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Sumah Askantet, also nicknamed "Lionhead" and "Summer".


Sumah fares from a nondescript region of Faerun (likely Amn or Waterdeep, though it has been openly stated that she travelled often) and has lived a relatively peaceful life until the Apocalypse. It has been hinted that her past has been a military one, likely holding a rank higher than knight, that she was married and that both her spouse and her children died after the sun went out.

Days before the onset of the end, a strange dream disturbed Sumah's sleep: the red and lightless disk of the sun was setting over a starred night sky. As it sank over the hills, a harrowing wail shook the earth, and a last, colossal blade of sunlight shone high before disappearing. When the sun went out, Sumah rallied her comrades and family and travelled in the direction showed by her dream... one by one her companions fell, and she witnessed the downfall of the world she had known and loved. Over time, the fires of hope in Sumah's heart waned, and eventually died out. In the vast, lightless plains of the world above, alone and forgotten, she cursed her god for abandoning her. All was lost. Sumah of the rising sun was no more, and what was left behind was the hollow husk of a woman, not a mother, nor a bride, nor a knight, nor the herald of dawn. Somehow though she kept walking, step after step, in the endless grayness stretching in every direction... until she reached what once should have been a small settlement, hanging close to the end of a bottomless chasm. And this is where our story begins.

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The recent happenings left more than a dent in Sumah's armour, breaking and whittling an otherwise strong soul and leaving behind a heavily damaged psyche. Despite hiding most of it from the rest of the world, both through the physical barrier of her armour and a frustrating reticence to speak for lenghty periods of time, in particular about personal feelings or particularly painful past events. A strict adherence to a number of carefully selected tenants, an appreciation for reason and a sembiance of routine are at the moment all that keeps her from sliding down the slippery slope of utter and complete madness, despair, mayhap even cruelty. She has become jaded and disillusioned, and every mention to her former life, Lathander or anything even loosely connected will be likely received with a mixture of bitter sadness, longing and despair: she is still, feebly clutching to her old faith, nor fully able to embrace it nor capable of letting go, perhaps expecting a sign, a miracle, or lacking the strenght to admit that all hope is gone.

Nonetheless, Sumah is a knight at heart. An entire life is not easily forgotten, and much of her behaviour (albeit a bit twisted by the course of events) will closely resemble that of a paladin, such as an inclination to respect oaths, to avoid lies and to reticently approach indisputably evil individuals.


Sumah was meant as a bit of a hardcore character, to tackle my first experience with EFU in the hardest way I could conceive, thus creating a paladinesque non-paladin clearly without the means to fend for herself but somehow still bound to a rigid code.

She was originally intended to become a jaded villain of sort, and the events that led to the Darkening to have left a deep dent in her psyche. In particular, unknown to most, she mourned the death of her husband, the sun elf Lledrengilon Aurvanondel, her daughter Nimue and her son Caeleben with as much grief as the death of the Sun.

Instead, pretty much immediately (thanks, Howland!) she found a relic of lathander deep within the worm pits, in the heap of a particularly powerful chosen. Other than striking her as odd, and overlapping weirdly with her prophetic dream, the power of the relic didn't seem to run out and she took it as a possible sign that Lathander -or a similar god- still lived and would have eventually made his return on Toril.

It took her quite some time to convince herself to stand up for the dust, marked by choosing an Ordeal for herself (wandering in a random direction within the Underdark without dying, as a proof that some divine power didn't want her to die) and surviving it.

Surprisingly, her life on EFU brought Sumah from the bottom of the barrel to retrieving her courage, selflessness and hope in the future. The only reason why she (grudgingly) didn't fling herself head-first into trouble was believing to be the somehow unworthy bearer of the last light of lathander, and to have been dutied with the sacred task of sparking the fires of hope in the hearts of the just, to protect and serve it and see its message defended with her own life.

Which was, in the end, what brought to her demise. Sumah had stated frequently that she feared Gideon lusted after the relic, and that it wasn't intended to further a political message. She also stated that she would have seen it destroyed, before allowing anyone to twist its message of hope towards their own agenda.

Last, one of the main characteristics of the late Sumah was to be absolutely super partes in all matters, not easily swayed by lies and rhetorics, working fiercely to discover the truth in all matters and to root out evil -with every necessary mean- whenever its presence was certified by unquestionable evidence.

