Sumutnyerl

## Sumutnyerl (she/ they)

Portrait of Sumutnyerl, standing on green grass ringed by mountains just outside the blue trees of the Garden of Yerlik. They are an elderly woman of indigenous Russian heritage and Asiatic appearance, with pure white hair. They wear a long blue dress cut in the Mansi style, and white fur boots with brown trimmings, also in Mansi style. They wear a black belt, red mittens, and a grey shawl with a blue flower motif trimmed in blue and patterned green and black, with a red cord running from it down the dress. They wear a cloak of white eagle feathers, and a slight blue hue emanates from them. Art by GugTheGoose. If using this art as a reference, please credit the artist.

## Meta Information

### Introductory episode

Eat, Drink and Be Merry (appears)Visitation (named)

Sumutnyerl is an Ursans elder. They are a member of the council, representing Yerlik.

## Appearance & personality

Sumutnyerl is an older woman with a shock of white hair, and wears an eagle-feather cloak.

Pronouns: they/she. Sumutnyerl uses 'they' pronouns in the same way that the other druids do, possibly in the plural I/we sense like Sohra. She also uses 'she', but less often. Sumutnyerl is wise and reserved, speaking after consideration. They do, however, have biting remarks when needed. They do not cope well initially with big shocks, but are very resilient and resourceful.

## History

### Season 4

*[180 - 182]*

In Visitation, Sumutnyerl explains to the party about the seed and its origins, and along with Sohra escorts the party (PCs plus Wilde and Skraak) to the Garden of Yerlik. In Baggage, they also reveal that an outsider called 'Nik', matching Nikola Tesla's appearance, had stayed with their community for around a year, before being granted access to the garden. They are, however, shocked and devastated when it transpires that 'Nik' stole a seed from the garden, presumably used in the Simulacrum. In The Garden of Yerlik, Sumutnyerl accompanies the party into the garden and guides them towards the centre. They seem to have a strong affinity with the garden, like Wilde- it is likely they have been resurrected in the past.

*[183 - 189]*

In episodes 183 and 184, they fight alongside the party against the various creatures that appear both out of tears in reality and from within the garden itself. They do this in the form of a dire polar bear. In Silent Silver at the centre of the blight, Sumutnyerl is horrified and devastated at the scale of desecration. They are nearly petrified by a silver bell plant, and when the party retreats from their seemingly unwinnable battle at the centre of the garden in episode 187, Sumutnyerl, still in bear form, joins the party as they 'escape' through one of the portal-like flowerbuds at the blight's centre. In episode 189, Sumutnyerl is, like the other party members, bound by the horrifying tentacles of the beast in the void. They too are flung into an unknown plane.

*[190 - 196]*

Sumutnyerl survived their encounter with the planar shards and goes on regular on patrol with Skraak in Other London. She and Skraak arrived in Other London around three days before Wilde, four days before Cel, and a week before the rest of the party. They accompany the party to the secondary location in episode 194 and in episode 195 are forced to confront Nikola Tesla (with whom they had had some sort of relationship, leading to him stealing a seed and betraying her entire culture). In Other London, they spend as little time as possible in the presence of squizzards, who seem to instill a feeling of wrongness in her. In episode 196, they accompany the party to Svalbard, but remain outside the main entrance with Wilde in order to guard Einstein, their teleporter.

## Skills

Sumutnyerl can transform into a giant eagle, as well as a dire polar bear. In both cases, the animals' fur and feathers are white, like Sumutnyerl's hair when in human form. The implication is that they may have been resurrected at some point. They capable also capable of "activating" the seed of Yerlik, and in the healthy part of the Garden, can encourage new branches to form on the trees there.

## Trivia

* Sumutnyerl is possibly named after the family (clan) community of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North Samutnyel (Самутнел) located in region near Beloyarskiy, in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra.
* Yerlik may be an allusion to Erlik, or Erlik Khan (Эрлик Хан), a Turkic/Mongolian entity who is a god of death and underworld in Turkic mythology.