Gopal Khamavant

**Gopal Khamavant** was one of the leaders of the Free Patruydan Movement alongside Lakshmi Jadhav. During the Patruydanian Civil War, he assisted the American tourist Martha Barnes in her crusade to find and rescue her friend Rose Harvey, who'd been kidnapped by the Royal Patruydanian Land Forces for slave labor.

He also played a key role in the civil war, alongside Lakshmi Jadhav. After recruiting Martha and Rose into the Free Patruydan Movement, the FPM's morale dramatically increased and the FPM became emboldened to attack Royal Army outposts and fortresses across Patruydan.

Sometime after the outbreak of World War III, he died of dysentery.

## Background

Gopal was born in 1973. When the Patruydanian Civil War started in 1996, he was heartbroken to see many of his people oppressed by the dictator King Chandan Badal and sought to do something about it. Sometime in the year 2001, he and a group of close friends founded the Free Patruydan Movement. However, as the years went by, the FPM suffered multiple defeats at the hands of the government loyalists, which nearly broke his spirit. In 2002, Gopal met Lawrence Barnes, the father of Martha Barnes. At the time, Lawrence served in the US Army Special Forces, and was part of a team of covert operatives tasked with training the rebels in assymetrical warfare in the hopes of evening the playing field against the dictatorship forces. Initially skeptical of Barnes' help, he found the training of his rebel friends under these military advisors quite beneficial, and eventually developed a close friendship with Barnes. Despite this partnership, however, the FPM still seemed to be fighting a losing battle.

To make matters worse, in 2009, Lawrence Barnes was killed in a shootout with the Royal Army forces during a government loyalist takeover of a rebel outpost in northern Patruydan. Gopal and his rebel friends were eventually pushed out of northern Patruydan, which fell completely to loyalist control by this point, and fled to the southern part of Patruydan, further demoralizing Gopal.

Years later, in early May of 2019, he'd learned that an American journalist had been kidnapped by the Royal Army, presumably for slave labor. This surprised the rebel fighter, who found it surprising that King Badal would begin to target foreigners now. Later that same month, another American tourist named Martha Barnes was also kidnapped by the Royal Land Forces while attempting to rescue her friend.

Recognizing Martha as the daughter of the late Lawrence Barnes, Gopal led a rescue mission to save Martha before she could suffer the same fate as the previous American. However, the extraction went awry when Martha's escort was killed in a shootout with the Royal Land Forces, leaving Martha stranded. However, Martha was able to surprise Gopal by displaying an impressive set of combat skills against the Royal Land Forces, leading Gopal to recruit Martha into the FPM on the spot.

Over the next several months, Martha and Gopal formed an effective partnership. However, this partnership became strained when Gopal learned of another team of Americans entering the country, known as the Five Deaths. Gopal believed that the Five Deaths, who were ex-soldiers who no longer seemed to be loyal to the American military, could potentially backstab the rebels even if they were to help overthrow King Badal, while Lakshmi argued that these five ex-soldiers could be effective allies, given they were persuaded to help.

Gopal also received unconfirmed intel from another foreigner, Kyle Bates, that a Venezuelan drug cartel had begun shipping drugs into the country behind King Badal's back. This led to yet another heated debate between Gopal and Lakshmi, with Gopal arguing that drugs would harm the people of Patruydan and start a drug addiction epidemic much like the one America had, while Lakshmi argued that, if used properly, the drugs could benefit Patruydanian citizens. Later, Martha and Gopal both witnessed a cargo plane belonging to the cartel in question being shot down by Royal Land Forces soldiers, with the aircraft's suriviving crew members-which were revealed to be indeed members of a drug cartel known as Los Eternos being immediately apprehended following a shootout with Los Eternos security guards.

The Royal Land Forces seized the aircraft's cargo, which was revealed to be a shipment of marijuana and opium, which the Royal Land Forces claimed for themselves while hauling the Los Eternos aircraft crew to prison.

Despite the rivalry between Gopal and Lakshmi about the drugs, Martha was able to help both Gopal and Lakshmi in inflicting heavy losses against the Royal Land Forces.

Gopal also played a key role in stopping Operation Shiva's Fire, a plot by King Badal to destroy all rebel strongholds within Patruydan, as well as the military bases of foreign countries that he now knew were aiding the rebels. Gopal and Martha led a strike against Patruydan's underground military base, which housed the controls for an orbital satellite weapon built by the Patruydanian military during the war, and attempted to shut it down, but ultimately failed, leading to World War III.

### Death

Sometime after the outbreak of World War III, it was revealed that Gopal had died of dysentery. The FPM is now led by Lakshmi Jadhav.