Natvivor: Turkmenistan

***Natvivor: Turkmenistan***, originally dubbed ***Survivor: Turkmenistan***, is the first season of *Natvivor*. Being the first of the series, Turkmenistan is often regarded as the "experimental season," testing the waters with many mechanics and was very underdeveloped in comparison to modern seasons. The season went on for 42 days and concluded on January 1, 2019, where Slothy won the title of Sole Survivor over Luke and Ron by a vote of 4-3-3.

## Twists/Changes

* **Hidden Immunity Idol**: An advantage hidden in the game that allows the holder to play it for themselves or another player to nullify any votes cast for them.
* **Tribe Expansion**: On Day 7, a tribe switch occurred, introducing a new tribe, ​​Nokhur​​, spreading the eighteen players across three tribes of six.
* **Tribe Switch**: On Day 16, another switch occurred, shuffling the players into two tribes of seven, while dissolving the new Nokhur​​ tribe, spreading the players across the two tribes.
	+ **Exile Island**: Due to an uneven amount of players going into the Tribe Switch, one person was sent to Exile Island due to being the odd man out and would return into the game after the next Tribal Council.
* **Tether Advantage**: An advantage that was hidden on Exile Island. when played, this advantage allowed votes cast against the user to be swapped with another player of the user's choice.

## Castaways

### Future Appearances

Being the only season to feature representatives in every single returning season, Turkmenistan produced Jaison and Corho as returning captains in *Natvivor: Roatan*, Finn, also as a captain, this time for *Natvivor: Norway*, Dag and David L. as all-stars in *Natvivor: The Elysian Fields*, Carter and Luke as a second chance contenders for *Natvivor: Ghibli*, and Slothy as a champion for *Natvivor: Hallownest*.

## Season Summary

The series premiere began with 20 players initially being divided into two tribes of ten: Akdepe and Tejen. The original Tejen tribe quickly found dominance over its opposition, proving to be more dominant in challenges and maintaining a steady numbers advantage throughout the two Tribe Switches, only losing two of their ten members members before the merge compared to Akdepe's five.

With the tribes merging with thirteen players remaining, the 🥚 tribe found itself under the control of Jake and Jaydn, dictating many of the early-merge eliminations, most notably getting Slothy to play his Tether Advantage in order to blindside Carter. However, the tables quickly turned on the duo, where all of the remaining players of the final eight split the votes between the two—however, the plan being leaked to the pair by Finn caused them to play two Hidden Immunity Idols and ultimately taking out Dim in the process. Though, this only delayed the inevitable, as Jake was taken out at the very next Tribal Council.

Jake's elimination left the door open for Jaydn to win individual immunity in the next round, leading to the elimination of Finn, due to being seen as untrustworthy for leaking the original plan at the final eight. All eyes turned back on Jaydn once she lost the next challenge, being seen as too big of a threat to be taken any farther in the game, was ultimately taken out in a 3-2 vote, with David voting with her—who was also eliminated in the next round after a deadlocked tie, sending them to a fire-making tiebreaker against the eventual winner, Slothy.

For the majority of Final Tribal Council, each of the three finalists were lambasted for different aspects of their games—Ron being criticized for his lack of moves and making himself a known presence in the game, Luke for having zero connections outside of the people he was working with and, and Slothy for attempting to claim sole control on the Carter blindside. In the end, Slothy was awarded the title of Sole Survivor by a very close vote of 4-3-3.

## Trivia

* Two players from each starting tribe (Brainish and Ron from Akdepe, Fluffy and Jaydn from Tejen) stayed on the same tribe throughout the entirety of the pre-merge.
* This season is the only season to occur during 2018.
	+ This is also the only season to be span through two years, starting in 2018 and ending in 2019.