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 in the information compiled by Fulminato and shared in this thread. 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 start this section of the game, you already have it, as you can't lose Social points during this part of the game.
 * Religion &ge; 25: there is no way to check this stat in-game before starting this section.

Affection values:


 * Carina &ge; 90
 * Sarai &ge; 80
 * Elleani &ge; 90

Arclent Acceptance: you need &ge; 50

IKD Morale: you need &le; 20

Investments :
 * Succubus Band Tour
 * Lustlord Temples
 * Ivalan Bank

Country scores:
 * Aram &ge; 16

Research:
 * Relationship between Sexual and Purity magic
 * Orc Diversification

Optional characters:
 * Kara

Misc:
 * Some sidequests in Stineford (the Slavers and Lucy's rescue)
 * Number of Orcent's conversations in bars: 10+ conversations for best score
 * Jhenno's support in religious affairs
 * Control over Farnan
 * Duplicates in New Givini during the Ardan succession crisis and if you informed Elleani about what Trin's powers do
 * If you do Betricia's sidequests
 * If the Inquisition withdrew during the Third Arclent War
 * If you prioritized helping the Church during the Erosian crisis

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 Betricia. Talk to them all and then head to the guest quarters, which are in the upper left building.


 * Hester: You have to make a relevant choice. Each path activates a different switch:


 * Annah: 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:


 * Betricia
 * 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. After this you can find them in their rooms. Also present in the guest quarters is the representative of the Ivalan succubi, Yelarel. Also here is a representative of the Mother, 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.

After you have finished talking to everyone you can you are given the option to visit Ardford. You can do this any day, but it's good to get it out of the way. There are three things to be done in Ardford:
 * Kerannii: The other High Priestess of Aram, who shares a mutual dislike with her counterpart Aramite High Priestess. You don't do much with her today, but you have the opportunity to make a deal with her later, but making a deal with her later will negative consequences if you also make a deal with Esmera.
 * Esmera: Esmera is one of the two High Priestesses 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.
 * 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.
 * Talk to Ralph, the orange-headed wanna-be hero, in the Silver Stump about possibly recruiting him.
 * If you funded the Ardford Restaurant during the summit then you can hear about a problem they're having.
 * 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 affects Nabith's score later.

After you have returned from Ardford it's time to learn what had 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.

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

As well you can go to the other guest quarters to find Jhenno, one of the former potential heirs of the King. 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.

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 for All (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" score of one point-

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

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

If your Motion Score is &ge; 12, you have the chance to make a 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 for All, focus on Nabith or just give normal support.

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

If the motion Result is &ge; 4+ sarai give you a chance to trigger a failsafe for avoid the Game Over, but it will cost a huge amount of hidden stats (Sarai influence -5, Religion Score -5, Social Score -3, Economy Score -2, Arclent Acceptance Score -2)

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 for All or just give normal support, You can Talk with.

Yelarel (Yelarel Score +1) if in the first vote Simon had Try to adress Annah the succubus will ask why you offend her, there are three dialogue option: Explain reasoning (Yelarel Score -1), pure rhetoric (no change) and soften Annah (Yelarel Score +1). If the Yhilin Final state is triggered Yelarel want bring the ex-high priestess Andra to adress the synod, there is an option to encurage (Yelarel Score +1) or discurage (no change).

You can talk with Wynn for another "Yarra frustration" +1

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