Ulimaya is a small, elderly gnome with a weather-softened face, a nose that wrinkles when she is thinking, and a dense crown of grey hair pinned into a practical coil. Her eyes rarely settle on a speaker's face: they track hands, exits, and who is listening from the next table. She moves with the quick, economical turns of someone who has spent a lifetime threading through crowded rooms, though she pauses to brace one palm on the bar when her knees complain. People remember the contrast between her measured, watchful gaze and her laugh, which erupts suddenly and makes the crockery tremble.

Ulimaya is welcoming when the room is safe and brisk when it is not; she can be generous with a stranger's supper yet fiercely protective of her private grief. She enjoys a clever joke, but distrusts grand speeches. When rested, she is patient and observant. When exhausted, she becomes controlling and mistakes silence for proof that others are hiding something.

Ulimaya has worked at the local tavern, the Tallow-Sour, for nearly two centuries, first carrying cups for her grandfather and later keeping the place running through fires, bad harvests, and three changes of ownership. Her husband, Nalo, died decades ago, but she still sets out his chipped cup on the anniversary of their wedding. Her daughter, Sheshe, grew up learning to read the mood of a room from behind the bar. When Sheshe joined the quest of Refon Volash, Ulimaya argued fiercely against it, then secretly packed her daughter's travel food. Sheshe has not returned, and no reliable word has come back. Ulimaya now sleeps in short stretches, watches every traveler who enters, and has started asking careful questions about the route the quest took. She is willing to part with her grandad's ring,