Council of Gawnfall

Welcome to another specific page guide, this time dedicated to the most complex political section of the whole game. It deals with the Church crisis that it had been brewing since the end of the Third Arclent War. SL intends to give the player a true choice with three different scenarios: a reformed Church, a schism and a new religion. All of them will imply compromises and drawbacks, so no scenario is perfect.

This page is based on the informations compiled by Fulminato and shared in this thread. You can visit that thread for an Excel spreadsheet or HTML/Javascript calculator that covers this section. Kudos to him and to everyone else that has collaborated with corrections and comments.

Variables
You need to have reached various thresholds to get the optimal effect from various political actions. That doesn't mean that you can't get the best possible results in all cases, though.

Simon stats:
 * Economy &ge; 100: you can't check this one directly in-game, but if you were able to trigger Iris + Megail second scene you have at least 75 points.
 * Social &ge; 40: if you were able to get the best result in the Feroholm merchant camp dispute prior to the start of this section of the game, you already have it.
 * Religion &ge; 40: there is no way to check this stat in-game before starting this section.

Affection values:


 * Qum affection locked
 * Carina &ge; 90
 * Sarai &ge; 80
 * Elleani &ge; 90
 * Vhala &ge; 10

Arclent Acceptance: you want &ge; 50

IKD Morale: you want &le; 20

Investments (There are many investments that increase Simon stats, but here we will only mention those which have an additional effect.):
 * Succubus Band Tour
 * Lustlord Statues
 * Lustlord Temples Expansion
 * Ivalan Bank
 * Ardford's sanitation mage guild
 * Givini tunnels

Country scores:
 * Aram &ge; 16

Research:
 * Relationship between Sexual and Purity magic (Starting but not completing has a lesser effect than completing the research)
 * Orc Diversification (Must be completed)
 * Unpeople Transformation (Must be completed)

Optional characters:
 * Kara

Misc:
 * Some sidequests in Stineford (the Slavers and Lucy's rescue).
 * Altina presence in the Party.
 * Simon - Orcent conversation in the Ramasta's bar, the Leaky Bucket.
 * Number of Orcent's conversations in bars: 10+ conversations for best score.
 * Order of Silence Score.
 * Yhilin final state unlocked.
 * Unpeople motion during the Ardford's summit.
 * Candidates to the Ardan throne:
 * Jhenno's support in religious affairs.
 * Control over Farnan.
 * Ignias suitor score.
 * If Wynn had joined the harem.
 * If Dari was healed and if she joined the harem.
 * If you made any duplicates in New Givini during the Ardan succession crisis and if you informed Elleani about what Trin's powers do.
 * If you did Bertricia's sidequests.
 * If the Inquisition withdrew during the Third Arclent War.
 * If Sarai asked help after the war to clean the corruption in the continent (Global CD &ge; 100 before the conference chamber).
 * The group you prioritized helping during the Erosian crisis: Merchants, Church of Ivala or Cult of Magic.

Initial meetings (Day 1)
Once you arrive to Gawnfall, your first task is to speak with Sarai, after an interesting cutscene. Later, it's time to meet the other High Priestess and other relevant characters. Your goal is to increase your influence with them, but the process is not that straightforward, as you will see.

First go to the building in the upper right, where you will find Sarai, Hester, and Bertricia. Talk to them and then head to the guest quarters, in the upper left building.


 * Hester: High Priestess of Ardford, who you will remember from the Ardford Summit. You have to make a relevant choice. Each path activates a different switch:


 * Annah: High Priestess of Stineford. We haven't met her yet, but have heard a lot about her anti-prostitution campaign. She will be a hostile force no matter what you do, but you can (and to some extent, need) to soften her. Her score is only modified at this point by past actions and/or Simon's Religion score:


 * Bertricia: The High Priestess of the elven regions. She is a useful ally, especially if you have done her sidequest.


 * Nabith: The new High Priestess of Yhilin after Andra, who in comparison to her predecessor, is much more accepting of succubi.

After you enter the guest quarters you are confronted by the before unseen Aramite High Priestesses (it is better to talk to Esmera first). After the encounter you will find them in their rooms. Also present in the guest quarters is Yelarel (representing the Ivalan succubi), Melymyn (representing the Mother), Elleani, and Vera (the Goddess of Magic's cult leader).

