Saavedro

Saavedro is the main antagonist of Myst III: Exile. The main story of the game revolves around him. He was portrayed by character actor Brad Dourif.

The character of Saavedro is a native of the of Narayan. As explained in the game, Atrus had written Narayan to teach his sons Sirrus and Achenar the final lesson, that Balanced Systems Stimulate Civilizations. Atrus's sons went to Narayan as part of their training and lived with Saavedro, his wife Tamra (pronounced "Tam-a-ray"), and their two daughters. After their lessons were complete, Sirrus and Achenar left with their father, only to return years later. When Sirrus and Achenar returned, they convinced Saavedro and many other Narayani to abandon their old customs. This had a disastrous effect on the Age: several of the huge Lattice Trees were destroyed, and the Narayani nearly died out. Enraged, Saavedro followed Sirrus and Achenar to the Age of , only to be beaten, tied up, and marooned there for 20 years. Saavedro eventually learned how to access the other Lesson Ages, but found he could not return to Narayan: his linking point was blocked from his village behind a forcefield, and he believed his world destroyed and his wife and daughters killed. The years of solitude made Saavedro gradually slip into insanity, believing that Atrus had sanctioned his sons' misdeeds, and not knowing that Sirrus and Achenar had been imprisoned by Atrus after they tried to kill him.

When Atrus visited J'nanin again, Saavedro saw his chance for revenge. He prepared an elaborate trap for Atrus, and captured the Linking Book of Releeshahn, intending to lure Atrus to J'nanin and the Lesson Ages, perhaps to somehow fix Narayan as he said, or perhaps merely to make Atrus pay for Sirrus and Achenar's crimes. However, the Stranger (the player, in this case) followed Saavedro to J'nanin, and Atrus could not follow because the linking book to J'nanin was damaged during the theft.

In the game, the player must travel through the game's many ages and eventually to Narayan and reveal to Saavedro that Narayan is still alive. At first, Saavedro is overjoyed, but when he realizes that he cannot approach it by himself, due to the ice shields protecting it, Saavedro tells the player if he helps him, he will return Releeshahn. In one of the bad endings to the game, if the player does what Saavedro says right away, he will double-cross the player. The player must instead trap Saavedro in between the two shields. Saavedro, knowing he's trapped, gives Releeshahn to the player and begs him/her not to leave him like this.

The best ending of the game is to release the shield to the gondola to Narayan after obtaining Releeshahn. An extremely grateful Saavedro climbs on the gondola and, raising his hand in farewell to the player, makes his way back to his people. It is believed that Saavedro found his wife and daughters again. Atrus and Catherine are overjoyed to see Releeshahn returned unharmed, and Atrus also comments while writing in his journal how is also happy to know that Narayan is also safe and that "old wrongs had finally been righted."

An alternate ending can be attained, in which Saavedro is left trapped between the force fields, never to be able to determine if his family was still alive. If this ending is chosen, Atrus remarks that he wasn't sure he would have left the man trapped like that, and it is implied that Saavedro later commits suicide. Some fans consider this, too, to be a bad ending, though it does finish the game correctly.

Saavedro and the Narayani people are alluded to briefly in Myst IV: Revelation twice - Achenar mentions Saavedro and the Narayani way of life - specifically, the difficulty of their "weaving" - in one of his journals, and the sequence from the beginning of Myst III where Saavedro steals the book of Releeshahn is seen in a memory that Yeesha's amulet shows. Beyond this, however, Saavedro is only seen in Myst III: Exile.

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