Her death was the very apex of an arc of redemption, and the light of her final sacrifice showed the true nature of those involved, including herself, Gideon, and possibly even Frederick Bresley (?). I'd like to remark that it was a forced choice due to the very nature of the character and her unyielding will not to see the message of lathander perverted. Also, that what made a resurrection impossible wasn't tied to the destruction of the relic itself, for she knew it was but a symbol, but to the very circumstances of her death.

(Also, people. Characters that were already wounded to begin with, then are cleaved at with an axe, then finally have a sword thrusted through them while unarmed and backing off might, and I say might, have a slight tendency to die.)


I don't have so many screenshots of the early Sumah, nor any of the relic! So if you by chance have some stashed away, feel free to post them here :D


http://postimg.org/image/6teaifeyb/

Sumah and Roman, being silly.

http://postimg.org/image/ekcd0nwq1/

Sumah's armour, an heirloom of the Askantet family.

http://postimg.org/image/kcb1t5t3v/full/

The screenshot of her final hour, posted with the permission of those involved. That "No!" corresponds to the moment she called forth the full power of the relic on Bresley's head, thus destroying it.

http://postimg.org/image/6wjaqbjdf/

Funeral pyre, a courtesy of Hound.

http://postimg.org/image/bjcy8xzdb/

http://postimg.org/image/5hdjvi5wl/

http://postimg.org/image/cqie3tajf/

A bunch of silly OOC screenshots.


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- Despite having been often addressed as a paladin, both ICly and OOCly, Sumah was just a warrior with a truckton of carisma, the squire perk, and a particularly thick skull.
- Sumah never retrieved her greatsword, named "Daybreak".
- Despite being faithful until the end to the memory of her husband, she had a bit of a crush on Naerfaine, her husband being essentially his blonder and younger counterpart, but otherwise identical in heritage and behaviour.
- Sumah, to my knowledge, NEVER lied. She simply didn't speak about what she didn't want to make known.
- Sumah had a soft spot for both Zyphael and Justin.
- Sumah had an implicit death wish that accompanied her throughout the whole of her underdark life.
- I actively tried to kill this PC for a while, and failed.
- Sumah's aspect and original concept took inspiration from Dragonslayer Ornstein
- Her chosen musical theme, that played during most of the time she was around, was "Crusaders - Kingdom of Heaven" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydUXwRSZnK0

I wish to thank all those involved! It was a blast, folks, entirely handled between PCs. SHINE ON!

Great character XD

I remember you desperately trying to kill Sumah that time with Mari, and Mari refusing to let it happen due to her own code. RIP.

RIP ): No more drunk Sumah I guess.

Oh, what a marvelous concept. I love it. The very best roleplay here in EfU comes from when you build a character, set goals -- and the server throws you a curveball and you end up going in a totally different direction. :)

Sumah was fantastic and I'll miss her. I am looking forward to the next one :)

(Man, will Kim be upset when she learns Sumah is dead!)

Sumah was a very interesting character, always tangled up in some kind of conflict.

Roman will certainly miss Sumah. Shame he missed her funeral. (Couldn't find the pyre.)

I will be looking forward to seeing your next PC.

nice one

I loved all my interactions with Sumah, great PC!

I wish Justin and her had gotten a few more interactions, but loved the bits we had!
Looking forward to the next one :)

Sumah was very cool. Only recently started to interact with her, learning more, as the layers of her personality seemed to peel away...

Well played! :D

QuoteThe very best roleplay here in EfU comes from when you build a character, set goals -- and the server throws you a curveball and you end up going in a totally different direction.

amen

Was her house in New Orleans?

It looks like I missed out on a cool character based on your screenies and description, and that's a major bummer! Hopefully I'll be somehow involved in the next.

(Warning: don't take this post seriously. At all.)

Straight from the otherlife:

"Sumah. You died a martyr, destroyed a relic of lathander and now that you're dead plenty of people seem to believe you're cool. What is your answer?"

You managed to cause no shortage of ruckus to say the least! Never had the privledge of meeting her but many people said many things, and that's the sign of any great EFU character.

That picture is adorable!

I'm so sorry to see her go. I had plans ...

try jumping.

Had fun with her on Mili, when we interacted, and i'm sad to say i didn't get more involved with her! looking forward to your next character, whomever or whenever that might be.

In hindsight, even if it's casual, I find particularly unsettling that she spent most of her IG life trying to find out what exactly her dream referred to... and in the end it was herself/her own death. Creeeepy.