Council of Gawnfall

fWelcome 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 Bertricia'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 Bertricia. 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:


 * Bertricia: The High Priestess of the elven regions, she is a useful ally especially if you have helped her with 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. 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 right now, but you have the opportunity to make a deal with her later, but making a deal with her later will have 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. Talking to the lady at the front desk also raises the "Yarra Frustration" variable by 1.
 * 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:

Before or after going to Ardford you can go to the secondary quarters on the lower left 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. Also in the secondary quarters you can find Ignis, 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 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" variable by 1.

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 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 , Social Score , Economy Score , 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 for All or just give normal support.

You can Talk with Yelarel (Yelarel Score +1), 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 (Yelarel Score -1), pure rhetoric (no change) and soften Annah (Yelarel Score +1). 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 (Yelarel Score +1) 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.

After Day 2 Vote
After the first three votes you can talk with some people: You can talk with Yelarel and let her tone down some requests (Yelarel score +1 by default, if [Summit Accepted]. On another Yelarel Score +1, pushing toward moderate reforms grants Yelarel Score +2, pushing to light reforms grants a Yelarel Score -2).

Talking with Kerannii can trigger her 'frozen' status if you agreed on both Esmera's and Kerannii's deal, a Kerannii Score +1 for agreeing to a deal with only Kerannii, and a Kerannii score +2 for not striking a deal with Kerannii).

Talking with Esmera after keeping the deal with her, and reduces Kerannii Score by -1

Talking with Sarai after setting Yelarel's request to light or moderate reform, sets the switch [Sarai - Yarelel] On and grants Sarai RP.

In the north-east corner of the map, Hester can be found near a barrel and Carina will talk with the High Priestess, granting some Hester Score based on Carina RP (Carina RP &ge; 90 Hester Score +2, RP 70 - 89 Hester Score +1, &le; 69 nothing)

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 Hester Score -3).

Kerannii can only be persuaded to vote in favor if Yelarel was proposing light reform and the switch [Sarai Yelarel] is On.

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 (Yelarel Score +1), otherwise they will be Rejected (Yelarel Score -1).

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 for All or just give normal support.

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

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 a RP score of 80 or more 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] to On.

Kerannii: 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.