Rumia (ルーミア),¹⁾²⁾ also known as Lumia, is a youkai in Touhou Project with the ability to manipulate the darkness. She debut as the first stage boss of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil but outside of that, she is usually just carefree, lazy, and not really important to the series.

Her two character titles are “Youkai of the Dusk” (宵闇の妖怪, Yoiyami no Youkai) in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, and “Youkai Lurking in the Darkness” (暗闇に潜む妖怪, Kurayami ni Hisomu Youkai) in Shoot the Bullet.

She takes on the form of a young girl with blonde hair, red eyes, and a ribbon, which is actually an ofuda that she can't remove according to the “omake.txt” (おまけ.txt) file for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. This ofuda is briefly revisited many years later in Strange Creators of Outer World where it remains a mystery who put the ofuda on her. Unfortunately, we still don't have any clues or possible leads on this.

Her usual outfit consists of a black vest with a white long-sleeved blouse underneath, though these sleeves have been shortened once in Hopeless Masquerade. There is a strange red necktie with two balls on her chest that has confused various artists, so the necktie either takes on various forms or she has a lot of weird neckties. She also has a black skirt, white socks, and black shoes with a red ribbon.

She has the ability to manipulate the darkness that can be used to prey on humans. This darkness nullifies light and blinds people, including the user, but it can manipulated in a way to let light pass. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, she can form a spherical mass of darkness around her, but she doesn't always use it and can be seen without it in moonlight.³⁾ Her youkai strength likely makes up for her ability.

Rumia has five spell cards in total, seen in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Shoot the Bullet. Most of the spell cards revolve around darkness or the night and all the names are in katakana.

• “A Soul as Red as a Ground Cherry” (ほおずきみたいに紅い魂, Houzuki Mitai ni Akai Tamashii)
  This is the Stage 1 theme for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
• “Apparitions Stalk the Night” (妖魔夜行, Youma Yakou)
  This is the Stage 1 boss theme for Rumia in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

“So, can I eat this kind of human in front of me?”
– Rumia

In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Rumia wanders around the Hakurei Shrine, bumps into a protagonist, bluffs, and gets defeated by them.

As Reimu, Rumia interjects Reimu's comments about the night, and seems annoyed that there's only ghosts outside. She asks if humans were night-blind, and asks about humans who go to work at night. Reimu doesn't mind if she eats them, then Rumia asks if she could eat Reimu.

As Marisa, Rumia takes offense at Marisa's comments on how there's only weirdos at night, only for Marisa to say it wasn't to her. Then, she asks about Rumia's pose. Rumia says it looks like the saint was crucified, but Marisa remarks that it looks like somebody learned to count.

For some reason, it's more emphasized that Reimu met Rumia since its referenced in both Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red and Strange Creators of Outer World that Rumia was defeated attempting to eat Reimu.

“If you just go flying off without paying attention, you'll be attacked suddenly.”
– Aya Shameimaru

In Shoot the Bullet, Aya mentions seeing something in the darkness on Stage 1-2, then warns readers to be careful or else they'll be attacked from Stage 1-4. In Stage 1-6, Aya claims that youkai who cover themselves in darkness represents a lack of confidence in one's own powers, then says it's pointless to take pictures.

In Hopeless Masquerade, Rumia makes a very minor cameo as a background character when the protagonist(s) fight on the “Hall of Dreams Great Mausoleum” stage. Here, she simply watches the ongoing battle in her crucifixion pose, seen to the left of the temple, and isn't really grouped with any other characters.

“So your lifestyle has no sense of purpose? It feels like there are more youkai who don't feel like learning or working lately. It's quite depressing.”
– Aya Shameimaru

In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Aya had published an article about Rumia titled “Demon Lurks in the Dark in Broad Daylight” in Hazuki Issue #2 of Season 116, which equates to September or October 2001, suggesting that this article was published before the Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil events.

The article goes over how a sphere of darkness has been seen flying on summer afternoons. Rinnosuke suggests her not staying in one place too long as it could kill the plants underneath her. Aya tells her this and finds out that Rumia just hates the heat. Aya then suggests youkai to take shade in the darkness with her.

For the interview, Rumia complains about the youkai entering her 'summer resort paradise' since the article was published. It's mostly explained how she can manipulate darkness around light, blind people including herself, but doesn't use it in moonlight. In short, she's a lazy carefree youkai with no real goals.

“Perhaps she really is stupid.”
– Hieda no Akyuu

In Perfect Momento in Strict Sense, Akyuu puts Rumia down as a weak youkai, with a medium threat level, who isn't friendly with humans and roams anywhere. She writes that Rumia can make her surroundings dark and attacks alone. Akyuu thinks the darkness is used to hide her appearance and may be a secondary ability.

For eyewitness reports, Akyuu is amused by the report of a large blob of darkness heading towards the forest and bumping into a tree. Another report says that they've been through the blob, but didn't meet her and left unscathed. Akyuu notes that Rumia might be too stupid to see past her own darkness.

For countermeasures, Akyuu suggests just avoiding the darkness where moonlight doesn't shine unless you're confident in your abilities since humans generally aren't as strong as youkai. There's been numerous reports of Rumia not using darkness in moonlight, but it's very unlikely that humans would be able to speak to her. She looks young, but she eats humans.

