"My former brethren Dumah and Rahab confronted me next – this all seemed so elegantly choreographed. Exhilarated by the Reaver, I was drunk with revelations... I could finally appreciate the delicious irony of Kain's blasphemous, private joke – and I reveled as I colluded with him across the centuries. For it was I who put these bastards in their tomb – thus providing the corpses for Kain to raise as his vampire sons a millennium from now."
When Raziel reached the Sanctuary area of the Stronghold, portcullises (and other locked gates) sealed the exits and he was he was confronted by the second pair of inquisitors - Dumah and Rahab. Unlike other 'boss' battles in the series, the battles with the inquisitors had no puzzle aspect to them and were treated the same as any regular combat encounter - albeit against incredibly powerful opposition and with Raziel invincible due to the effects of the Reaver.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/9]
At a distance all the inquisitors would walk slowly, while in direct combat Dumah had power, speed, health and defensive capabilities far exceeding that of ordinary enemies. Armed with a pike, Dumah was a mid-range fighter (broadly comparable to Sarafan warrior pikemen, though with an extended range due to the longer pike weapon), attacking viciously and often with a series of jabbing and sweeping strikes, frequent lunges and relentless blocking, but also being somewhat vulnerable to counters and lunges himself. Appearing together with Rahab also allowed Dumah to double-team Raziel, preventing any offensive maneuvers on his part. With Raziel's Health coil sustained by the Reaver, any damage was healed almost immediately, making the defeat of the inquisitors inevitable. Upon Dumah's death his soul was released but quickly rose away, and when both inquisitors were defeated Raziel headed into the choir and a confrontation withTurel.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/9][Soul Reaver 2 strategy guide (Prima)]
Notes[]
The battles against the warrior inquisitors in Soul Reaver 2 are arguably not true boss encounters. Unlike battles against major characters in other titles in the series, these battles were confined to a final 'rush' at the climax of the game, contained only regular combat with no puzzle element, conferred no special abilities upon completion and did not mark the end of 'levels' - apparently efforts by developers to avoid the artificial nature of levels and boss battles. The final rush arguably begins at the onset of Blade of Vengeance, as after leaving Janos Audron's Retreat Raziel is confronted by increasingly difficult battles against various Demons utilizing Combat barriers (each similarly marked by a cutscene), culminating in the battles with the inquisitors.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/9]
In game files, textures used for Dumah are labelled as "dumah" and "mrd_dum".[Soul Reaver 2]
The Sarafan Dumah mural in the Chapter House in the Pre-Blood Omen era
With Dumah's death, the Reaver can be seen drinking his Blood and his soul can be observed departing the body. The souls of the inquisitors, destined to become lieutenants in Kain's empire, were colored blue unlike other human souls (which were yellow) and quickly rose away, unable to be consumed by Raziel or the Reaver (hinting at later revelations about the nature of the blade).[Soul Reaver 2/9] After his death, Dumah's body was taken with the other inquisitors and interred in the Tomb of the Sarafan, providing the corpses for Kain to revive as a lieutenants a millennium later, keeping them ignorant of their human lives.[Soul Reaver 2/9][Soul Reaver/9]
Using the debug menu it is possible to skip passed the scene where Raziel gains the Reaver and battle the inquisitors unarmed without the healing effects of the Reaver, presenting a much greater gameplay challenge than the usual fight where Raziel is invincible. This allowed Raziel to enter the Spectral Realm in these locations and recover the Pikes (and swords) of the inquisitors as weapons, but did not allow Raziel to consume their souls, which were unaffected by attempts to devour them.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/9]
Dumah's Sarafan appearance contains subtle references to his later vampire form,[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/1][Soul Reaver 2/9] seen in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.[Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver/1][Soul Reaver/13] Dumah's facial appearance and hairstyle is notably similar to those observed in his initial vampire form (seen in the opening prologue)[Soul Reaver/1] and he wears long pauldrons and bracers reminiscent of the heavily armored appearance of the devolved Dumah; Sarafan Dumah also wears a helmet decorated with a red plume and protrusive "wing" motifs, shaped similarly to the helmet of the devolved Dumah.[Soul Reaver/1][Soul Reaver/13] Perhaps reflecting the more humanoid appearance of his vampire devoultion, Dumah is one of the few inquisitors with eyes which appear human-like when their helmet is worn. Whereas some of the inquisitors' future clan symbols appear on their lower vestments, Dumah's does not - distorted shapes reminiscent of the symbol are present instead.[Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver 2/9][Soul Reaver 2/1] The color of Dumah's armor is also similar to the color-coding of the clan standards in Soul Reaver, with Dumah depicted in dark blue and purple hues, despite an apparent clash with the coloring of Malek (subtly the coloring is distinct, with bluer shades used for Dumah in Soul Reaver, more maroon shades in Soul Reaver 2 and more purple shades for Malek).[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/1][Soul Reaver 2/9][Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver/1][Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1][Blood Omen/6]
The order of the encounters in Soul Reaver 2 also closely matches the order of the boss encounters (and by extension the revival and ranking order of the VampireCouncil members) in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver,[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver] with Dumah - likely the third created and ranked of the lieutenants (fourth-weakest),[1] encountered fourth in each title[Soul Reaver/13][Soul Reaver 2/9] - though here he is fought along with Rahab, Dumah's direct participation in Raziel's execution presumably related to his seniority over Rahab.[Soul Reaver/1][1] This ranking is not necessarily related to human age, with Raziel acknowledged as the youngest and Turel the oldest at the time of their human deaths.[3]
This article is about the battle against Dumah in Soul Reaver 2. For the boss battle against Dumah in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, see Dumah (Soul Reaver boss). For character details, see Dumah.
Dumah at Dark Chronicle (by Ardeth Silvereni).