Talking to Yarra in the guest building allows you to access the Influence projection, allowing you to talk to Carina further up in the building to see your various scores.


 * Kerannii: One of the two High Priestesses of Aram, who shares a mutual dislike with her counterpart. She seems to be an idealist and true believer, and somewhat inflexible. You don't do much with her right now, but you have the opportunity to make a deal with her later. Beware that trying to make deals with both of the Aramite priestesses will not work out well.


 * Esmera: Esmera is the other High Priestess of Aram. She seems to be a very pragmatic individual and values economic power, and has a strong dislike of Kerannii. You can make a deal with her here on the Unification vote to have Simon propose an Alternate form of unity, but also making a deal with Kerannii later will have negative consequences in the long run. (You can negotiate the conference reasonably well having made a deal with either of them, but depending on your starting point Esmera may be slightly easier to work with.)


 * Yelarel: The representative of Ivalan succubi, she hopes to gain both general religious acceptance of succubi, and have Ivalan succubi be accepted into the ranks of the Church.

After you have finished talking to everyone, you are given the option to visit Ardford after advancing a day. You can do this any day, but it's good to get it out of the way as soon as possible. There are three things to be done in Ardford:
 * Talk to the orange-headed wanna-be hero, in the Silver Stump, about possibly recruiting him. Talking to the lady at the front desk also raises the "Yarra Frustration" variable by 1.
 * The Ardford Restaurant in the Business District (you have the option to invest on it during the summit) has some issues. They cannot be solved for now, but you will have the chance to help it later.
 * If you funded the Succubus Band Tour in Helvanna then when you find them in the Sx defenses building you can move them to Gawnfall to perform there. This will affect Nabith's score later.

After you have returned from Ardford it's time to learn what happened at the Council. After the conversation with Sarai, you can check how much influence she has over the other Priestesses:

So the maximum score that you can get is 22. You have spend it across the whole Council, though. If your score here is below 1, you will still receive 1 influence as that is the minimum allowed.

Be aware that the last day of the council is the so-called "Minor Issues" phase. These issues are "minor" only from the Church's perspective -- there will be many topics that you care about among those issues, and depending how things have gone in the first six days you might have use for as many as 24 Influence points to spend among them (though if things have gone well you may only want 18 or so). Point being, when you have a chance to gain an influence point by having Simon decline to speak, it's valuable.

You also have to speak with Kerannii. Her score will vary depending on different things:

Also in the secondary quarters you can find Ignias, Tyna's friend and Ardan succession candidate, Jhenno the religious Ardan succession candidate, as well as Herin, a cheerful, newly promoted Sanctified Priestess, and Kaskia, a prominent Sanctified Priestess and "career priestess" who seeks the opportunity the council provides to advance further in the Church hierarchy.

Day 2
The second day of the council has three issues that will be brought before the synod to vote upon: the excommunication of the three new nations, the unification of the Church, and what views to take of the succubi as a race. Of these three votes, Excommunication and Unification are potential Game Overs if you fail to correctly use your resources. The Succubi vote merely has a worst case scenario result.

Before the votes start you have the ability to make Sarai Go all in (which costs 3 Influence), normally support the motions, or possibly do a third option (which also costs Influence).

During the votes you also have the ability to use Sarai's Influence to call upon speakers (costing variable amounts of Influence), and have Simon speak (if Simon speaks it costs 1 Influence and if he doesn't speak you gain 1 Influence).

You can talk with Yarra to increase the "Yarra Frustration" variable by 1.

Before any vote today you can find Jhenno, one of the former potential heirs of the King, in the upper right room of the council chamber building. If you chose to co-operate on religious matters then you can choose for him to give his support on one of the first three votes or give more general support to Sarai.

Excommunication vote
The first vote of Day 2 is the Excommunication vote. Before the vote starts you can talk with Sarai to have her Go all in or just give normal support.

Your starting score for the Excommunication vote is 1 and you want it to go up.

The result determines the consequences and is indicated by Hester's summary:

If your Motion Score is &ge; 12, you have the chance to take an additional action regarding Annah:

Unification vote
The second vote of Day 2 is the Unification vote. Before the vote starts you can talk with Sarai to have her Go all in, Focus on Nabith or just give normal support.

Your starting score for the Unification vote is 2 and you want it to go down.

