The Dahan

Comes From	Spirit Island (Base Game)
Health	2
Damage	2
Affected By	Badlands

The Dahan are the native, semi-nomadic human inhabitants of Spirit Island. They coexist well with the land and the Spirits. They also aren’t too thrilled about the Invaders’ colonization, but are wary of initiating violence.

Each Island Board starts with 6 Dahan pieces. Population growth in the game’s timespan occurs only with a few Powers which grant blessings of health, fertility, and good harvests. The number of Dahan is not limited by the supply of pieces.

Dahan only attack Invaders when a Spirit Power prompts them to do so, or when attacked themselves: after Invaders Ravage a land, any surviving Dahan in that land each deal 2 Damage to the Invaders in that land.

Each Dahan has 2 Health, meaning they are destroyed by 2 Damage from Invaders. Damage from Spirits does not hurt Dahan, although some Spirit Powers cause Dahan casualties as a terrible side-effect.

Tracking Damage

The Dahan take 2 Damage to destroy. If a Dahan takes 1 damage, flip it upside down as a reminder. (Don't forget to heal all damage during the end of the round as Time Passes).

FAQ

https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Dahan

Definitions

When does destroying a Town or City cause Fear? Always, regardless of how it's destroyed: directly via a Power that says to destroy one, from damage done by a Power, from damage done by Dahan counterattacking, due to a Spirit's special rules, from a Fear or Event card, etc. [p. 18] Fear from destruction is independent of any explicit Fear the Power does - e.g., Lightning's Shatter Homesteads reads "1 Fear. Destroy 1 Town." It will usually generate 2 Fear: 1 explicitly, and 1 for destroying a Town. Note that when you remove or replace a Town or City, it does NOT cause any automatic Fear. Removing Invaders happens most frequently via Fear Cards, and usually represents the Invaders fleeing, which doesn't make them any more afraid. Replacing an Invader represents some sort of transformation or change; if it's a scary change, the effect will explicitly specify how much Fear to do.

Event Cards

When Disease events do damage to Dahan, is the damage reduced by Defend powers? No, since it is not the Invaders doing damage.

For the Dahan Event "Retreat", are you being told to (on each board) Push 2 Dahan from a *single* land with a City, or could you Push 1 Dahan from 2 different lands with Cities? What happens if you can't meet the full requirements? You're being told to Push 2 Dahan from a single land with a City to a single land without a City. If that's impossible, but you can Push 1 Dahan following those constraints, do so. Otherwise, do nothing on that board. "On each board" cares about the land the Dahan are currently in; it's fine to Push them onto a different board. Like all instructions that don't involve targeting or "choose a land", if you can obey them, you must - eg, if there's a land with 2 Dahan and a City that happens to be surrounded by Cities, you can't point at it and say "we would Push those, but we can't because there are no legal lands", just as you couldn't subvert "Add 1 Blight to a Sands" by pointing at a Wetland and saying "It's not a Sands, so we don't add Blight".

General Play

What are some more-common mistakes in your first games? See "Rules semi-commonly misplayed".

Invader Actions

If a Ravage is prevented (by, e.g., A Year of Perfect Stillness or Choke the Land with Green) do the Dahan still fight back? No. See 'Ravage' on p. 9 of the rulebook. There are many other ways the Ravage can be prevented entirely. Note that Defense by itself does not prevent the Ravage, just reduces the damage.

When Invader damage Dahan is boosted by Badlands, does it need to be applied efficiently? Yes. In general, Badlands damage boosts follow the restrictions of the damage they are boosting.

Power Cards

With Voice of Command, can Explorers take Damage from Towns/Cities? How does distributing damage work when you have a mixed group of Dahan and Explorers? Yes, Explorers can take Damage. You can destroy Explorers before Dahan. (And will usually want to do so.) You can also mix-and-match - destroy an Explorer or two, then deal damage to a Dahan - if for some reason you want to leave some Explorers alive.

On the threshold effect of "The Trees and Stones Speak of War", do the Pushed Dahan each bring "Defend 2" with them, or "Defend 2 per Dahan"? Defend 2. If you have 5 Dahan in the target land, then Push 2 of them to two different adjacent lands, you'll end up with a Defend 6, a Defend 2, and a Defend 2, no matter how many/few Dahan are in the Pushed-to lands. (If you'd Pushed both Dahan to the same land, you'd end up with a Defend 6 and a Defend 4.)

Spirits and Innate Powers

For the Fire/Sun level of Why Don't You and Them fight, do the Dahan and Invader damage each other simultaneously? Does Defend help? Does Strife help? Yes, yes, and yes. As usual, if Strife is used, remove 1 Strife.

If Trickster's innate power Let’s See What Happens draws Strong and Constant Currents, can you swap 1 Dahan in the target land with 1 Dahan in a Coastal land? Yes, this satisfies the mandate to use "up to" instructions at their maximum value. (And both Dahan are considered to have moved, even though the ending board state may appear the same.)

Can Dahan be moved into a land affected by Stubborn Solidity? Yes. Once there, they are affected by Stubborn Solidity and cannot be moved out. This will not change the amount of Defense provided.

If I Gather/Push/otherwise move 2 Dahan at once, can I move 2 of Thunderspeaker's Presence along with them? Yes. The special rule says "whenever a Dahan moves ... you may move 1 Presence ...". Had you been limited to a single Presence, the rule would have been phrased, "whenever 1 or more Dahan move ... you may move 1 Presence ...".

Does Drowning Dahan give energy to Ocean's Hungry Grasp? No. If Dahan are Drowned they are destroyed with no benefit. Thematically, the Energy gained is canceled out by the loss of propitiation from other Dahan.

If Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares uses a Power that Damages/Destroys Dahan, what happens? Nothing happens to the Dahan. Bringer's Powers cannot Destroy anything other than its own Presence, so you ignore that instruction. The rest of the Power takes effect normally. ("General Principle: Do as much as you can", p. 17)

World and Lore

How do you pronounce "Dahan", anyway? da-HAN, with long As. (The closest English equivalent is the "a" in "father".) There is slightly more stress on the second syllable.