Nahyuta Sahdmadhi

"Nahyuta Sahdmadhi"

- O Holy Mother. As your humble servant, you would have me apt to save this wretch's soul. I suppose this too is part my fate.

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is an international prosecutor from Khura'in who believes that convicting criminals in court will provide salvation for their victims. He is also a respected monk in Khura'in, with a devout belief in the country's religious tenets. He is the main prosecutor in charge of Phoenix Wright's, Apollo Justice's and Athena Cykes's trials in 2028. He remembers Justice from a long time ago.

Early life

 * Main article: Assassination attempt of Amara Sigatar Khura'in and Turnabout Revolution

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi was born to attorney Dhurke Sahdmadhi and Amara Sigatar Khura'in, the queen of the Kingdom of Khura'in at the time. However, in 2005, he was hidden away with Apollo Justice and his father, now a criminal on the run from the law. He grew up with Justice and Dhurke until Justice left for the United States.

His father eventually found his mother thirteen years after they went into hiding, and they had his younger sister, Rayfa Padma Khura'in, but they were caught by the new queen, Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in. Dhurke and Nahyuta lived a life of solitude in the mountains until Nahyuta began to study to become a prosecutor, despite the harsh conditions.

At age 20, he became a prosecutor, and tried to fight for revolution from inside the law, however, Queen Ga'ran noticed them, and use Rayfa and Amara as collateral to control him. He was forced to bend to her whim, the idea of revolution dying out inside him to protect the good name of his family.

Face off against a familiar face

 * Main article: The Magical Turnabout

The following year after Simon Blackquill's exoneration, Chief Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth reached out to Sahdmadhi to help the now-understaffed Prosecutor's Office. He prosecuted Trucy Wright against defense attorney Apollo Justice, having realized that the crime scene was an intentional murder. During the trial, he seemed to have a similar attitude to much of Khura'in towards defense attorneys (i.e., viewing them as co-conspirators with their guilty clients), an act he kept up until much later. During the trial, he became acquainted with Ema Skye, and despite his occasional annoyance with her friendship with the defendant, he was genuinely impressed by her ability and decided to retain her as his partner for the immediate future.

Against Apollo's mentor

 * Main article: The Rite of Turnabout

About two weeks later, Sahdmadhi returned to Khura'in with Skye to prosecute Maya Fey for the murder of Tahrust Inmee, sucessfully pressing his case and convicting her. However, Rheel Neh'mu was discovered to be dead by a bailiff, and he motioned for the trial to continue, apparently to worsen her conviction. Sahdmadhi ended up losing the trial when Beh'leeb Inmee was revealed to have killed Zealot in self-defense, and Tahrust Inmee, channeled by Maya Fey, confessed to committing suicide while framing Maya for his death to avoid Beh'leeb getting convicted under the harsh justice system of Khura'in.

A murder at the theatre

 * Main article: Turnabout Storyteller

The next day, Sahdmadhi returned to America on Edgeworth's request to prosecute a case, much to the judge's surprise. He was against Athena Cykes, whom was defending Bucky Whet for Taifu Toneido's murder on Simon Blackquill's request. During the case, his cover forced him into insulting Blackquill for his "softness", which ended up offending the other prosecutor so much that he decided to serve as Cykes' partner for the trial, the first in a long series of aggravations he faced in the case. He eventually outright asked the court exactly why they did not respect a "servant of the Holy Mother", having been fed up with Uendo Toneido and his refusal to assist his case.

The Khura'inese Revolution

 * Main article: Turnabout Revolution

Sahdmadhi returned to Khura'in after Toneido's murder trial. This time, he was to prosecute his own father, Dhurke, for the murder of the minister, Inga. While interrogating him, Sahdmadhi confiscated everything he had, except for his attorney's badge. In the following days, the people of Khura'in had an uprising that he watched. During the revolt, Sahdmadhi was confronted by Justice, who questioned why he was serving Ga'ran.

