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I have at various points defended the Storyteller as a being that deserves a presumption of good faith. I am recanting that defense. By word and deed, the Storyteller has demonstrated that it is capricious, untrustworthy, and ultimately unconcerned with our survival.

Fact: The Storyteller does not provide useful information. It may be bound by an immense number of rules and restrictions that forbid it from doing so... but in every interaction it has been explicitly unhelpful and unforthcoming.

Fact: Although the Storyteller professes to regret our suffering and travails, it has explicitly forbidden us from setting up any defenses around the mana pool in its temple -- despite enemies having demonstrably penetrated through to the islets and assaulted and captured us in our sleep.

Fact: The Storyteller has openly encouraged me to abandon my principles and beliefs, while pretending it is not doing so. (It has also gone to some effort to mock those principles and beliefs.)

Pretty sure this is a fact: the Storyteller is taking petty revenge on me for calling out its behavior as capricious and untrustworthy.

I want to be absolutely clear that regardless of the Storyteller's intentions, we can only judge it by its actions. While it may mean the best by its own perspective, its perspective of what is 'best' for us clearly does not resemble our own. We must, unfortunately, consider it an enemy by that standard. Furthermore, gods are still fallible.

I am not advocating direct action against it, nor am I saying we have any other alternative at present than to accept we are, unavoidably, its playthings. But we need to know that's what we are, and view our interactions accordingly. We cannot trust it.

And incidentally, if anything suspicious should happen to me after writing this, take that as what evidence you should.

~Roy Greenhilt

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You can't complain that I didn't listen to other people if you're immediately then going to dismiss my direct experience.

If gods didn't care in one way or the other, I can assure you the worlds would probably be a LOT better off. The only real relevance to us, however, is the results we have to deal with.

sry it sounded kinda like assumptions n gut feelings there. plus the last part contradicts my direct experience, so.

agreed on that one my friend. the result is they promised never to take our choices away again. I guess if they fuck that up, that'll be as conclusive as it gets.

I'll bring up the mana pool at the next meeting.

There is a lot to unpack in the conversation. But the Storyteller said that I should stop judging things based on the 'metric I find most comfortable' -- which, whether they acknowledge it or not, is my principles. (Also they have been harassing me since then, so. Take that as you will.)

Which part is the contradictory one? If it's the gods part... well, on my world, the gods are in the middle of voting on whether or not to destroy and remake the world. So that experience has somewhat soured me on hoping for divine intervention that has positive results for us mortals. The gods don't operate on the same level we do. I think that's obviously true of the Storyteller as well, and why I say we can't trust them regardless of their intentions.

mmm, harassed how? that's not cool. tho what they said kinda sounds like ST speech for 'stop acting like a stubborn ding dong'. expanding your horizons w/o losing sight of who you are isn't easy, but it's doable. trust me.

higher beings can kiss my ass, agreed. ST lost the benefit of the doubt wrt intentions, agreed x2. but I don't believe they're ok with """"Evil"""" acts done to us. they admit what they did was wrong, unforgivable. that fixing the dead can't fix that. that's evidence of some weirdass godly empathy, if you ask me. anything small-scale is none of their business, we don't need em to care if somebody wants to try n act """Evil""" round here. we handled the monkeys. they got huffy at us for that, so they're not totes indiff to what we get up to either.

I don't have any other explanation for how I could wake up absolutely soaked, with my belongings similarly soaked, with no other indication of water around.

I've learned that I do need to be constantly expanding my horizons... but that being said, being asked to be okay with leaving a gaping weakness in our defenses that nearly got people, including children, killed is a level beyond which I am prepared to offer unrestrained sympathy.

To be clear, I'm not saying the Storyteller is evil. They may legitimately have good intentions. I'm saying we can't trust them, since either they have no reason for the decision, they won't tell us, or they can't tell us -- the end result either is that a decision was made that we suffer from, without explanation.

1) that's petty as hell and I kinda love it 2) they got beef w water, how d'you know it wasn't another force??

nobody's asking for unrestrained sympathy for em, we're not idiots n most everyone knows not to put any trust in em that they haven't earned. you're not bringin anything new to the table here. all I'm sayin is they're not heartless or evil, if we assume they're not lyin. how much that counts is up to everyone to decide for themselves.

I don't know explicitly it wasn't another force, but considering I argued with the Storyteller and then woke up from the storytelling dream soaked, I think the evidence is pretty conclusive.

I think I am bringing something new to the table: explicit and direct evidence that the Storyteller has compromised our defense based on no given reason. Before I had that, I was willing to give the Storyteller the benefit of the doubt. I can't imagine I was the only person who thinks that way.