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- "What landed me in jail was refusing to accept the unacceptable."
- — Maharajkumari to Victoria.
Maharajkumari Indira Devi is the mother of Victoria Byng and the ex-wife of Sir Robert Byng. She is the daughter of a king in India that supported the independence of India from the British Empire.
History[]
Maharajkumari met her husband Sir Robert Byng in British India. At some point in 1920, she gave birth to her daughter, Victoria Byng. Afterwards, Robert betrays her and has her arrested for acting as a spy for the Indian Independence Movement trying to force the British out of India.
She wrote to both Victoria and Robert in prison in 1932. She told him Victoria should live with her grandfather, the King in India, believing that she'd be harassed for her race and that Robert would be seen as a traitor to Britain for having a mixed-race child.
Appearance[]
Maharajkumari is a woman of slight shorter build and darker skin tone compared to Victoria. Her hair is black and wavy, her eyes are dark brown, and she wears vibrant red lipstick.
Her apparition depicts her wearing an orange blouse and a pink full ankle-length sari with a rose pattern and gold trim around the edges, the sari drapes around her left shoulder and tucks in underneath itself by the front. She's also wearing black shoes, and pearl jewlery.
Her portrait is significantly different from her in-game look.
We All Fall Down DLC[]
Maharajkumari appears as self conscious hallucination after Victoria has been withdrawn from her Joy. She first appears after Victoria hides from the bobbies in a ransacked building, but Victoria shuts her out for the time being.
Escaping in the sewers she reappears questioning if her father Robert knows anything about the situation going on in the city. Victoria denies it at first and decides to go visit him at the Victory Memorial Camp using the Underground train tracks.
When Victoria is talking to Dr. Verloc about his "Permanent Solution" she appears when he talks about letting enough people die in order to sustain the population, she sarcastically remarks that certainly is a permanent solution. As Verloc realises that Victoria is off her Joy, she warns her that he wants have her locked up.
Outside Verloc's office, she convinces Victoria to get people off of Joy by withdrawing it from them.
Quotes[]
- "What then must we do?"
- "I can hardly stop you. I'm only an uncomfortable memory."
- "Yes, well. It's lovely that your thinking of your mother again. One hates to be forgotten. Even if I'm in a faraway country and, for all you know, dead for years!"
- "One clearly sees the superiority of Western civilisation."
- "Didn't you hear him? When enough people die, the rest will have food. We've got to get people off these ridiculous pills!"
- "One island? Huh. I have never found half measures to be useful. They only make the oppressor angry."
- "You have such a touching faith in the common Englishman."
- "You don't think they'll hold a grudge? Some people hold grudges forever."
- "Get home, Vickie. You don't want to be their scapegoat."
- "Some things you know you must do, even though you hate to do them. I hope you are never faced with such a choice."
- "Would you rather murder half the town, or let all of them commit suicide by starvation? Because those are your choices."
- "What's left for them, besides unhappy memories?"
- "Come back to India, Vicky. You miss me. And I'm probably still alive!"
Related Notes[]
Trivia[]
- Her portrait can be found in Victoria's room at Waterloo House during Act III.
- Her father, the King of India, disliked Robert Byng due to their opposing views on India's independence.
- In her letters to Robert, she ends them with the name Lili, a possible English title name that she was given.
- Lili is a name of many origins, in Hebrew, its meaning is "oath of God". It is also the diminutive form of Elizabeth.
- The credits refer to her as Lilitarna.
- Interestingly, the player is able to walk through her after the cutscenes, fading out in similarly to the tall yellow flowers in the main game.
- She is the third hallucinatory character to guide a playable character in We Happy Few. The other two is Margaret Worthing and Virgil Dainty.
- Her name is composed of both Maharaja and Kumari, Maharaja meaning "great ruler" and Kumari meaning "goddess" or "princess" in Sanskrit (Ancient Indian).
- Her middle name Indira is a reference to Indira Gandhi, the first and only female Prime Minister of India serving from January 1966 to her assassination in October 1984. It's very likely the character is based off of her, both having a similar appearance.
- Her surname, Devi, is Hindi for "goddess".
- She quotes the book title What Then Must We Do?, sometimes translated as What Is To Be Done? by Leo Tolstoy in 1886, written about the social conditions of Russia in his time.
- Maharajkumari's hairstyle is a modified hairmodel that is rarely found on the female NPCs in game, it's only present on the Jacobean Wellettes, Mrs. Boyle and on the female statue in Dogberry Park.
Gallery[]
