Victory City

Content Warning: The section of the guide contains mentions of sexual abuse.

When Pampa helps to create the city of Bisnaga, she does so with the intent of creating a fairer, more egalitarian society. As a young girl, she watched as the women of her town threw themselves on a funeral pyre. Women in her society were expected to sacrifice themselves in the event of their husbands’ deaths, and this left an impression on the young Pampa. After spending years being sexually abused by Vidyasagar, she develops a loathing for patriarchal societies. She wants Bisnaga to be different. She wants her city to be a place where women are not subservient to men, nor confined to certain roles or functions. Women’s lives, Pampa believes, should not be lived in deference to their male counterparts. In Bisnaga, women will be warriors and queens. They will be mothers and daughters as well, she says, but they will not be limited to these roles. Since Pampa is the founder of Bisnaga and the only person who is alive throughout the rise and fall of the city, her idealism and her dream of a more egalitarian society governs the history of the city.