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The Radisha Drah, also known as the Woman, was the influential sister of the Prince of Taglios, the Prahbrindrah Drah. Taglios had a very strict caste system, in which women were near the bottom, so she was forced to work politically in the shadows, with her brother taking the credit and blame for her successes. She was widely respected for her sharp wit and fierce intelligence.

Shadow Games[]

The Radisha worked closely with the court wizard Smoke, who provided one of her largest sources of intelligence. Smoke made her aware of the Black Company's approach long before their arrival, as well as the Shadowmasters' attack on Taglios. The Radisha enlisted Blade, Cordy Mather, and Willow Swan to repel the initial assaults; this would be referred to in the Annals as "Willow's War", the opening engagements of the Shadowmaster wars. She went incognito and, with Smoke, accompanied the three to meet the Black Company on their way to Taglios and learn about them. She worked to convince them to help Taglios destroy the Shadowmasters.

Dreams of Steel[]

When the Black Company lost the Battle of Dejagore, the Radisha attempted to assume greater power for the state over the numerous cults, which was a constant struggle in Taglian politics. Despite her contention with the cult leaders, however, the Radisha was badly shocked when Lady murdered hundreds of them in the Massacre at Khadi Junction, an unprecedented slaughter in the recent history of her city.

The Princess was present when Soulcatcher's Palace demon was discovered to be brutally mauling Smoke, the royal court wizard.

The Radisha introduced Lady to Doctor Dahrhanahdahr, her own private physician, to treat Lady's debilitating symptoms. The royal doctor was able to quickly confirm that Lady was actually pregnant. The Radisha surrounded Lady in her new fortress with a retinue of women to support and tend to her.

She Is the Darkness[]

The Radisha's effort to screw us had put her in bed with men she loathed and at odds with people who thought her way.

At least 4 years after the Massacre at Khadi Junction, the next generation of cult leaders cooperated together to pressure the Radisha, and she later ceded a significant degree of influence to them. This led to the creation of the position known as the Purohita. She surrendered even more influence to the power-hungry Inspector-General of the Records, Chandra Gokhale. But more importantly, overall authority was lost to the powerful foreign sorceress Soulcatcher, with whose support she and her brother arranged to betray the Black Company. In this way, the Taglian royal siblings joined the very long line of successive employers to betray the Company. Croaker, the Black Company Captain, was well-prepared for the betrayal, and captured the Prahbrindrah in the field at Kiaulune.

On Soulcatcher's strong recommendation, the Radisha accepted Mogaba as a military leader in Taglios to fight against the Black Company. Mogaba helped secure his return by promising the priests of Taglios that he would capture Blade and Lady, who were both despised by the cult leaders. Although Mogaba began building a small force somewhere south of Dejagore. However, many key leaders, allies, and prisoners of the Black Company disappeared south of the Shadowgate, including the Radisha's lover Cordy Mather, and her brother the Prince.

Kiaulune wars and after[]

After the Prince disappeared at the end of She Is the Darkness, the Radisha proclaimed herself head of state. And during the subsequent Kiaulune wars, her Taglian forces under Mogaba won victory after victory against the reduced Black Company. But despite all this, she remained in an unhappy arrangement, forced to share power with Soulcatcher (the Protector), Chandra Gokhale, and a mob of cult priests:

Depending who did the pontificating, [the Radisha] had made one of two great mistakes. Or possibly both. One would be betraying the Black Company when it was a well-known fact that nobody ever profited from such treachery. And the other error, of particular popularity with the senior priests, would be that she had erred in employing the Black Company in the first place. The terror of the Shadowmasters being expunged in the interim, by agency of the Company, did not present a counterargument of any current merit.

Water Sleeps[]

For at least 15 years, the Radisha was subjected to contentious and mostly pointless Privy Council meetings. She was deeply frustrated by her lack of power and disturbed by Soulcatcher's intractable nature. Soulcatcher's abuses as the "power behind the throne" of the Protectorate became so outrageous that the Bhodi disciples began immolating themselves publicly outside the Palace of Taglios in grave protest.

The Radisha's miserable routine was suddenly interrupted when she was abducted by Sleepy and the underground Black Company in Water Sleeps. She traveled south with them for many months, becoming increasingly depressed as she observed the depredations of her territories caused by Soulcatcher's despotism. During this time, she was referred to by the nickname "Tadjik" by Sleepy and others. The Radisha was finally reunited with her brother the Prahbrindrah upon his liberation from the cave of the ancients, and lived with him for 4 years at the Abode of Ravens in Hsien.

Soldiers Live[]

"You're lying like a snake's belly," the Radisha told me. "I'm old and I'm ugly and I'm still ashamed of myself... But you're telling the lie my soul wants to hear. Forget rajadharma, though. That accusation has no power to hurt me anymore. From outside. I still crucify myself. I know what I did. At the time I thought it was the right thing. The Protector manipulated me using my sense of rajadharma. Once we get back there you'll see us in a different light.

Soldiers Live, chapter 11

In Soldiers Live, still at the Abode of Ravens, the Radisha expressed her deep regret for betraying the Black Company 19 years prior. She and her brother the Prahbrindrah joined Sleepy's return to the homeworld. Along the way, the Company turned over a number of Protectorate prisoners from Gharhawnes to the Radisha and her brother to decide whatever justice they deemed fit.

After their north-bound campaigns, the Radisha reentered Taglios at last... only to be present for the sudden, violent, and unexpected killing of the Prahbrindrah. She was restored to authority but was content to give control to the fair, competent, and popular new Great General, Aridatha Singh.

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