The next day, Sahdmadhi stood at the prosecution bench with the queen as they stood against Justice and Wright. It was revealed during the trial that Dhurke was killed by Inga a few days earlier while he was rescuing Maya, and that Rayfa's aide, Nayna, was actually Sahdmadhi's mother, Amara. After Amara was shot and severely wounded, Sahdmadhi was forced by Ga'ran to confess that he was Inga's killer, threatening Rayfa's safety if he did not comply. However, when Justice figured out that Dhurke was framed for the assassination attempt on Amara, Sahdmadhi realized that it was Ga'ran who tried to kill his mother. Angered that his aunt had been deceiving him, he rebelled against her, showing and proclaiming his status as a member of the Defiant Dragons. Eventually, it is revealed that Ga'ran killed her own husband, and that she was a false queen with no spiritual power.

After the trial, Sahdmadhi became regent for Rayfa as she became the next queen of Khura'in. He also had Apollo stay in the country so that they could rebuild the legal system together.

Personality
Despite having a soft demeanor, Sahdmadhi has quite a sharp tongue, regularly invoking insulting metaphors and Khura'inese sayings to chew out the defense for any error he detects. While serving under Ga'ran he seemingly has no tolerance for the defense attorney profession, claiming to consider it an unenlightened walk of life that must be quashed and punished by the rule of "the Holy Mother". He has a habit of using his beads to accentuate his points, such as stretching them out, taking them off and slamming the desk with it gripped in his hand, nervously holding them, throwing them at the defense (around Apollo's forehead, on Phoenix's arm, and around Athena's body, although Blackquill did slice a second set of beads thrown), and constricting them with it after they use up their "three chances" (ie, they significantly irritate him three times), and, when beaten, breaking them and getting knocked down with them. He has a tendency to view the court trial as a religious service, performing last rites for the deceased (hence his nickname of the Last Rites Persecutor) and giving them peace by convicting their killers.

While he is, for the most part, a law-abiding, religious man, his prejudice and much of his holier-than-thou attitude is a farce; Sahdmadhi was originally a member of the Defiant Dragons, a resistance group seeking to revolutionize the broken and corrupt court system of Khura'in. He, however, was blackmailed by his aunt, who had threatened him with exposure of Rayfa Padma Khura'in as his sister rather than his cousin-which would result in Khura'in's prejudice towards the children of criminals. Especially ones as heinous as Dhurke seemingly was would result in her becoming a social pariah and a target for political assassins, who did not wish her to be queen if he did not acquiesce to her corrupt administration. In time, Sahdmadhi came to believe that opposing her was impossible, and resigned himself to being her enforcer until it was revealed that she was behind the attempted assassination. Even so, he covertly helped his rival lawyers on several occasions, doing what her could to enable some amount of fairness to the defendant in his trials, and sought to do what he could to change the system from within. His true attitudes are shown in his polite and gracious treatment of Skye; despite the fact that she regularly finds evidence that ends up destroying his case, he never brings her to task for it and in fact regularly compliments her abilities.

Name

 * His given name "Nahyuta" comes from "nayuta" (那由多 or 那由他), which is originally a Sanskrit word that denotes a very large number.
 * "Sahdmadhi", his surname, comes from the Japanese proverb "hotoke no kao mo sando made" (仏の顔も三度まで), which means "Even the Buddha becomes angry if you brush his face thrice", which fits with his calm demeanor and sharp tongue. This could be a reference to the "three chances" he gives to the defence before he constricts them with his beads. It may also come from Samadhi  a state of meditative consciousness.

Development

 * Judging by some of his concept art, Nahyuta was intended to be female at some point, and his appearance is supposed to be very gender neutral overall as he was designed to "transcend gender." He was originally meant to be whichever gender the player would like him to be, an aspect rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism, where a number of deities are genderless or portrayed as both genders at once.
 * Nahyuta's jacket was designed after a sherwani and a frock coat.
 * Nahyuta is the second prosecutor in the main games to have an individual speech bubble (the other being Blackquill). The line "Satorha" is a Khura'inese mantra that is meant to awaken those lost in their daydreams. It comes from the Japanese "satori" (悟り), which means "enlighten".
 * SoJ-chant.pngta's Khura'inese phrase after his signature hand movements is "Satora imaoman domosamashi detashinuke taregasayo sonoka!﻿"