First: you are working and need to do a more faster render when just testing the scene, so down a little all this slow stuff like Antialiasing (use fast for preview), turn off Improved Edges (Slow, very slow), Use Lighting Quality to Fast and use 1 pixel, its far more faster.
Now the problem: add a primitive (cube or sphere) in the same place that the character is, render a preview (low resolution and low settings! Its a preview!), if the primitive get in to the dark so you need to encrease the Sky Light intensity. Sometimes when working qith sky you could put clouds in front the sun...

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