Umank

Who he was. A Karshak Stonesinger and engineer born in Askeorast (Alka Alon Telasa Nohar, "the Hidden City of Fortune"), long before Askeorast was fortified, apprenticed as a stonesinger in the Kulines. He spent nineteen months on Perwyn volunteering to help the human colonists prepare the mainland for terraformation. Minalan's memory-scene places him in the New Leiden Medical Center Xenobiology Clinic: badly burned on a fifth of his body, his mane wrecked, hands bandaged, cared for by a younger Dr. Lilastien and Nurse Cindy England. Umank had discovered that his Versaroti colleague Emariel (a senior Alka Alon emissary to the colony) was Enshadowed and had falsified geological reports to Charles Avital (a rajira-gifted human engineer and Umank's friend) about the limestone under Perwyn. He proved it by "singing the stone" with Charles (a first cross-species stonesong). Emariel tried to kill them; Umank broke down a metal door to drag Charles out, burning his hands on the hot metal. His warning arrived too late to stop the drilling. Enshadowed sabotage is a root cause of the Inundation that sinks Perwyn. Voice: calm, industrious, quiet humor, dignified, curious about humans. Unique knowledge: Karshak mineralogy and geology, stonesong, the precise location of Askeorast and its hidden entrances, pre-Inundation Perwyn engineering, extensive hands-on experience with Terran colonial engineering and medical technology.

Book 14.5 (Mad Mage): The Master Guri lecture. Under Umank's influence Minalan summons Master Guri, his Sevendor stonesinger, to the tower:

He was even more surprised when I asked him to procure for me a number of rare and exotic minerals, most of which I had never even heard of, before Umank's memories had infected my head. I then allowed Umank's quiet soul to take possession of my tongue, and in Guri's own language, little known outside of the society of his folk, to speak in extremely technical fashion. I detailed my proposal to his astonished face with precision.

Together with Aza'methet's dimensional thaumaturgics, Umank's mineralogy lets Minalan design the portal archways that bypass the Ways and the Nemovort annulment fields:

Aza'Methet's knowledge of dimensional thaumaturgics was profound, and Umank's technical understanding of the nature and elements of the diverse number of arcanely active materials in the world was, I theorized, even greater than my stonesinger's. Together, they provided me with a depth of the possibilities available to me that Master Guri simply could not fathom.

Umank also remembers the exact hidden entrance to Askeorast in the Uwarris Mountains ("Umank had repaired that door once in his youth. Finding it again was the purpose of my journey"), fulfilling Minalan's long-pending promise to Guri of reopening Askeorast as a refuge.

Book 15 (Marshal Arcane): Umank's memory of Perwyn as a lost pristine place colors Minalan's walk through it:

The stone was white, it was pristine, but it was just stone. With Umank's perspective in mind, I strode across the square.

His inability to supply Dradrien metallurgical magic is noted as a limit.

Book 16 (Preceptor): "Finally, I had the perspective of a Karshak Alon in my head, the cheerful stonesinger known as Umank. The servants often know what is actually going on better than the lords. With Umank's memories intact, I had come to know exactly what they thought."

Book 17 (Practical Adept): Quietly part of Minalan's internal roster; no specific scene of use.