Today we will be talking about the shelved plans for the fourth adventure: the Gaanidan tribe.

At some point during the 2nd or 3rd adventure, there would have been a small event in the morning where the priestess leading the Candidates (either Shrezdill or Drishtya) teaches them about one of the duties of priestesses: to grant the gift of life, in the name of the Goddess. There are regulations on how much each tribe's population is allowed to grow, pacted between the tribes themselves and the Passion Temple, so a couple who wishes to have a child first requests permission from the tribe, and if granted, a priestess or priest fulfills it. How? By holding a ritual in a bedroom that will allow them to conceive, drawing a circular figure on the floor with chalk and salfis flower extract, then imbuing it with magic. Nothing strange or devious here, what were you expecting? That's how the Goddess grants life, after all. Things work a bit differently in the Shapeshifter tribe, but the rules and the ritual follow very similar principles.

Having explained this detail, we may move onto the fourth adventure. Prior to the travel to the Gaanidan tribe, it is explained that the celebration that the Candidates will attend to is a storytelling fair. It's certainly not as exciting or competitive as the Ashwalker tournament, but it'll be fun nonetheless, so train your charisma and empathy and so on. The arrival at the Gaanidan tribe is slightly unpleasant, since there is no turn of events in the previous months that does not make Cneve annoyed with the Passion Temple - but that's a problem between Cneve and the priestesses, and the vast majority of the Gaanidans are glad to welcome the Candidates for their visit. Cneve himself is about to stop being the leader of the Gaanidans, since his mandate will end in a few days. Our protagonists are introduced to the tribe's bailiff, a kind-mannered man who will organize and oversee the election of the next leader, which is expected to follow immediately after the fair, so it is suggested that the Candidates stay and witness the election before returning to the Passion Temple.

There's another important matter at hand: the situation of the Gaanidan Candidate's mother, and her illness. Whether there are more or less salfis flowers ready, the Passion Temple and local priestesses will perform the first ritual to treat the woman's condition, but it is clearly hinted that the only hope is to delay the inevitable, not really to cure her affliction. We naturally meet again with Sethra and Veel, but more surprisingly, with Eshir as well, who has decided to visit the Gaanidans as a guest for a few days, and takes a personal interest to the condition of our protagonist's mom. This sparks the ire of Cneve, but with the direct confrontation of his son, far more confident than a few months ago, and the mediation of the bailiff, nothing comes from it. A chief who is about to lose his position doesn't really have that much power, as it turns out.

During the first night of their stay, the Gaanidan Candidate receives an unexpected visit: Eshir tells her that he has something really important to discuss with her. Whether you are agreeable or not at first, when Eshir mentions her mother's affliction, the protagonist will agree to follow him. Eshir takes the protagonist to a secluded area in the forest, away from anyone else's curious eyes, and begins drawing a circle with chalk on the floor. The protagonist asks him what he's doing, and he replies that he's preparing a ritual. It is exactly the same ritual that the Candidates are taught is used to grant life. Eshir asks who has the privilege of granting life, and the protagonist replies that only the Goddess does, but demands to know what this has to do with her mom. Eshir then takes out a knife, holds it in front of him, and after conquering some hesitation, he makes a small cut in his arm. He then asks who has the privilege of taking a life. While the protagonist replies that only the Goddess does, she realizes that the injury isn't healing, and wonders how is it that such a small thing hasn't healed immediately. Eshir makes no effort to hide his arm, and keeps some fixation on the slow dripping of his blood, but explains that the true power of this ritual isn't to grant life, but to stop the flow of the Goddess' magic. He then asks the protagonist, now that she has this knowledge, if it would ever be justified to take a life, whether it'd be for justice, for power, or for compassion. Regardless of the answer, he asks how much suffering should a person have to experience before letting them end their life would be justified. When he considers he has made his point, he steps out of the circle, and the injury heals immediately. The protagonist asks Eshir what any of this has to do with her mom, to which he replies that there might be a day when she wonders why the Goddess has no mercy on her mother's suffering, and that she might have to choose to show such mercy herself. He also adds that, fortunately, that day is probably far away, and that she should enjoy whatever time she has with her family.

On the next morning, the bailiff is found dead.

A great turmoil ensues, Gaanidans flock to the center of the village, wondering how is it possible for such a relatively young man to die, some shout that his room was found bloody, and some argue that the Lizardlins came by night and murdered him. Shrezdill, leading the Candidates, attempts to squeeze any valuable information from the most talkative Gaanidans, but quickly realizes that no one has any solid proof of anything. After a short while, Cneve, surrounded by some cronies, climbs on a podium prepared for the storytelling fair, and draws everyone's attention. He demands Shrezdill to explain what it takes to murder someone, but she relents in her answer. "That isn't for the common people to know", after all. But Cneve presses her on it, arguing that if no one knows how to take someone's life but priestesses, then a priestess had to be the murderer, he begins a speech on the enmity displayed by the Passion Temple against Gaanidans, how this injustice will... And Shrezdill finally confesses that there's a ritual involving tools commonly used by them, and that someone who knew of it could have stolen them from the local temple in secret. She adds, however, that that's merely conjecture, and that a proper investigation is in order.

