Dumah

Dumah is a recurring character in the Legacy of Kain series who makes major appearances in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2. One of the leading warrior inquisitors of the vampire-hunting Sarafan brotherhood, he was born in Nosgoth's early history, and was himself raised as a vampire, unawares, a millennium after his death by Kain to act as a member of the Council. Dumah created the Dumahim vampire clan and served Kain for centuries in the Soul Reaver era - notably partaking in Raziel's execution, alongside Turel - before being killed by vampire hunters. On his return to Nosgoth, Raziel pervaded the Ruined City and revived Dumah, only to destroy him utterly and consume his soul.

Complacent in Arrogance


Dumah was originally a human being, born in Nosgoth's early history. He joined the order of the Sarafan, and was among those accordingly "trained to be devoutly loyal to the Circle [of Nine], and the perfect exterminators of the undead scourge" (Nosgoth's vampires). Over time, Dumah attained the high rank of warrior inquisitor, junior to Malek, the youthful Raziel, and the elder Turel. Alongside these warrior-priests, and his peers Melchiah, Rahab and Zephon, he was considered the "pride of the order"; with the other six commanders, he was lionized as a "Sarafan saint" upon his death. His corpse, like those of the others, was interred in a sarcophagus in the Tomb of the Sarafan.

When Kain - a vampire, and the Guardian of the Pillar of Balance - sought to revive the near-extinct vampire race at the end of the post-Blood Omen era, he stole into the Tomb of the Sarafan and found the "well-entombed" remains of six of the former inquisitors. Breathing his soul energy into them, one by one, he drew their own souls back into their bodies, and thus resurrected them as his "favored sons". Dumah was most likely the third fledgling to be raised. The cadre was "too long dead to remember much of their human lives; they [were] ignorant of their Sarafan roots, or of Kain's blasphemous private joke". They and Kain resolved to bring Nosgoth under vampire rule.

Over the ensuing century, Dumah sired a clan of vampires in Kain's empire - the Dumahim - and participated in the domestication of humanity. Eventually, he "retreated with his clan into Nosgoth's northern wilderness" - his mountain stronghold, which would later become known as the Ruined City, lay near the Oracle's Cave. Like his fellow lieutenants, he was present for the Council meeting which took place at the Sanctuary of the Clans, a millennium after Kain had raised them. There Raziel revealed he had surpassed Kain; Dumah was visibly perturbed when he noticed Raziel's newly-pupated wings, and reacted with blatant distress when Kain viciously tore the wings from his eldest son's body. Nevertheless, he did not disobey when Kain instructed him and Turel to cast Raziel into the Abyss.

Strength Honed by Centuries


Five hundred years after his execution, Raziel would be resurrected by the Elder God, and would return to Nosgoth to exact revenge against the vampires. In the intermediate centuries, the vampires continued to evolve, and, ultimately, devolve: they had inherited spiritual corruption from Kain's soul, which gradually warped them into monsters. Dumah's evolution, though, was prematurely halted. Centuries before Raziel's revival, "Dumah and his offspring failed to see an attack coming from the least likely assailants". Their stronghold was ambushed by the land's surviving vampire hunters; the humans managed to "decimate their ranks with little resistance".

Dumah himself was killed - impaled by three massive stakes, and transfixed to the seat of his throne room - and the few Dumahim who escaped the attack were "reduced to scavengers". Drastically-evolved fledgling Dumahim were the first vampires Raziel encountered on his journey - so altered that they had become unrecognizable - but Dumah was the last of the lieutenants he met in the Soul Reaver era. After consuming Rahab's soul, he found the Ruined City, and initially believed that his brother and the Dumahim may have suffered the same fate as the Razielim, but the Elder God immediately corrected him, attributing the devastation to their arrogance.

Raziel found Dumah's corpse, and removed the stakes, enabling his soul to reinhabit his body. Dumah expressed gratitude, but Raziel rebuked this, still holding him to account for his execution. Unbowed, Dumah claimed that he, too, had surpassed Kain; he was now a revived vampire, and "the centuries in limbo [had] honed [his] strength". Raziel was forced to retreat, finding that Dumah's armor was impenetrable and his physical prowess formidable, but was correct in his thesis that "even the strongest vampire is vulnerable". He evaded Dumah's constricting powers and tremor-inducing attacks, and lured him to the Ruined City's Furnace. There, he used a mechanism to burn Dumah to death, and obtained the ability to constrict upon devouring his soul.

To Bury the Fiend Alive


After Raziel pursued Kain through the Chronoplast, into the past, his travels across time led him at length to Nosgoth's early history. While searching for the ancient vampire Janos Audron, who supposedly held the key to his destiny, Raziel encountered the troops of the Sarafan in the flesh, and "the victims of their crusade". By this stage, Raziel's former idolatry of the Sarafan - his own noble heritage - had started to wane. He still "felt a twinge of longing, a pang of grief for what [he] had believed was [his] lost virtue", but he "regarded them now with none of the reverence [he] formerly felt".

Raziel entered Janos Audron's Retreat, and met Janos in person, who offered him the Reaver blade. They conversed briefly, but were soon interrupted by attackers - the Sarafan warrior inquisitors themselves, including Raziel's former self, and Dumah. The wraith Raziel was prevented from intervening as his Sarafan counterpart ripped the Heart of Darkness from Janos's chest. Dumah expressed alarm as the Retreat began to collapse, appealing to Raziel that they should flee: Raziel instructed him to "remember the sword", and he seized the Reaver as they absconded.

Janos's murder had dire consequences for Dumah, as the wraith Raziel followed the inquisitors back to the Sarafan Stronghold to avenge his death and recover the stolen Heart and Reaver. His attack was simultaneous to Vorador's slaughter of the Circle (at the same location, and with the same motivation). Raziel found the Reaver and, after using it to slay the Sarafan Melchiah and Zephon, confronted Dumah, with Rahab, in the Sanctuary area. Dumah merely inquired as to whether Raziel sought "to reclaim the monster's black heart" before launching into battle. He soon had his answer, as Raziel easily killed him and his remaining comrades. "It was [Raziel] who put these bastards in their tomb – thus providing the corpses for Kain to raise as his vampire sons a millennium from now".

Appearances

 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver comic
 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
 * Soul Reaver 2
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance comic