The Knights of Sumeria

The Knights of Sumeria
First Appearance	Ash vs Evil Dead: Family

The Knights of Sumeria is an ancient order of men and women who have sworn to protect humanity from the forces of evil in all of it's manifestations. Operating in the shadows of history, the Knights played a pivotal role in the days leading up to the prophesied clash between the champions of good and evil for the fate of the world in the 21st Century.

The Knights of Sumeria were introduced in the Ash vs Evil Dead Season Three episode Family.

History

Origins

Details regarding the origin of the Knights of Sumeria remain largely unknown, such as a specific time-frame or location of their creation, though the inclusion of "Sumeria" in their name seems to imply a connection to Sumer, one of humanity's first civilizations founded around 5500 BC.

One of the key events pertaining to the Knights of Sumeria occurred during the age in which The Dark Ones ruled the Earth and its denizens (prior to documented human history). A rouge Dark One known as Ruby formed an alliance with a human woman named Kaya (a sorceress and Knight of Sumeria) in order to banish the other Dark Ones from the Earthly plane of existence. Ruby and Kaya's plot worked, and the demons were exiled to a limbo dimension between Earth and Hell known as the Deadlands. The Knights of Sumeria seized this opportunity to steal the source of The Dark Ones' power, a flesh-bound tome called the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, with the intention of keeping it hidden away from the world and those who sought to use it's dark magic. However, the sorceress Kaya was seduced by the book's evil power, and stole it from the possession of the Knights. Through means unknown, it wouldn't be long after Kaya's betrayal of the Knights that her immortal soul became trapped inside the Necronomicon itself.

Details become even more scarce regarding the activity of the Knights of Sumeria between the banishment of The Dark Ones and the 21st Century, though at some point Ruby (the last remaining Dark One on Earth) began to hunt down and kill members of the order. Ruby's assumption that she killed the remaining knights was incorrect, and what members remained continued to pass on their knowledge to their descendants, who began preparing for the impending showdown between "The Prophesied One" and the avatar of evil come to test the mettle of man.

The End of Days

In 2012, the Knights of Sumeria dispatched one of their agents, a man named Gary, to seek out Ash Williams (the "Prophesied One" written of in the Ex-Mortis) in his hometown of Elk Grove, Michigan. Though Williams himself could not be found, Gary managed to track down Ash's father, Brock Williams, hoping that the elder Williams would have a way to contact his son. When Gary began speaking of a coming evil and showed off the lost pages of the Necronomicon, Brock grew irritated with the Knight, and knocked him into the cellar of his hardware store. Though Brock believed he killed the man, Gary was very much alive, and was trapped in the cellar with a broken leg. Using whatever time he had left, Gary tried to unravel the mystery of the contents of the Necronomicon's lost pages, painting the various incantations and signs on the back wall of the cellar with the hopes that it would be used to stop the coming threat.

Several years would pass, and another Knight would attempt to reach Williams through one of his known associates. This time, a Knight by the name of Dalton made contact with Kelly Maxwell, who had partnered with Ash Williams and Pablo Simon Bolivar to take on evil, but had since parted ways with them. Dalton told Maxwell the story of the Knights of Sumeria and their mission to prepare for the inevitable clash between good and evil's champion, and though Kelly believed Dalton's story, evil had seemingly been destroyed for good following her last battle with Williams and Bolivar. Eventually, Kelly would spot the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis on television during a live broadcast of an antique appraisal show, where it fell into the hands of a shadowy female figure. Contacting Dalton, Maxwell and the Knight raced to Elk Grove, arriving at the local high school just in time to save Williams, Bolivar, as well as Ash's daughter Brandy from a possessed mascot.

Dalton would relay the story of the Knights who stole the Necronomicon generations ago to Williams and Bolivar, and told them that his ancestors had been preparing for this event since. Eventually, Dalton would meet his end while accompanying Kelly and Pablo to the remnants of the Knowby Cabin while searching for the Kandarian Dagger, but not before notifying another group of Knights of his successful contact with The Prophesied One. This group, under the leadership of a woman named Zoë, arrived in Elk Grove not long after Dalton's demise, meeting Ash Williams directly at his home in the town. Williams informed the group of Dalton's death, and also told them of the strange incantations written on the wall of the hardware store's cellar. Zoë theorized that the pages and the incantations would be the key to stopping evil for good, which prompted Williams to take the group to the hardware store without hesitation.

Upon seeing the incantations, Zoë realized the translated passages of the lost pages were actually the key to opening a rift between the world of the living and the Deadlands, telling Williams that it was said that he would lead the Knights into the rift and they would spend eternity in battle against the evil which inhabited the realm, though Ash was not keen on that idea. With the aid of Pablo Simon Bolivar, the rift was opened, prompting a Knight named Marcus to do a quick recon mission to see what waited for them on the other side. Marcus returned physically unharmed, but it was soon discovered that had been mutated (or possessed) by something within the Deadlands. The demonic Marcus fused his body with that of another Knight named Peter, and began to attack Ash, Pablo, Zoë, and another Knight. Though the other Knight was killed (and partially assimilated), Ash and Pablo brought down the demonic Marcus, leaving the traumatized Zoë as the last member of their squadron. A few hours after this incident, Zoë would be captured by Ruby and the newly resurrected Kaya (whose spirit now possessed the body of Kelly Maxwell), where he blood and skin would be used to create a new page of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.

Shortly after Zoë's capture and death, Ash Williams would finally confront the champion of evil itself, Kandar The Destroyer, a sixty-foot tall demon unleashed by The Dark Ones following their escape from the Deadlands. During this battle, Williams commandeered a tank left behind by the United States Army following their evacuation of the area after it was decided that a nuclear bomb was going to be dropped on Elk Grove. Ash waited for the perfect opportunity to fire the Kandarian Dagger at the demon, waiting until Kandar had picked up the tank in it's large hand before firing the dagger directly into the creature's chest. Kandar dropped the war vehicle as it began to fall over in agony, and collapsed directly onto tank before Williams could escape. However, Williams was quickly rescued my a previously unknown member of the Knights of Sumeria who had survived the Deadites' onslaught of Elk Grove, and took the Prophesied One to safety.

The Future

Decades past, and the Knights of Sumeria set up operations in a bunker known as Wayfarer Station, located in the ruins of what was once Detroit. Though humanity had mostly been obliterated, the Knights continued to work on technological advancements, including a stasis chamber (which preserved the unconscious body of Ash Williams through the years), and robotic technology. The Knights used these life-like humanoid robots to aid in their battles against The Dark Ones, including one robot known simply as Lexx. It was after Ash Williams awoke from his stasis coffin that Lexx informed the remaining Knights of Ash's "resurrection", and showed him the post-apocalyptic state of the world.

What happened to the Knights of Sumeria following Ash's awakening remains unknown.