Merlumina

"And... You're sleeping again!?"

- Merlumina

Merlumina was a member of the Tribe of Ancients. 1,500 years ago, she 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.

After Mario defeated Fracktail, a door appeared. The door brought him to Merlumina's chamber. Following the Paper Mario series tradition of "Shaman"-type characters (most commonly Merlon) having extremely long and boring stories, Merlumina told Mario the "short" version of her history. By the time she was done, Mario was fast asleep. Also like most similar instances in the earlier Paper Mario games, Merlumina did not notice that Mario and Tippi had fallen asleep (and Mario denied that he did anyway). After the story, Merlumina gave Mario his second Pure Heart (ending Chapter 1).

Later on, a chain of requests wound up with Watchitt requesting that Mario remove the spirit haunting his dreams (and get the spirit's autograph). The spirit was indeed Merlumina, and Mario returned to find her. It turned out that Merlumina had attempted to take a short nap after handing over the Pure Heart. But she couldn't fall asleep. Worrying that she'd become a forgotten phantom, she tried counting sheep. Even after counting the 100,000th sheep, she still could not fall asleep. And so she decided to take her frustration out on somebody else by haunting somebody in Yold Town. This somebody happened to be Watchitt. It didn't help much, though. When Mario came looking for her, Merlumina told him another long story about her childhood (and how she'd haunt people she loved), and again Mario fell asleep but denied ever doing so. After conversing some more about Watchitt, Merlumina told another long story. And for the first time in Paper Mario history, she indeed caught Mario sleeping and threw a fit about it (calling Mario selfish and insensible above all else). In the end, though, Merlumina wrote an autograph for Watchitt and finally fell fast asleep.

Childhood
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 three men (all of which were in love with her) to sing her a lullaby. Merlumina was quite a mischievous girl, and would seduce men in their dreams. To make her sleep for 1,500 years, Merlumina needed the entire village to sing a lullaby for her.