Provener as the community prepares for an approaching Apert. Through Orolo, he hears that additional precautions may be expected around Apert.