Again, the result determines the consequences and his hinted at by Hester.

If the motion score result is &ge; 4 then a fail-safe will trigger, and Sarai will give you a chance to reduce the Motion Score by 5, but at the cost of a large amount of hidden stats ( Sarai Influence, Religion Score, -3 Social Score, -2 Economy Score, and  Arclent Acceptance Score) to avoid the Game Over. Notice that it's possible to still get a Game Over even with this fail-safe, if you made the very worst choices in the vote.

Succubi vote
The third and last vote of Day 2 is the Succubi vote. Before the vote starts you can talk with Sarai to have her Go all in or just give normal support.

You can Talk with Yelarel (+1 Yelarel Score). If in the first vote you had Simon Convince Annah, the succubus will ask why you offended her, there are three dialogue options:
 * Explain reasoning (-1 Yelarel Score),
 * Pure rhetoric (no change),
 * Soften Annah (+1 Yelarel Score).

If the Yhilin Final state is triggered, Yelarel wants to bring the ex-High Priestess Andra to address the synod, there is an option to encourage (+1 Yelarel Score) or discourage this action (no change).

You can talk with Wynn for another increase of the "Yarra Frustration" variable by 1.

Your starting score for the Succubi vote is 0 and you want it to go up.

The vote's result and consequences and summary are as follows:

After Day 2 vote
After the first three votes you can talk with some people:


 * You can talk with Yelarel and hear about her plans (+1 Yelarel score by default and +1 more if the result of the previous vote was [Summit Accepted]). Supporting her pushing toward moderate reforms grants +2 Yelarel Score, while getting her to limit to light reforms gives -2 Yelarel Score).
 * Talking with Sarai after making plans with Yelarel sets the switch [Sarai - Yelarel] ON and grants Sarai RP.
 * Talking with Kerannii can trigger her 'frozen' status if you agreed to both Esmera's and Kerannii's deals. If you agreed to only Kerannii's deal, get +1 Kerannii Score, or +2 Kerannii score for not striking a deal with Kerannii. (Keranni respects honesty.)
 * Talking with Esmera after keeping the deal with her has no mechanical effects.
 * In the north-east corner of the map, Hester can be found near a barrel. Carina will talk with the High Priestess, granting some Hester Score based on Carina RP (Carina RP &ge; 90, +2 Hester Score; RP 70-89, +1 Hester Score, &le; 69 no changes).

If you got the succubus band to come play, they're in the little pub building.

Day 3
In this day there is the pivotal vote for the Ivalan Succubi, and based on that vote there are three possible scenarios, the first is a reformed Ivalan Church that accepts the presence of succubi among the clergy, the second is a more fractured church that lets some High Priestesses accept succubi, but let others take harsher stances against them, and in the last scenario the succubi will be pushed out of the Church and they will build a new religion following their own beliefs.

Ivalan succubi vote
In this vote there isn't a score to build up, but you need the vote of each High Priestess for your target choice, let the Church accept the succubi or refuse them, if four votes cannot be gathered for the acceptance scenario the vote will default to rejecting them.

In the break you can try to convince the High Priestesses to accept the Ivalan Succubi:
 * Talk with Sarai to choose between Accept or Reject.
 * Hester will vote against the succubi, but will offer a one-time deal for changing her vote, by burning all current influence with her (Hester Score is set to 0 if [Hester Acceptance] OFF, otherwise -3 Hester Score).
 * Kerannii can only be persuaded to vote in favor if Yelarel was proposing light reform, the switch [Sarai Yelarel] is ON, and [Kerannii Override] is OFF.
 * Nabith will listen to your advice if Yelarel was proposing light reform with a score of &ge; 3, otherwise with moderate reform you need a Nabith score &ge; 5 to swing her vote to yes, but the requisite is lowered to &ge; 3 if the succubi band was relocated to Gawnfall.
 * Bertricia always supports the vote if light reform is proposed, if moderate reform was proposed, the [Bertricia Hinder] switch must be OFF, and Orcent must have been allowed to talk with the synod.
 * To have Esmera's vote in light reform you must have kept the deal with her, in moderate reform an Esmera score of &ge; 8 is required as well as having kept the deal.
 * Annah will always refuse the succubi and you cannot change her mind.
 * With four votes the succubi are Accepted (+1 Yelarel Score), otherwise they will be Rejected (-1 Yelarel Score).

