Yuri Ishtar

### Yuri Suzuki (鈴木夕梨)

Yuri is typically referred to as Yuri by her friends and Kail, but is widely known as Ishtar, the reincarnation of the goddess of love, fertility, and war. In Japan she was born as Yuri Suzuki, but after she's brought to Hattusa her last name isn't mentioned again.

Yuri was a regular middle school student who just passed her high school entrance exam. During her time in Japan she had been dating Satoshi Himuro and the story starts off with their first kiss. Nakia attempts to abduct Yuri both times we see Yuri with Satoshi after this point. It's on their date to the movie that afterward Yuri slips through a puddle across time and space to Hattusa, the Hittite capital during the reign of Suppiluliuma I in the 15th century BCE.

Yuri is known throughout the series to be kind and considerate, someone everyone looks up to and gets a special place in their hearts. Yuri is often told she looked like a boy thanks to the clothes she wears, but when dressed up she looks beautiful and was once compared to a flower bud just before it blooms. Many people discredit Yuri because to the way she dresses and how she carries and presents herself. In her experience when she meets Ursula, she's sent away and the mayor doesn't believe that she's the true Ishtar concubine to Prince Kail because she was wearing boy's clothes, came alone, and didn't present herself as a proper princess.

Yuri is brought to Hattusa by Nakia as part of a magical scheme to kill all the princes to put her son Juda on the throne by using Yuri as a sacrifice. Over time and countless failed attempts by Nakia to kill Yuri, Kail, or both, Yuri falls in love with Kail and becomes his (unofficial turned) official concubine. She helps Kail to stop Nakia's plans from working and to help prevent or win numerous wars. To get to her position with the respect she's earned, Kail proclaimed Yuri the war goddess Ishtar's incarnate so the soldiers wouldn't be angry a women would go to war with them.

Over time Yuri gains the respect of both the people and the senate, allowing her to become Kail's Queen and Tawananna to rule beside him. At the finale of the series it's said that after Kail succession and their marriage, the Hittite Empire was at peace for 150 years.

## Relationships

**Kail Mursili**

Yuri meets Kail just as she enters their world, while she's trying to escape Queen Nakia's guard. She taken her under his shawl and kisses her to hide her from the soldiers. This kiss gives Yuri the ability to speak and understand the Hittite language. Later on she's rescued by Kail from being publicly sacrificed by Nakia simply by claiming he took her virginity and that she was no longer pure. Kail then takes her into his palace as his concubine to protect her.

For kissing her without consent and other similarly related things, Yuri held a strong dislike toward Kail. When she was scared, she would call out for Satoshi instead of Kail. After getting accustomed to the changes of her new environment combined with Kail's promise to send her back home to Japan, she started to trust and gain more respect and admiration for Kail, eventually calling out for Kail when she's scared instead of Satoshi. Though being the type of person she is, the deeper into the story the less she calls out for anyone when she's scared and tries to solve her own problems.

Eventually, Kail and Yuri acknowledge their feelings for one another and Yuri decides to stay in Hattusa and officially becomes Kail's true concubine.

[more detail needed]

**Ramses**

Yuri's first impression of Ramses started out as relatively normal - as normal as can be when you've been shot with an arrow and need help - but quickly took a turn. When we first meet Ramses, he's taken a short break from his duties and is in search of some Bedouin women. While he doesn't find any, he does find Yuri who requests his help. He denies her any help and continues. Yuri find Ramses again at an oasis and demands his help, finally he complies. Reluctantly, Ramses bring Yuri to the nearest town with a Hittite governor so Yuri can tell him of the mutiny at the Hittite-Egyptian border. During this trip Ramses' idea of Kail Mursili II's concubine Ishtar is crushed, and he wonders why such a man would fall for her. It's only after Yuri requests the arrow that's been stuck in her back for days to be taken out to prove the mutiny that Ramses starts to understand the type of person Yuri is.

In volume 9 Ramses travels to Hattusa to escort an emissary asking for a Hittite prince to marry their widowed Queen and become Pharaoh of Egypt. While there he meets Yuri again and tries to court her with gifts and stolen kisses. To this, Yuri tells Ramses that she's not interested and repeatedly told him to leave her alone. Ramses' last attempt to capture Yuri's heart in this visit is a stolen kiss with a promise that he would steal more. With that Yuri was furious, yelling to Hadi, Ryui, and Shala to not let him near her again and how dare he kiss a Hittite Princess.

Throughout the series, whenever Yuri and Ramses meet, he often tries to kidnap her to bring her back to his home in Egypt to marry her. One of his attempts is foiled in volume 11. Ramses kidnaps Yuri after she falls off a cliff in Alinna while trying to escape the Queen's army while she under suspicion of being the King Arnuwanda's assassin. Spite having a plan to use side roads and stay in villages with an Egyptian population, Kail finds them and rescues Yuri. This is the first instance that Kail and Ramses agree to battle.

Ramses manages to capture Yuri after bumping into her, quite literally, while she tries to release his troop's horses before the battle of Kadesh. [confirmation and citation needed} He brings her back to where he was staying, but after she gets sick they both come to the realization she's pregnant. Unfazed by the change of events, Ramses says he'll raise the child as his own, furthermore, he attempts to tell his troops to retreat from the city and return to Egypt when Kail appears, beginning his attack on Ramses' forces, and rescues Yuri.

