Person of Distinction
Iole the Star-Wright
Astronomer and orrery-maker, keeper of the great water-orrery and of the island's calendar.
Iole is the island's astronomer and the maker and keeper of the great water-orrery — the vast brass-and-crystal mechanism of rings and spheres, driven by falling water, by which the rings reckon the heavens and set their year. She reads the bodies the island holds dear, names the seasons, and fixes the dates of the festivals that the Concord proclaims and the Civic Society keeps.
Her orrery is counted among the wonders of Aurei, and her workshop turns out the sighting-instruments, the tide-glasses and the star-charts that the master-captains carry on the sky-roads. She and Hekaton are old friends and old rivals, each maintaining — to the great entertainment of the Civic Society — that the other's craft is merely an application of their own.