Yuma Lau (Far Cry 4)

“Falling dream? A lot of people fall around here. Most of them don't wake up. That's what this place does to weak men.” — Yuma — King Min's Kyrat

“Pagan's loyal right hand and governor of the elite Royal Guard, she brings her expertise in human nature and psychology to heal the scars of all Kyrati through kindness and understanding.” — King Min's Kyrat

Yuma Lau is the secondary antagonist of Far Cry 4 and Pagan Min's second-in-command, acting as General of the Royal Guard, as well as the Warden of Durgesh Prison.

Background[]

Yuma has known Pagan Min since childhood. She was the daughter of a triad crime boss and watched her father and mother get gunned down during joint task force raids between INTERPOL and the Mainland China NNCC oversea operation in Hong Kong. The raids were meant to clean up the triad forces outside the China border in Hong Kong, targeting several drug lords including her family and the Mins. Gang Min, Pagan’s father, took the orphaned Yuma under his wing to repay her father for an old debt, though in all likelihood, Gang was merging his fractured empire with hers.

Pagan Min didn't raise Yuma himself, but made sure she received the best education. Pagan became an older brother figure for her and she came to idolize him. He constantly encouraged her intellect and ruthlessness. For her 18^th birthday, Pagan gave Yuma the heads of three men who tried to steal the inheritance of her father’s empire, and in return she used her inheritance to help Pagan create a force strong enough to take over Kyrat.

She remained loyal to Pagan until he fell in love with Ishwari Ghale. Yuma felt he was no longer the ambitious and powerful man she admired as a child and blames Ishwari for making him weak. Yuma states in her journals that she doesn't dislike when people fall in love, rather that she believes love can actually make some people stronger, but asserts that Pagan was not one of those people and that it made him a mess.^[1] After Ishwari fled to the United States, Yuma hoped Pagan would return to be the king she once idolized, but was disappointed when she saw no change and says she realized that what is broken stays broken.

Yuma came to the point of despising Pagan, and decided that she needed a new idol before becoming obsessed with the myth of Kalinag, a legendary hero in Kyrati mythology. She took the stories of this great warrior to heart and now searches all of Kyrat in hopes of finding Shangri-La and unlocking its secrets.^[2] She still, however, seems to harbor a great deal of bitterness towards Ishwari and Pagan. She thinks Pagan's desire to keep Ajay alive is a reflection of his weakness and during her fight with Ajay, she goes to the point of saying that she is going to scatter Ishwari's ashes in pigs' slop.

Far Cry 4[]

Yuma is first seen after Ajay Ghale is betrayed and forced out of a plane by agent Willis Huntley, after killing what he believed to be Yuma's lieutenants, while they were actually undercover, CIA assets. Pagan introduces Ajay to Yuma and Durgesh Prison, stating that he has been a "naughty little shit" and that he is easing him into the harsh situation. After Pagan and Yuma walk away, the guard orders Ajay to the floor and pricks him with a syringe, causing Ajay to pass out.

Ajay awakes while having hallucinations of Yuma. As Ajay explores, Yuma voices over the finding of her calling with the discovery of Shangri-La, how she came to despise Pagan, and how Ajay's mother led Pagan astray.

If Ajay is killed by the Rakshasa before picking up both pieces for the climbing hook, a special cutscene will play where Ajay wakes up inside his "suite" with Yuma outside the cell, where she tells him that she did not kill Mohan but that she could have killed Ishwari if she had the chance. When Ajay gently tells Yuma to fuck off, she tells him to jump, and if he does, she will scatter Ishwari's ashes for him, before walking away.

Death[]

“Time to die, Ajay Ghale. Time to do what Pagan would NEVER do himself! Time to kill you, and mix your mother's ashes in pigs' slop! (Laughs)” — Yuma's last words, while confronting Ajay

After escaping from Durgesh and helping the Golden Path breach into Northern Kyrat, Ajay's next target is Yuma. Pagan proceeds to hold a public broadcast to address the recent attempt on his life. Because of Yuma's constant use of Royal Army resources and soldiers, and knowing about her obsession with Kyrati mythology, Pagan considers Yuma to be a liability, and betrays her by disclosing her location to the public, and consecutively the Golden Path, thus allowing Ajay to track her down.

Ajay goes to the Keo Svargiya Mine, where he is confronted by Yuma, who again gives him hallucinogenics. While hallucinating, Ajay goes full circle, and once he finds himself back in the first room, Yuma seduces him before a confrontation ensues, where Ajay is forced to confront Kalinag in person, helped by the Rakshasa and the Sky Tiger. After attacking him three times, Ajay starts to indefinitely stab Kalinag, until he "wakes up" from his hallucinations and discovers that Kalinag was actually Yuma, and the Rakshasa were her backup men, all lying dead on the floor.