Cneve then notices a particularly large commotion behind the multitude in the plaza, and draws attention to them. Some local warriors escort Eshir, who tries to lower his head, towards the podium. Once there, the warriors tell Cneve that they've found salfis flowers on Eshir's room, and Cneve repeats it aloud for everyone to hear. Before long, he has decided that Eshir is the main culprit, and orders for him to be imprisoned.

And this would be the conflict of this adventure! Hopefully no one thought this would be a simple walk to the forest village to tell some tales, sing some songs, drink wine and be done with it. There always has to be some drama. The actual gameplay of this adventure would have been to conduct your own investigation. After all, from the position of the player, it is very difficult to believe that Eshir actually killed the bailiff for some unexplained reason. Shrezdill sins from cautiousness here, thinking that taking too much initiative on her own could obliterate the relations between the Gaanidans and the Passion Temple, and advises the other Candidates to simply aid you if you request it, given that, as a Gaanidan, it's far more difficult to decry your own meddling as outsider interference.

I never gave much thought to the details of the case, as the adventure was so far away, but the difficulty wouldn't really be in figuring out what happened, but rather, in proving that it wasn't Eshir. Have you played any Ace Attorney game? In the early cases of the franchise, for some reason or another, you know from the beginning that your client is almost certainly innocent, and sometimes the real culprit could even be kinda clear even early on. That was roughly my framework here, although the gameplay would have naturally worked out differently. Do you have any idea of what was meant to have happened in this adventure? I'll explain it real soon, so this is your chance to come up with a few ideas before you continue reading. I think it's kinda obvious.

The election for the Gaanidan chief is organized by the bailiff. If there's no bailiff, who organizes the election? That's a power vacuum that doesn't really get resolved through law, as this tribe's not very well developed law doesn't contemplate it (murder isn't supposed to be a thing here!), so the end result is simply whatever the various people capable of exerting power decide or manage to achieve. For Cneve, the play is clear: when the Passion Temple priestesses come, get the bailiff murdered, and frame it on them, after having complained for a long time that they aren't treating your tribe fairly. The motivation can be made up, and the proof can be fabricated as long as you have the local priest or priestess on your pocket, or under threat. Once there's no bailiff, the blame has fallen on anyone but you, and the whole tribe is horrified before an act of violence they thought impossible, claim that the tribe is going through terrible, unprecedented times that require a strong leader, and that you are selfless and brave enough to continue leading them through this uncertain age. His initial plan was, in truth, to actually blame someone from the Passion Temple, but Eshir's arrival is all too fortunate for him: not only he manages to get revenge on Eshir's parents by imprisoning their son, but the faction that could seek revenge from him will not be the Passion Temple, but rather, the very debilitated and disorganized Ashwalker tribe, still trying to repair the damages from a few months ago. To top it all, this foreigner is known to often visit the enigmatic Aiishen, adding a large pool of wild, baseless accusations he can throw into the story.

How do you actually save Eshir? You'd have to move through the web of favors and sometimes fear created by Cneve, find weak points and expose them, somehow. Do you actually declare that the reason that Eshir had salfis flowers and chalk was to teach you some ritual? Which ritual? How to kill someone? With lawyers like you, I guess we don't need a prosecution! How to grant life? Priestesses don't need some dude to teach them that, silly, now you've got your Passion Temple lovers worried that you and Eshir tried to do a very different thing, and Veel could even get his little Ashwalker-loving heart broken! And you definitely need Veel on Eshir's side to make a great final last stand against Cneve, where he rallies the Gaanidans to imprison his father and declares himself provisional bailiff to organize the elections and save democracy. Did you seduce Sethra when she stayed at the Passion Temple? She should definitely have juicy secrets from Cneve's network, but can you be all that certain about her loyalty? Perhaps she might to betray you, instead... It could have been a fun adventure.

There really isn't any pretense of conflicting choices this time: letting Cneve consolidate his power is terrible for both the Gaanidans, the Passion Temple, and even the player character, who finds how her parents now live under the watchful eye of a Machiavellian ruler who will not hesitate at using them as a bargaining chip. It's fine to sometimes have villains capable of defending a perspective where they're the heroes of their own story. They're narratively interesting and often invite discussion, but some villains should also lack any redeemable side, even if you could reasonably understand what made them that way. Such terrible people also exist in real life, after all. More on that next time, on the post about the Beastkin tribe. Hope you enjoyed today's read!