In Silent Sinner in Blue, Rumia makes a brief cameo in the prologue in a shot of most of the characters (prior to Mountain of Faith) as Reimu and Marisa are reminiscing on their past adventures. She also appears in Chapter 9 where Remilia invited a lot of people to celebrate their rocket, and chats with Wriggle.

In Oriental Sacred Place, Rumia helps out with the Test of Courage at the Hakurei Shrine in late Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, and the chapter ends with them eating a watermelon that Marisa was trying to keep cool using ghosts. Rumia later returns in Chapter 12 at the Hakurei Shrine's New Year's Eve festival.

At this point, it's evident that Rumia often hangs near the Hakurei Shrine, and this trend continues in the next installment, Visionary Fairies in Shrine.

In Visionary Fairies in Shrine, Sunny asks her about Clownpiece in Chapter 1, but it's she hadn't met her yet. She makes more cameos at the Hakurei Shrine in Chapter 6's cherry blossom viewing, Chapter 7's Tanabata festival where she eats some meat, and Chapter 9.5's Deep Winter Fire festival near Wriggle.

She attends another cherry blossom viewing at the Hakurei Shrine in Chapter 10 where she chats with Mystia, but then she shows up at the Genbu Ravine in Chapter 11.5 where the Kappas were holding a Kappa Canyoning event, though this event was cut short as the Fairies of Light cause a water dragon to ascend to the heavens.

“I ain't using this.”
– Marisa Kirisame

In The Grimoire of Marisa, Marisa has a few notes on Rumia's Night Sign “Night Bird” spell card that she used in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and basically says that she won't be using it. She comments on how Rumia has probably never seen a bird, and how it doesn't even look like a bird before writing it off as boring. Here, Rumia's sigil is the mistletoe.

In Forbidden Scrollery, Rumia makes a cameo with Koishi and Kogasa in the Volume 1's Bonus Chapter, overlooking a monk who accidentally kills some tanuki after getting in a music battle with them. Do note that the characters in Kosuzu's story were substituted with Byakuren, the Prismriver Sisters, Choujuu Gigaku, and such.

“Uh, there was something behind the shrine, so it might've been her…”
– Reimu Hakurei

In Volume 2, Rumia is in a cross-review where Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya give their opinions on characters in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Reimu and Sakuya give her a 1/10 since she really isn't relevant, but Marisa gives her 8/10 since her ability makes danmaku easier to see at night.

The volume also has an interview between ZUN and Iruka Unabara where it's ZUN mentioned that he wanted to add in lesser characters to Touhou Hisoutensoku, but Twilight Frontier wanted popular characters. Rumia was even mentioned as a potential final boss before they settled on Suwako.

In Volume 3, the “Gensokyo Human-Youkai Directory”⁴⁾ page on Rumia recaps everything that's known about Rumia, such as how she's a weak man-eating youkai, nobody knows who attached the ofuda on her head that she can't reach, how she hates sunlight but can be seen in moonlight, and how nobody knows what other purpose her darkness serves. The only interesting addition is how she's been called a “mysterious” youkai.

• It's often mentioned that Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is intentionally western-themed, so she had an ability that sounded like a final boss of a western game.⁵⁾ Her stage was also the first test stage, so ZUN made her 'full of surprises' in the sense that Rumia would suddenly use spell cards as the stage's midboss on the more higher difficulties.⁶⁾
• To reiterate, Rumia was planned for Touhou Hisoutensoku⁷⁾ and Touhou Shinpiroku,⁸⁾ but scrapped.

* . * Lumen is a Latin word for light and a few words (e.g. luminance, luminary, luminous, etc.) borrow it. Lumen (lm) is also an SI derived unit that measures luminous flux. * Romania (ルーマニア, Rūmania) is the home of Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) and the final stage theme of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is “The Young Descendant of Tepes” (ツェペシュの幼き末裔, Tepeshu no Osanaki Matsuei) which is ties into the game's overall western theme. * Rumia is a city in Poland. Again, this ties into Embodiment of Scarlet Devil's western theme. * There's a weak theory that Rumia is possibly based on “Kuubou” (空亡, くうぼう) / “Soranaki” (そらなき), a strong 'youkai' who engulfs the sun in darkness and black clouds from the ancient Hyakki Yagyō Picture Scroll (百鬼夜行絵巻). However, the youkai was only created in recent years and there's no lore behind them. It's also possible for them to just be some neta character that the Internet made up. * She says “so nanoka” (そーなのかー, lit. “Is that so?”) once in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and “eh, so nanoka?” (へえそうなのかー, lit. “Oh, is that so?”) once in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red.

• Rumia Day - Rumia doesn't have a birthday, so fans made a holiday on the 7th of every month.
  • Touhou Sonanoka - A special Rumia-only doujin fair. The first event was held in 2013.
• Baquartet - A very old four-person group of seemingly irrelevant low-level characters.
• EX Rumia - A very old theory that stems from Rumia's mysterious ofuda locking her true potential.
• Waha - A very old fan-made catchphrase that comes from early Futaba Channel memes.

• Rumia on Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]
• Rumia on Niconico Encyclopedia [JA]
• Rumia on Touhou Wiki [JA]
• Rumia on Touhou Motoneta Wiki [JA]
• Rumia on THBWiki [ZH]
• Rumia on Moegirl Encyclopedia [ZH]
• Rumia on Namu Wiki [KO]
• Rumia on Touhou Wiki [EN]

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