“
The Heat and the Dark are not like a library, or a field, or a jar of bees. Except that it's very dangerous, just like a jar of bees.”
Uklan Tel is a Semiotician-Emeritus of the New Archives and an accomplished user of pattern magic. Together with his colleague Sunder and the Ice Party, he investigates the Mark of the Erasure in season one. The Marielda episode descriptions are excerpts from his book The Illustrated Concordance of Marielda.
Samol describes him as "the closest to get to the old powers [of] me and my kind" using pattern magic.
Appearance
Uklan is a grey skinned orc who wears red robes and sashes with a bunch of belts and pockets along with armor (typical New Archives garb), resembling a Final Fantasy character. He wears pince-nez and has an older, weathered face with a "grandpa quality".[1]
Personality
Uklan is uncomfortable with metaphors, preferring facts and material things. Similes are okay, though.
He would never use his power to fill a room with jars of bees. Unless...?
History and Involvement
In Autumn in Hieron, the Ice Party meets him and Sunder while investigating the Mark of the Erasure. During Winter in Hieron, he is one of the semioticians the Mountain Party encounter at the New Archives, part of a group trying to recover the First Pattern to restore the health of Hieron and turn back the Heat and the Dark. A conversation with Fero prompts him to take a more active interest in the Heat and the Dark.[2]
During Spring in Hieron, he resides at the Last University, where he studies the Heat and the Dark obsessively. He develops an amalgam of it and the Starstuff which is used to stop the spread of the dark flame devouring Ephrim's arm.
This section contains spoilers for Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and a Time.
Click here to reveal.
Mid-season, it is revealed that Uklan has been collaborating with the Cult of the Dark Son by helping them build the Advocate in exchange for materials for his experiments. In the lead up to the ritual, he is nearly killed by the other cultists. He manages to survive thanks to a timely rescue, but is never trusted again by the leadership of the University.