Personality and Traits[]

Yuma is a mysterious woman, possibly the most mysterious of all of Pagan's governors. She always had Pagan to admire as a king in her life, and after the radical change of Pagan, she was forced to change her vision. Her devotion to Kalinag is so big that she even sent expeditions behind the Shangri-La's Thangka. Yuma's personality is also described to be similar to Vaas in Far Cry 3, but Yuma is smarter than him and prefers to use the tactics over her own brute force, which easily made her the owner of Durgesh, and Pagan admires her position.

Yuma is also obsessed with Kyrati mythology, so much that she sent an expedition of several men to the Lost Valley of Kyrat in order to find a legendary Relic, but they never returned. Instead, this expedition became the religious cult known as the Disciples. Yuma is also cruel, ruthless, treacherous, shifty, sadistic, brutal, chaotic, warmongering, maladjusted, sly, cunning, confident, and very stern and manipulative too.

Mission appearances[]

Don't Look Down
Escape from Durgesh Prison DLC (mentioned)
Valley of the Yetis DLC (mentioned)
Payback (killed)

Trivia[]

Yuma effectively uses hallucinogenics to manipulate her victims. Before their confrontation, Yuma manages to seduce Ajay while he is in a drugged state, allowing her to disarm him and later shoot him, although the bullet fails to kill Ajay.
When talking to Pagan Min, Yuma appears to speak only in her native Cantonese.
Several of her journal entries can be discovered in the form of letters and notes by exploring the game world, in which she chastises Pagan for becoming "weak" (even considering an exit strategy) and revealing her obsession with Kalinag and Shangri-La.
The mission to kill Yuma, Payback, is a direct reference to the mission of the same name in Far Cry 3. In both missions the player is tasked with killing the antagonist's second-in-command, and in both the player is drugged and forced to fight while hallucinating.
A villager NPC states that Yuma and her entourage visited his village a week prior and that when she walked by him she left behind "the strongest scent of lilies." The villager describes the experience as "hypnotic". This may or may not have been a reference to the herbs Yuma uses to make her hallucinogenics.
In Keo Svargiya Mines, before the room where the player confronts/confronted Yuma, the player can find a note from someone called "Sir Nigel". In it, Sir Nigel describes having a vision witnessing Yuma's death and urging her to leave the country before it can happen. Sir Nigel is never seen or heard from again, although it is interesting that he ignores formalities in his letter, referring to Yuma as "my poor dear".
- Yuma's obsession with Kalinag and Shangri-la seems to have been bolstered by her relationship with Sir Nigel, whose house and cabin can be explored in-game, and whose journal expresses a strong interest in vindicating his professional reputation by finding Shangri-la.
Unlike her fellow governor, Noore, Yuma seems to allow moonshine production in her territory, but she demands that it all be sent to Pagan Min's palace for consumption there.
At the Raj Pandhi Brewery in Noore's territory, there is a note listing possible names for the new batch of Raksi. One of them is "Yuma's Quiff", which refers to the shock of hot pink hair on top of her head.
In a document titled "R.G. Memo: CIA", Yuma places a bounty on Willis Huntley's head, offering money and cushy reassignment to any soldier who catches him. This could explain why Willis betrayed Ajay, if he struck a deal with Yuma to spare him in exchange for Ajay.
Yuma instructs her men, via a Lt. Manandhar, to dump mercury in such places as bodies of water, marshlands and breeding grounds for wild animals in an effort to poison the water and food supplies of the Golden Path, who she believes must be getting food and water outside of official channels.
Although she appears to be the secondary antagonist, she has less appearances than Willis (the fourth antagonist).
When Ajay Ghale is hallucinating due to Yuma's drugs in the mission Payback, Ajay could see the event concerning the player's Golden Path leader choice, in the epilogue of Far Cry 4 before they happen. How he is able to do this is unknown.
Yuma sent an expedition to a Kyrat Valley looking for a relic that could cause immortality, after the Don't Look Downmission (Before the last cutscene with Ajay in Ghale Homestead), and after the events of the Escape from Durgesh Prison DLC, Ajay goes to this valley in order to search for the expedition Yuma had sent behind the relic.
Yuma is the only villain in the game who harbours an actual dislike for Ajay, as Paul considers him to be his friend, Pagan considers him to be his son and Noore works with him in the game.
Yuma is the only antagonist that dies no matter what in Far Cry 4.