After this vote is the first bifurcation, if the succubi are accepted this will start the "Succubi Join" scenario, in the other case the "Succubi Rejected" scenario will be started.

Succubi join
Before the vote you can talk with Sarai to have her Go all in or just give normal support.

Your starting score for the vote is 0 and you want it to go up.

The result determines the starting value of a new hidden stat, Ivalan Acceptance, among other consequences:

The RP gains are based on the Switch triggered.

Succubi rejected
Like the Ivalan Succubi vote you need to gather enough votes (4 or more) toward a direction: dividing the church or letting the succubi build a new religion, but in this case if either of the two propositions don't reach the majority, it's a Game Over.

In the break you must gather the necessary votes:
 * Hester will always vote for letting the succubi build a new religion.
 * Sarai: With an RP score &ge; 80 she will listen to your advice, otherwise she will vote for dividing the Church.
 * Annah: With [Annah Abstain] OFF and an Annah Score &ge; 1 will hear your opinion, with [Annah Abstain] OFF and a score of 0 you can persuade her to vote for dividing the Church, in the other case she will go for an abstention, in this case you can override her vote, by spending 3 Sarai Influence and decreasing Annah Score by 9, in this case you can convince Annah to vote for a new religion.
 * Nabith: With a Nabith score &ge; 8 you can persuade her to vote for either dividing the Church or a new religion, without it she will abstain, but in this case you can override her vote by spending 3 Sarai Influence and decreasing Nabith Score by 2, overriding her lets her pick one of the two motions.
 * Bertricia: With a Bertricia score &ge; 5 you can persuade her to vote for either dividing the Church or a new religion, without it she will abstain, but in this case you can override her vote by spending 3 Sarai influence and decreasing Bertricia Score by 2, overriding her lets her pick one of the two motions.
 * Esmera: With an Esmera score &ge; 0 and having kept her deal, or a score &ge; 1 without her deal, you can persuade her to vote for either dividing the church or a new religion, in the other cases she will abstain, but in this case you can override her vote by spending 3 Sarai influence and decreasing Esmera Score by 2, overriding her let her pick one of the two motions and puts the switch [Esmera Deal 2] to ON.
 * Kerannii can be persuaded toward one of the two motions if the Sex-Purity research was started or completed, but Kerannii's vote cannot be overridden.

A majority (4 votes) is required for either proposal, otherwise it is a Game Over.

Day 4
In this day there are three issues discussed, the Unpeople legion, the restoration of Tak'Kan's land, and the standards for purity the Church requires for its members.

Unpeople vote
In this vote the Church will decide the Unpeople's role, and the changes in the Unpeople legion's chain of command. Before the vote there are some people to talk to, Esmera and Kerannii can be interacted only if you make a deal with them.

In this vote there is a variable called 'Push' that tracks the effort Simon and his allies have made to stop the motion. If the succubi are Accepted, a Push score of 3 or more mean the switch [Overreach] will set ON, while if the succubi are Suppressed the threshold is 4. If the church Diverged or the succubi have departed to form a New Religion, 'Push' will be ignored. If you spend influence to let Yelarel talk it's a Push +1 on top of everything else.


 * Talk with Sarai to have her Go all in or just give normal support.
 * Talk to Annah. If the succubi are forming a new religion and Annah Score is at least 5 or more, you can Nudge her a bit.
 * Talk with Yelarel. If the succubi are Accepted or the church Diverged, she can speak; otherwise she asks our aid to address the synod, -2 Influence and +1 Push. Vhala can advise Yelarel to take a light or strong approach, the former being the right choice.
 * If you have a deal with Esmera, you can talk with her. She wants new Unpeople created, in an institution she can command. If the Ardford Summit New Unpeople motion was defeated, you can argue with her to go for a softer position ([Esmera Nudge] On). Otherwise, if you refuse, she doesn't complain much (-1 Esmera Score) and you gain RP with Vhala. However, if you asked her to override her vote to diverge the Church or the creation of a new religion ([Esmera Deal 2] ON) she will be more bitter -- this breaks the deal with her and gives -3 Esmera Score instead of -1 (you still get +1 Vhala).
 * If you have a deal with Kerannii, you can talk with her. You can bend to softer position ([Kerannii Talk 2] On), and if the Church is Diverging, you can Nudge her a little more.
 * Talk with Yarra. If Dari has joined the harem it grants a Yarra Frustration point.

