Avatar:Sumi
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"There are pieces in [Pai Sho] that work harmoniously with one another, while others clash, but that is only a simple understanding of the game. Pieces that clash with each other can work together to create a greater harmony on the board, depending on the pattern your opponent is trying to create. A piece can serve multiple purposes in the hand of a Pai Sho master. If you only focus on tending your garden, you won't be aware of the threat that is growing elsewhere. Gardens can bloom and fade, gates can open and shut. You have to see the entirety of the board to know what is coming."
Sumi, also known by the aliases "The Judge"[3] and "Merchant Yan",[2] was a powerful revolutionary and secret agent in Ba Sing Se by the late Hundred Year War, holding influential positions in various organizations and groups. Among other roles, she was a co-leader of the Silver Fangs, a ranking Dai Li officer, a Lower Ring community leader, a White Lotus associate, and a businesswoman. Sumi used her far-reaching influence in an effort to free the people of Ba Sing Se from oppression, first by undermining the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se and later by fighting against the city's occupation by the Fire Nation.
History
Creating and expanding an undercover network
Sumi's early life is unclear and shrouded in mysteries. She had a mentor who had lived at a Fire Nation outpost and passed a liking for Fire Nation tea to her.[2] At one point, she became part of both the Dai Li and the Order of the White Lotus.[1] Disgusted at the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se which Dai Li leader Long Feng had established to cement his dictatorship,[3] Sumi began to work against the existing system from within and without.[2][1] She rose in the ranks of the Dai Li, gathering followers,[1] while also engaging in underground revolutionary activism.[2]
Following a wave of new repressive measures in the Ba Sing Se,[4] several anti-government figures, including Sumi and Patron Wu, founded the Silver Fangs, a business syndicate opposing Long Feng's corrupt regime and aiming to help the poorest in society.[2][5] In her role as Silver Fangs representative and co-leader, she used the shop of Tangbo in the Middle Ring's Grove District as one of her headquarters.[2]
As Sumi expanded her influence, she took various roles and associated aliases.[3] For instance, she assumed the public persona of "Merchant Yan", a kind businesswoman working in the Lower Ring.[2][6] Over time, lower-class people realized that "Merchant Yan" was a very effective mediator with wide connections, leading them to involve her in their disputes with Earth Kingdom officials. Though Sumi disliked the role of a mediator, she still fulfilled it diligently. She thus became a highly respected community leader in the Lower Ring, earning the nickname "The Judge".[3][6]
Recruiting Jin
One day in spring 100 AG, Sumi –in her role as "The Judge"– was requested to arbitrate in a dispute concerning the debts of the Wen family to gambling den owner Lao Yiu. The dispute had escalated after Mr. Wen, an alcoholic gambling addict, had lost the family business and attacked Officer Xiang, a debt collector. At the mediation, the Wen family was represented by Grandmother Wen and Suyin Wen, the latter impressing both Sumi and Lao Yiu with her intelligent and passionate appeal as well as strong criticism of her father. Ultimately, the parties reached a compromise, with Suyin volunteering for debt servitude in the Upper Ring to restore her family's finances.[3][6]
Later that spring, Sumi was in Tangbo's shop when she was visited by Jin, a teenage girl who intended to join the Silver Fangs. After dismissing Xuan who had brought potential initiate along, Sumi asked the girl about a calligraphy scroll hanging in her office. After some thinking, Jin concluded that the calligraphy was meant to represent hidden knowledge, including the dangers of such knowledge. Sumi approved of the interpretation and lauded her intelligence before offering the girl some tea. As they drank, the Silver Fangs leader explained that she had served Fire Nation tea, inquiring about Jin's feelings of her being a potential Fire Nation spy.[2] Seeing the girl's terrified reaction, Sumi quickly calmed her down and explained that the Silver Fangs often took in young people who had lost everything to the war. She outlined how the network helped to protect the truth, even if it was terrible, and asked whether Jin was willing to carry this burden as well.[3]
When Jin revealed that she was seeking to join the Silver Fangs to earn money to free her friend Suyin from debt servitude, Sumi remembered how she had mediated the latter's case in her role as "The Judge". She agreed to let Jin join their network as a initiate, as the Silver Fangs representative had previously talked with Madame Macmu-Ling who had expressed approval of Jin. Trusting Macmu-Ling's judgement, Sumi informed Jin that she would become part of a team of trainees, with Xuan remaining her contact person for the time being.[3]
Coup of Ba Sing Se
As a result of her intelligence network, Sumi quickly learned of the Coup of Ba Sing Se and the overthrow of Earth King Kuei, days before this became common knowledge.[4][7] Other network members confirmed this development. She and other Silver Fangs members subsequently called an emergency meeting of the organization's entire leadership at one of Patron Wu's entertainment houses, a secure location on the border between the Lower and Middle Rings. Once everyone had gathered, Sumi and Wu revealed that the Dai Li had fallen under the control of the Fire Nation, had covertly toppled the Earth Kingdom government, and would soon open the gates of Ba Sing Se to the Fire Army.[7]
Upon being informed that one city gate still remained open to those wishing to flee, several Silver Fangs leaders stormed out of the meeting to rescue themselves. Afterward, Sumi told those who wished to remain that they had to go into hiding, while declaring that "they can burn us, but the earth remains".[7]