Ramses closest attempt in succeeding to kidnap Yuri is when she's rescued by a Caannite ship that takes her and Rusafa to Egypt after their ship is burned. While in the Egyptian town, Rusafa tries to get Yuri a doctor because she suffers from a miscarriage. They get the attention of Ramses who saves her, but then takes her back to his home in Memphis [confirmation needed]. while she recovers, Yuri becomes friends with Ramses' sister Nefert. Yuri's vacation in Egypt doesn't last long. Ramses arranges their marriage so that Yuri can meet the Egyptian Queen Dowager, and Ramses can live out his dream as Yuri's husband. Yuri plays along until she was able to get the proof of treason they needed against Nakia before rejoining Kail.

The last time Yuri sees Ramses is right before her wedding. This time he's there as an ambassador of Egypt along with his sister and Yuri's friend Nefert. He tells Yuri to give a child to Kail as soon as she can, then continues jokingly saying her child should be a girl so she can marry his future son.

At the end of the series during the side story "A day in the Life of Kikkuri", Hadi is shown sorting through the countless requests from Ramses to come visit him in Egypt for one reason or another, to which they all seem to be ignored.

**Hadi**

Yuri wasn't expecting the welcome she got when she met Hadi in their family's hometown of Alinna in volume 2. She wanted to tell Hadi and her sisters, the sisters of Tito, about what happened and how sorry she was. Instead, Yuri couldn't find the right time to explain everything. While Yuri and Kail are relaxing before going to sleep, they're attacked by Hadi and her sisters. Yuri blocks the initial attack and Kail attempts to fight them off. Being trained in the art of the sword, the three armed sisters easily overpower them. At this point Yuri finds herself and Kail both being held back by Ryui and Shala while Hadi administered a poison that would - unknowingly fake - Yuri's death. Yuri wasn't able to explain the details behind Tito's death until much later, at which point Kail ended up doing most of the talking. Since then, Hadi and Yuri became good friends and Hadi a loyal servant who Yuri couldn't do without.

After Hadi becomes Yuri's head chambermaid, they grow very close. Hadi accompanies Yuri everywhere she possibly can and even helps Yuri learn to use the sword. In volume 6 after King Arnuwanda's murder, Hadi and her sisters take Yuri to the safety their hometown where she would be under the protection of the Hatti tribe.

Hadi attends each of Yuri's military expeditions, helping her in any way possible. In one instance they disguise themselves as performers, while in another as prostitutes to release Egyptian soldiers in Beida. Hadi helped Yuri command a civil riot in Elephantine and other cities in Egypt until they reached the Egyptian Queen Dowager's palace in Thebes. Hadi also helps command Yuri's troops during the battle of Kadesh.

**Mattiwaza**

Prior to the Hittite-Mitanni war, Yuri and Mattiwaza have never met, nor heard of each other. In volume 5 they meet when Kail's infiltration plan for Malatia goes wrong. Mattiwaza returns to the city early and Yuri, Ryui, and Shala become prisoners of the Mitanni. When Mattiwaza realizes that one of the captives is Ishtar goddess of war, concubine of Prince Kail, he quickly figures out who she is and attempts to kill her in a show of power in a fight against a lion. After winning the fight and skewering the lion, Mattiwaza sends Yuri to his seraglio to have the goddess of war on his side.

Initially he had planned on killing Yuri if she used her victory wish to leave and return to Kail. Instead she used her wish to force Mattiwaza to treat his prisoners of war like any other worker, giving them proper food and jobs meant for people. He respects her wish and allows her to move freely in both the seraglio and city as long as she's escorted by soldiers and doesn't attempt to leave the city.

Mattiwaza becomes rather indifferent about Yuri until she enters his sister Tatukia's old room, to which entry was forbidden. It was at this point he started to open up to her. Mattiwaza explained to Yuri that his sister was sent to Egypt to marry, although they were very close, even lovers. After they spoke about his sister, Mattiwaza came to a sort of realization that Tatukia hadn't died and was still living in Egypt. Spite knowing her new Egyptian name, Nefertiti, he never attempted to contact her and acted as if she was dead to the world. Yuri was the first person to enter Tatukia's bedroom and live.

When the Hittites took control of Wassugani, Mattiwaza told everyone in the seraglio to flee and take with them whatever they wanted. Before he escaped, he left Yuri with the obsidian piece he wore on his head with the idea that she could use it to prove to Mitanni soldiers she was the princes' concubine until she found Hittite soldiers that recognized her. When Yuri was rescued by Kail in volume 7, he had the obsidian piece turned into a necklace which she eventually returned to Nefertiti before she left Egypt in volume 22.

When Yuri sees Mattiwaza for the last time, it's at the battle of Kadesh. She was surprised to see him and greets him as the prince before Kail can correct her since he's now King of the new Mitanni kingdom.

## Historical Reference

Yuri could have been based on a few different historical personages, but is likely a combination.

Mursili II's wife Gassulawiya was his first wife and the one who bore his children. Though Gassulawiya died long before Mursili II after suffering an illness for an extended period, even asking the god of the underworld Nergal for mercy.

Mursili II's son Muwatalli married a woman named Puduhepa who was a priestess at a shrine for the goddess Ishtar who rose to the status of Tawananna when Muwatalli murdered his brother and assumed the throne.