Your starting score for the vote is 0 and you want it to go down.

The results depending on the motion score are:

If you made the two deals with Esmera and talked for new unpeople you gain plus 1 to her score, but if you pick another option, or not talk at all, she will put her first deal off and reduce her score by 5 points.

Tak'Kan vote
The second vote of the day is a request from Grubbak in aid of the restoration of Tak'Kan's wasteland. It's the hardest vote of the synod, and in the case of the succubi being suppressed it's impossible to get the best threshold.

Talk with Sarai to have her Go all in or just give normal support. You can talk with Vhala concerning the results of the anterior vote or with Grubbak about his chances but neither conversation have any impact.

The motion starts at 0 and you want it to go up.

The effects of the motion score depend on the scenario started.

Purity standards vote
The last vote of the day is the reform of purity standards the church should apply. With The Incubus Emperor defeated, the military necessity of the harsh restrictions is less pressing.

There are two motions brought to the synod, one made by Herin and the other by Kaskia, whoever's motion wins will get a substantial credit for the position of Deputy High Priestess. Herin's plan is focused on lowering the standard for low ranked priestess and increased standing for the lay priestesses, Kaskia's proposal is a removal of all purity checks altogether.

Before the discussion you can talk with few people.
 * Talking with Sarai grants a Yarra Frustration point.
 * If you upgraded Qum's healing kiss before the Ivalan succubi vote Vhala proposes to show it to the synod.
 * If the Yhilin Final state was achieved Yelarel asks to let Andra address the synod (again).
 * You can talk with Herin and give some advice in the proposal and you can nudge her toward more drastic changes.
 * Kaskia asks for a full support of her motion, and she will reciprocate in next votes (she is a sly snake, and will bite if you support her).
 * In the break between the discussion of the motion and the vote Riala senses a worsening of Ardford's distortion observed in the first day. The party will deal with it after the day's activity.

During the vote Sarai can choose to support one of the motions without spending influence, support Herin over Kaskia paying two influence, or support Kaskia proposal but undermine her for four influence point.

The two proposal scores start at 0, and they go up. This is the first vote that changes the personal scores of Herin and Kaskia, their scores will be relevant in the second (and last) vote of day five, the promotion vote.

The winning proposal is decided by directly comparing the proposal scores:

After the vote you can interact with the High Priestesses and guests in Gawnfall, if the Ivalan succubi joined the church and you made a deal with Esmera you can have a touching dialogue with her (it gives a +1 Esmera Score). Sarai will comment on the purity standards vote result ( Sarai and +1 Yarra Frustration). You can also talk with Elleani and ask for her help in one of the two votes of day five: action against the Fucklord or the promotion of Herin or Kaskia. Yelarel will be happy if purity standards are removed (+1 Yelarel Score). After talking with everyone, exit from Gawnfall and the party will travel to the Ardford's Tower location and deal with the worst disturbance. There are only two groups of standard roaming Tower monsters, but also an interesting dialog if you step between the two crystal pillars at the north end. After smoothing the disturbance Simon will check in with Tyna and discuss the situation, she thanks you and for the help given she can speak in one motion of the next day (Fucklord or Promotion).

Even when the purity checks removed, Sarai will only join the harem if the succubi are accepted or the church diverge. The path of a New Religion will avoid that she joins the group at this point of the game.

Day 5
In this day two votes take place, the first will be the help the Church of Ivala can lend in the war against the Fucklord, and in the other one of the sanctified priestess will be promoted to a "High Priestess deputy rank".

Fucklord vote
In this vote the Church will decide if it will act against the Fucklord and the extent of the preparations, because Simon will be the one bringing the issue to the synod he cannot talk again to sway the synod in one direction or another. You can still talk with Herin giving some little advice to make her presentation more compelling and advise her to go full for the motion or think for herself first, solidifying her position in the synod, and act against Estaven after her promotion ([Herin Discouraged] ON; this is a separate check from the previous encouragement/discouragement).

Sarai can remaining silent, try to influence a High Priestess at cost of 1 influence point or for two influence point, talk in Herin's favor or go against Kaskia.

