Brother Ulm is a Corbettite Monk and the dedicated conductor aboard the Wyrm of Limerick.
Meeting Agatha[]
He greets Agatha at Clank Head Crossing where she embarks aboard the Wyrm. Performing his holy duty of escorting any boarding passenger to the confessional (comes complete with emergency ejector seat) he listens to her confession in which she reveals who she is, and numerous troubles she faces. Understanding the difficulties of family, he decides not to employ the ejector, but puts the train on High ✣ Alert ✣ . Due to Agatha's generous donation to the Corbettites, brother Ulm then guides her to a private train car.
Krosp initially surprises the humble conductor; hearing Krosp's voice, Brother Ulm assumes Agatha has brought another passenger on board who needs to enter the confessional. Upon actually seeing ✣ Krosp, he discards the idea as a waste of time, on the basis that all cats are "filthy liars." Evidently prejudice from stereotypes defeats even the humblest of hearts.
Readers soon learn Brother Ulm's other motivation ✣ for letting Agatha on the Wyrm: a wise conductor (or very experienced) indeed, to figure out someone was watching to make sure Agatha successfully boarded the train.
Well aware of the powder-keg that Agatha represents, he aids in keeping her presence concealed from other people on the train, having her dinner sent to her private cabin ✣ .
St. Szpac[]
When the train is attacked and its flying sanctuary car is forced to retreat to the Depot Fortress of St. Szpac, the brother changes his mind about Agatha, and launches numerous failed assassination attempts that... Awww, just see for your self here ✣ . His reasoning for killing her would be seen as valid in many organizations that are not a railroad in possession of a fortress stuffed full of awesome, cool and fun Sparky toys. His fellow monks disagree with his line of thought and, after repeatedly thwarting his efforts, finally put a decisive end to the affair by coshing him ✣ .
Tweedle and the Beast[]
Father Gerat sends the revived Brother Ulm to see to Agatha's safety in an attempt to guide his subordinate on the railroad of redemption. The arrival of Tweedle at the fortress forces ✣ Ulm and the other monks to take Agatha down into the fortress's vaults, which leads to their encountering the tablescraps ✣ left in the Beast's wake following the sentient train's release from its prison by the late Lady Selnikov. He then assists Agatha and Tweedle in their attempt to find a way to re-contain The Beast; in the end the Swartzwalders' leader König carries him up inside the stricken train, where he rips ✣ out the construct's brain, with the result of being fatally wounded by the resulting explosion of the remains of the Beast's body.
When Gil subsequently arrives at the Depot-Fortress he is told that Ulm has "gone to a better place", and as a gesture of respect, Agatha is helping the monks finish construction of a very Sparky experimental train, a process which involves an organic-to-mechanical variation on the infamous Si Vales Valeo mental transfer procedure. Rather unsurprisingly, it is eventually revealed that it is Ulm's consciousness that has been transferred into the body of the new train. As he carries Agatha and Co. on their journey to Paris, he seems quite content with his new lot in life, the only annoyance being temporarily saddled with The Beast's mind as a powerless but vocal back-seat driver.
References
- ↑ This actually happened earlier, ✣ but the first definite confirmation that the mind put into the engine belonged to Ulm is on this page.