Merlumina

"I am a dormant soul... I have waited long to give you the Pure Heart."

- Merlumina

Merlumina, originally localized as Madam Merlar, is a recurring ghostly Shaman appearing in the Paper Mario series. Her original name is seemingly a portmanteau of "Merlon" (or his namesake himself, ) and "star", while her later name instead combines with "luminous." She is an ancestor of Merlon, and like him, has a tendency to tell incredibly long-winded stories that put Mario and friends to sleep, despite believing them to be heavily abridged versions.

Paper Mario
In Paper Mario, Madam Merlar is found in a hidden room in Shiver Mountain. The wall to her room is just an illusion; Mario can walk right through it. Madam Merlar is a messenger of the Stars and she knows the secret of the Crystal Palace. Her role is to help Mario reach the entrance of the palace by giving him the Star Stone, along with telling a long story that puts Mario into a lengthy sleep.

After the stairs to Crystal Palace arise, Madam Merlar's room is blocked off for the remainder of the game. That is because the staircase that the Star Stone made blocks her chamber. However, Merlar is present in the game's ending parade, where she performs magical effects alongside her relatives.

Super Paper Mario
1,500 years before the events of Super Paper Mario, Merlumina was a member of the Tribe of Ancients who was told to protect the Pure Heart in Yold Ruins and await the hero of legend. 1,500 years later, her ghost still waited (albeit slightly impatiently) for the hero to arrive.

Unlike most of the Shaman-type characters, details about Merlumina's childhood are known. According to her, in her youth she was quite attractive. It was hard for her to get to sleep, though, so her mother would sing her a lullaby. When she stopped living with her mother, she needed four men (all of whom were in love with her) to sing her lullabies. Merlumina was quite a mischievous girl, and would seduce men in their dreams. To make her sleep for 1,500 years (so she could successfully complete her mission of giving the destined hero, later proved to be Mario, the Pure Heart she guarded), Merlumina needed the entire village to sing a lullaby for her.

After Mario defeats Fracktail, a door appears, leading to Merlumina's chamber. Merlumina appears and proceeds to tell Mario the "short" version of her history. By the time she finishes, Mario is fast asleep, though she does not notice until the end, at which point Mario denies it. After the story, Merlumina gave Mario his second Pure Heart, ending Chapter 1.

Later on in the game, a chain of optional requests winds up with Old Man Watchitt requesting that Mario and friends remove the spirit haunting his dreams (and get the spirit's autograph). The spirit is Merlumina, and Mario and co. return to find her. Merlumina had attempted to take a short nap after handing over the Pure Heart, but once again could not fall asleep. Worrying that she had become a forgotten phantom, she tried counting sheep. Even after counting the 100,000th sheep, she still could not fall asleep, so she decided to take her frustration out on somebody else by haunting somebody in Yold Town. This somebody happened to be Watchitt, who was distantly related to her (being another descendant of the Tribe of Ancients) and therefore be able to hear and respond to her haunting. It did not help her much with her insomnia, however. When Mario and co. return to her, Merlumina tells them another long story about her childhood (and how she would haunt people she loved), and again Mario falls asleep but denies doing so. After conversing some more about Watchitt, Merlumina tells yet another long story. In the end, though, Merlumina writes an autograph for Watchitt (allowing Mario and co. to retrieve the You-Know-What from Watchitt and eventually earn Piccolo), after which point she finally falls fast asleep.

After the player gets Merlumina's autograph, if they use Tippi to tattle the place where Merlumina just disappeared, Tippi only says: "........." If the player flips, they can still see her shadow on the floor, but if they leave and re-enter the room, the shadow vanished as well, and Tippi cannot say her tattle anymore.

According to Garson in the Flipside Bar, Merlumina had a younger sister. She was entrusted with the violet Pure Heart to deliver to King Sammer I, but they fell in love and got married, eventually having 100 children.

Catch Card

 * Card Type: Uncommon
 * Card Description: She made a Pure Heart to stop the end of all worlds. She is an ancestor of Merlon and Bestovius.

Interwiki links

 * de:Madam Merlar – German MarioWiki article on Madam Merlar from Paper Mario
 * de:Merlumina – German MarioWiki article on Merlumina from Super Paper Mario

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Madam Merlar