If Simon had given his full support to Kaskia in the fourth day's last vote she will talk against the motion and gain some personal standing with the synod.

Your starting score for the vote is 0 and you want it to go up.

The final motion score and the result are indicated by Hester's summary.

Promotion vote
The last vote is the promotion of Herin or Kaskia to a new role, with the power of an High Priestess without the formal rank of one. Like some of the votes before there isn't a motion score to build, but each High Priestess will cast her vote and she who holds the majority will be promoted. The party's objective is to make Herin win with the highest difference possible, but in this vote you cannot make any interaction with the vote and only hope your preparations will be enough. However make sure to talk with the Zirantian representative in the lodge before the vote.

Some final conditional adjustments to the scores of each candidate:

Then the actual votes:

There are no abstentions, and Herin's minimum number of received votes are 2, as she always has Sarai's and Kerannii's vote, while Kaskia always has Esmera's vote. The results are:

After the Promotion vote, in the break before the discussion of the distribution locations of the High Priestesses, talk with Sarai and during the dialogue Riala will interrupt saying the Ardford's Tower balance will go critical soon and without any intervention, demons will breach and overrun the streets. All combat-able members will go with Simon in the Tower to resolve the crisis, and the others will help Sarai with the minor issues brought up in the last two days.

In the familiar Tower island there are two normal roaming enemy and a static flame with a Reality Leech to defeat, after the big one is down a horde of disturbance are uncovered by Riala and Robin, smoothing all will take a huge amount of time.

Minor issues phase
After that, the focus will shift to the members still remaining in Gawnfall and the long small issues list left for the final two days. Orilise will set-up a projection chamber for handling all the topics and deploy the assets the party can call upon, but before that Sarai explains the result of redistribution of High Priestesses, she will move to New Givini. You will also gain some bonus Influence based on the remaining amount.

Iris will lead the effort. The first step is talking with everyone and hearing the full list of the topics. There is one of them tied to the path followed earlier: if succubi are accepted Yelarel want create a succubus knight order similar to the Ardoheim holy knights, if the church diverged then many factions will try to gain the control of the Inquisition, if the succubi will create a new religion the new standard of the Church of Ivala can be a huge hindrance to the development of the Chalice States, no issues are available if the succubi are suppressed.

In the Guest chamber you can find Melymyn, the head of the Mother's Guard, making demands to be recognized by the Church, Vera asks for help for more collaboration between the Goddess of Magic cult and the Church and as a reward she offers some high end equipment they can craft with the help of Ivala's Church.

Another problem will arise if Kaskia was promoted, because her scheme can be very damaging. Last of the optional issues is the new Unpeople legion chain of command if the switch [New Unpeople] was switched on in the Unpeople vote. The other issues are the mercantile agreement stipulated, easing Aram's iron grip strangling Eustrin, the demands of Melymyn, the Goddess of magic's cult requests for more cooperation, and the lifting of Simon's Ardford ban.

If the purity standard are removed, and the succubi are accepted or the church diverged Sarai will bring the possibility of accepting the old standard in exchange for some Influence, this will block any Sarai sexy times soon, but grant +3 influence and RP. In the final issue projection you can use the remaining influence to gain the upper hand over the topics discussed in the right side of the room, and in the room's left side is the help you have gathered from your allies.

This list shows the people that can be asked for help and the issues you can deploy them on:

After talking with everyone and calling all the help you can, talk to Sarai and the focus will pass to Simon and the combat group, the disturbances are removed, but the party had discovered Alonon's position. They head to him and ask some answers from him about the fundamental working of the world. After the long dialogue the party will return to Gawnfall and hear the result of the issues discussed in the last two days.


 * Kaskia and Unpeople Issues

For Kaskia the Switch [Kaskia Problem] will be set ON if you don't spend influence and send Trin copies to mess with her if she was promoted with Overwhelming margin, if she was promoted for few votes one of the two will suffice to stop her. For the Unpeople, if influence wasn't spent to address the matter the switch [Unpeople Control] will be set to ON.


 * Gawnfall Orgy

In the end of the section, just before the party will come back to the HQ, if the Yarra Frustration variable is 4 or greater then the "Gawnfall Orgy" scene will be triggered.

With this, this complex section is finished. Back in the real world...