Duma



Duma is the main villain of Fire Emblem Echoes.

History
Thousands of years ago, Duma was from the Divine Dragon tribe in Archanea. He served Naga, the ruler of the Dragon tribes and strongest of the Divine Dragons, protecting her with his military might, earning the title of Kingshield along with her favor. His sister would meanwhile bless the lands to allow prosperity for the dragons, earning the title of Kingsgrail.

When humans began to exist in the land, the dragons offered them much knowledge, allowing them to prosper and advance, eventually creating an extravagant city known as Thabes. However, Duma grew wary of the humans, and feared that they had grown too powerful. He sent his soldiers to Thabes, and had it destroyed in three days, leaving the remaining survivors to scatter across the continent.

This would result in Naga becoming furious over Duma's actions and exacted harsh judgment on him, causing Duma to clash against Naga in a ferocious battle. Though his sister sided with him, they were no match for Naga and her forces, and surrendered after nine days of battle that caused extensive damage across the land. The battle had scarred Duma and also hurt Naga and made her fangs splinter and scatter across the realm.

For their transgressions, Duma and Mila were exiled from the land. Before he departed, Naga bestowed one of her fangs that was carved into a blade that would be named Falchion to him. This weapon was intended to be used against him and Mila by humans should the need arise where they degenerate into madness and need to be put down.

Afterwards, Duma and Mila traversed the ocean for seven days before they finally reached the continent of Valentia, which they would claim as their new home. There, they would become patron deities in the land.

Despite settling in Valentia, Duma was still filled with resentment and bitterness towards Naga for his exile and desires vengeance against her. He ordered his people to erect a large tower to face the continent of Archanea from atop a mountain, that was approved by his sister as well. However, Duma's lust for battle, along with his beliefs over humanity led him to clash with Mila. While Duma believed that hardship creates hardy, strong humans, Mila believed that humans should live without strife, creating peaceful people.

Though they clashed for many seasons until both had exhausted themselves of strength, Duma never once turned Falchion against her. Eventually, Duma and Mila reached an accord: they would divide the land of Valentia into two, where Duma would rule the north which would become later known as Rigel, and Mila the south that would become Zofia, and neither was allowed to intervene with the other and cross into their nations.

Ruling through his new civilization, Duma soon had his own religion that followed him as their god, known as the Duma Faithful. As time passed on, Duma's strength began to wane, and during this period of time, a pirate nation began to emerge that posed a threat to the Valentian mainland, along with Archanea's west coast. To combat the pirate nation, Duma and Mila performed a blood pact with a human from their respective nation. Duma performed his blood pact with the fighter Rigel, and through that blood pact, Rigel was bestowed and capable of wielding Falchion. After the pirate nation had been defeated, Rigel returned Falchion to Duma at the Duma Temple.

From this, the nation of Rigel was founded with Duma as the leader. Duma also established a rule that strong Brand-bearers that could wield Falchion would get priority over the throne in Rigel, which led to Rudolf becoming the Emperor of Rigel later on despite him being only a distant relative of Emperor Rigel III.

However, over a century later, Duma's madness would finally begin to take over as he degenerated, leading him to vanquish Mila's scions and beginning to urge Rudolf to conquer Zofia. Rudolf in turn promised to fulfill such desire, bolstering the imperial army's armaments. This also led to Duma favoring ambitious people that put their own desires above all else, such as Dolth, Nuibaba, and Jedah, warping the Duma Faithful into a group of fanatics, particularly Jedah, who would also offer his daughters, Marla and Hestia, to Duma as offerings, earning Duma's trust.

Synopsis
Several years later after Duma's degeneration began to overwhelm him, Duma's body began to slowly rot along with his decaying mind, with him manifesting as a giant eyeball apart from his main body, making Rudolf finally starting to set his plan to put an end to the reign of gods into motion, as Duma bestowed Falchion to Rudolf to seal Mila away. During the war, Jedah tries to discover what ailed Duma, leading him to conclude that Duma desired the soul of a Brand bearer to ease Duma's pain, causing him to target Celica.

As Berkut began to descend into despair and rage over his loss over Alm, Duma began to communicate with the Rigelian royal through telepathy, offering Berkut power. This seems to continue until Berkut approaches an alter in Duma's Temple, where Berkut succumbs to his despair and madness upon discovery of Alm's true heritage to the throne of Rigel and the belief that even his fiancée Rinea looked down on him. This leads Berkut to willingly offer Rinea to Duma for power, causing Duma to kill Rinea and possess Berkut, granting him immense power.

Alongside that, Jedah successfully had goaded Celica to follow him by tricking her into believing that he can free Mila from her petrification sealing. After trapping her, Jedah offers Celica to Duma. Duma seemingly takes Celica's soul and has her turned into a witch to obey him, but this is soon thwarted later when Alm uses Falchion to stop Celica and Mila uses the last of her powers to restore Celica's life and soul.

When Alm and Celica's army unites together, they face off against the remaining Duma Faithful and Duma himself, as Duma's giant eyeball form merges with his dragon body's forehead. After a fierce clash, Alm defeats Duma once and for all by plunging Falchion into the Duma's eye. With his last breath, Duma regains his sense of self once more, and entrusts Valentia to Celica and Alm, while he falls into a deep slumber with his sister, and warns the two Brand-bearers to never wake them.

He is eventually buried alongside his sister on a mountaintop, while his religion would merge with Mila's into a single one under Nomah afterwards. In time, two trees grew from where Duma and Mila were buried and intertwined to create what would be known as the Mila Tree.