Chapter Text
Chapter 1
"War is no place for women." All Ishwari could think about was what her husband thought about her, and not just her, but all women in general. In his mind, women were better kept at home cleaning and cooking meals for the men, and she hated it. She didn't like the thought of her only use in life was to make her husband happy and bare him children. She felt that anything so called "men" could do, she had the ability to do the same. For months she had asked her spouse Mohan to let her do some good in helping reclaim their stolen country for the usurper who went by the name Pagan Min.
Kyrat was already in bad shape before Pagan made his appearance, being in a civil war between the Nationalists and the Royalists. The Royalists supported the reign of a king, while the Nationalists wanted to overthrow the monarchy. Near the end it seemed as if the Nationalists were going to win, but the Royalists made an alliance with Pagan Min, who at the time seemed to have good intentions. With him, Pagan brought a distant heir to the throne and a small army that belonged to him personally, one he had created with the small fortune he owned. With Pagans help the Royalist defeated the Nationalists and victory was their's, but the joy soon turned to shock. When their guard was down, Pagan's army started slaughtering everyone in the palace, and the only heir to the throne had his life taken away from him by Pagan Min himself. Before they knew what happened, Kyrat was now ruled by a merciless dictator.
In hopes of recovering the poached throne, the Golden Path was formed by Mohan Ghale, hero of Kyrat and husband of the Taruan Matara. Ishwari was proud to be married to someone who carried such a big name to her country, and she herself also carried a big name as the Tauran Matara, goddess on earth and an embodiment of the land. Though people wouldn't recognized her now, since she was forced to go into hiding due to the war. She was in even more danger now that Pagan was in charge for he outlawed religion and her, being a religious figure herself would be executed right away if she was discovered. But that name was behind her, now she was just Ishwari, wife to Mohan and mother to their son Ajay.
Ishwari longed for adventure. If there was one thing that scared her, it was that all her life she would be staying in or around the house, being nothing more than a typical house wife. She wanted to see the world, go places, do great things. The closest thing she had to seeing the world was the books she collected. She loved to read and was exceptionally well at being a teacher to herself. She knew all about different countries around the world. She wanted action, danger, and excitement. Every time she finished reading about a new country, she would tell her husband all about it, though he didn't seem all that interested. Most of the time he'd just grunt and nod as if he actually heard a word she had just said.
Ishwari finally got the courage to start asking Mohan to let her go out and fight for the cause. She would ask him to let her do supply drops, cargo deliveries, or just protect outposts. Every time she brought it up, she would always get the same answer, and then a long speech about how it's against Kyrati tradition for women to fight. They would get into long arguments about it. They would get very frustrated with each other to the point Mohan would storm out of the house and disappear for hours at a time. Eventually Ishwari's constant persisting on helping the Golden Path reached Mohan and he decided to send her to the palace, into the tiger's den, as a spy to get whatever intelligence she could get her hands on to help in the war. He had only done this in hope that Ishwari would see the horrors of the world she so desperately wanted to be a part of.