The Golden Path was a Kyrati rebel group that, from 1987 to 2014, fought the Second Kyrati Civil War against Pagan Min and the Royal Kyrati Army.
The Golden Path was founded by Mohan Ghale, a supporter of the ousted Kyrati monarchy, in the aftermath of the First Kyrati Civil War and the triad boss Pagan Min's seizure of power. The group took its name from Ishwari Ghale's dream of the Royalist reels "walking along a golden path." Most of the Golden Path's fighters were drawn from the Royalist faction of Kyrati politics, specifically those who supported the royal family until Pagan murdered Kyrat's child heir.
The movement's initial purpose was to restore the old monarchy. Under Mohan Ghale's leadership, the Golden Path had a conservative bent to its ideology, refusing to accept female soldiers even during times of manpower shortages. The United States provided weapons to the Golden Path during Kyrat's second civil war, but Ghale declined America's officer of CIA advisors, believing that the war should be won by Kyratis. In 1990, Mohan was killed by his wife Ishwari Ghale after murdering her daughter Lakshmana Min, who was born to her and Pagan Min during her infiltration of Min's court. Ishwari then fled to the United States with her firstborn Ajay Ghale, leaving the Golden Path leaderless.
By 2014, the Golden Path was reduced to controlling the Terai region in southwestern Kyrat and carrying out sporadic resistance in South Kyrat. The group eventually allowed women to join its ranks, and it became factionalized between the traditionalist Sabal and the progressive Amita. Sabal sought to restore the country's Buddhist traditions, while Amita supported the modernization of Kyrat with funds obtained through opium trafficking. In 2014, Ajay Ghale returned to Kyrat to scatter his mother's ashes, and he was briefly kidnapped by Pagan Min before fleeing to join the Golden Path. He helped the rebels gradually reconquer Kyrat, and he later helped Sabal seize power, only for Sabal to establish a Buddhist fundamentalist regime and purge Amita's supporters. Disgusted with Sabal's misrule, Ghale killed Sabal and became the ruler of Kyrat himself.