Using their connections inside the Dai Li, Sumi and other leading members subsequently made it appear as if the Silver Fangs broke apart during the Fire Nation occupation of Ba Sing Se.[1][8] It was presumed that numerous commanders of the revolutionary network had been arrested.[1][9] In reality, Sumi used her ranking position within the secret police to shelter important Silver Fangs such as Doctor Jan, while recruiting Dai Li agents who were secretly opposed to the Fire Nation takeover. She also maintained her contacts with White Lotus members outside the city, carefully planning and preparing a large-scale rebellion which would topple the Fire Nation-established puppet regime and liberate Ba Sing Se.[1][8]
Freeing Jin and Xuan
On the Day of Black Sun 100 AG, Jin and Xuan attempted to rescue Suyin Wen who had been brainwashed by the Dai Li and was served as a Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator, one of public faces of the pro-Fire Nation puppet regime. The operation was foiled, resulting in their capture and imprisonment by the Dai Li.[1][10] There was speculation about Sumi assisting the Dai Li in stopping the two.[1][nb 1]
A few days later, Sumi arranged for Jin and Xuan to be taken from their prison cells into a guest room of the palace, allegedly so that she could hold a trial for the insurgents on the Dai Li's behalf. Once they saw her, the two reacted with shocked disgust at her "traitorous" defection. Sumi acted mildly annoyed, and seemingly attempted to recruit Jin into the ranks of the Dai Li. After a while, however, she requested most of the Dai Li guards to leave the room with the exception of agents Tong and Sing, claiming that she would "personally question the prisoners".[1]
Once the majority of the Dai Li agents were outside, Sumi revealed her true loyalties to the prisoners and allowed Doctor Jan to enter the room, reuniting her with Xuan. Sumi and Jan began to explain how they had faked the Silver Fangs' collapse into order to save the network's members and subvert the Fire Nation occupation of Ba Sing Se. The Silver Fangs' representative calmly outlined how their aims justified misleading other rebels as well as using any resources available. When Jin responded with anger at Sumi working for the Dai Li, the older woman used a Pai Sho allegory to make her plans more understandable. In the process, she revealed to Jin and Xuan the existence of a loyalist Dai Li faction under her command. She also hinted at her connection to the Order of the White Lotus, stating that she was basing her actions on information from inside and outside the city, seeking the right moment for action to prevent a potential defeat of the growing rebel forces.[1] Relaying intelligence about the ongoing earthbender rebellions and the failed invasion of the Fire Nation, Sumi declared the Silver Fangs' readiness to never stop fighting until the Earth Kingdom had been liberated.[8]
Afterward, Sumi explained that the Silver Fangs would arrange an escape route out of the palace for Jin and Xuan during the next days, allowing them to return to the Lower Ring where they would assist in efforts to prepare a city-wide revolution. However, Jin firmly countered that she would only leave the palace with Suyin. The Silver Fangs representative coldly argued that another attempt to rescue the brainwashed girl would be a "foolish risk", as her network would not arrange for breakout of Jin and Xuan should they again be captured. Having made her stance clear, Sumi left the room.[8]
Organizing the liberation of Ba Sing Se
Over the following weeks, Sumi continued to prepare for the planned uprising. She and Patron Wu possibly managed to enlist most of the criminal gangs of the Lower Ring for their project, while Jin and Xuan indeed helped to coordinate various insurgent cells.[12][13] When the arrival of Sozin's Comet signaled the start of the rebellion, the Silver Fangs' efforts resulted in a large section of Ba Sing Se's population taking up arms against the Fire Nation.[13][14] Aided by an assault by the White Lotus from outside the city, the revolution toppled the Fire Nation occupation.[13][14][15]
Physical description
By 100 AG, Jin described Sumi as a middle-aged woman with soft features and a sharp gaze.[2]
Personality
Sumi was a complex person who combined compassion and empathy with a high level of ruthlessness and detachment. She generally claimed to act out of a desire to free the people of Ba Sing Se and allow them access to the truth. In this regard, she felt that it was a horrible injustice how young refugees, having lost everything they held dear, were forced by Long Feng's regime to pretend as if their past did not exist.[2][3] At the same time, Sumi's devotion to the truth was absolute, even if, as she herself stated, this truth might be horrible. To pursue her goals, she was thus willing to endanger her own followers and allies, including teenagers like Jin and Xuan.[2][3][8]
She also held little sympathy or compassion for any action which might endanger her own plans. For instance, she offered no aid to Jin in her attempt to rescue Suyin, describing her attempts to free her friend as "foolish risks".[8] Sumi was also willing to repeatedly and sometimes cruelly test her followers' loyalties by pretending to be their enemy.[2][1]
Appearances
Avatar Legends novels
City of Echoes
Notes
- ↑ Jin and Xuan suspected that the Silver Fangs had covertly leaked information to Inspector Heng of the Dai Li, allegedly to stop unwise actions and to restore contact with them for the upcoming liberation of Ba Sing Se. This was neither confirmed nor denied by Silver Fangs leaders Sumi and Jan.[1] Heng might also have learned about the upcoming Day of Black Sun due to the information previously relayed by Team Avatar to the Earth Kingdom government.[11]
References
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