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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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No.

[...Well, it's a... succinct response?]

If you're comfortable trusting a being that literally does not care if you live or die, that is your choice.

They care. Things wouldn't be the way that they are if they didn't care.

And I am telling you directly that the Storyteller has refused to allow us to fortify the mana pool by their temple, thus leaving us open to intruders who can readily assault and kidnap or kill us, as has already occurred once before. Without giving cause.

Compromising our ability to defend against known, potentially lethal threats without given cause is not an act that shows care or concern.

Not giving cause doesn't mean there isn't cause.

There are other ways of defense. Other ways to help.

Whether or not there is cause, not telling us makes the action arbitrary. And this is a weakness that has been exploited before to our incredible detriment. That's like telling someone who has a hole in their armor they're not allowed to patch it, they just have to learn to fight around it.

Sometimes explaining is hard or impossible. Sometimes it can make things worse. We don't know. But I don't think they're bad.

They're trying.

Doesn't that matter?

I put a lot of stock by trying.

The problem is, I haven't seen any signs that what the Storyteller is trying to achieve is Good. I have been offering it the benefit of the doubt, but asking us to maintain a voluntarily weakness that HAS gotten us hurt or killed is crossing a line to me. And if it is Good, it seems to be the 'divine' sort of Good -- the same sort that would kill several hundred million people just to ensure that their souls survived, even if there was a very good chance the souls would survive if they didn't do it right that second.

It may be objectively 'Good', but it benefits the god first and foremost. Not the people whose lives are actually being adjudicated.

The point ultimately isn't whether or not the Storyteller cares or is Good. The point is if we can trust it.

Maybe it's not the point.

Maybe you should try to understand them better. And then they can understand you better. If you can't trust them now, shouldn't you try to fix that instead of considering them an enemy?

Isn't it better to try to gain another friend?

With respect to understanding, I have offered the Storyteller the benefit of the doubt since my arrival, while they have both mocked my principles and informed me bluntly to compromise them.

I also invite opinion on how to trust a being that requires us to leave ourselves exposed and vulnerable without reason given.

What principles?

...Isn't trust all about not knowing but having faith anyway?

Ethics and morality. Law and Good

As for trust, I offered that by offering the benefit of the doubt, but it was explicitly broken. It's basically the same as if I said, "just leave that dagger pressed into your skin and trust that nothing will happen"... when you've already been stabbed. It would be different if there had been any effort to work with me, any reason, or even if we hadn't already suffered from this once before.

Why law?

They help. Trading, but they don't have to, aren't required. They warn when they can. Things aren't always the same as they are for people. You're acting as if they are one.

I'm acting as if we're people. I mean, if the Storyteller came tomorrow, killed one of us, apologized, and said it was necessary... would you still trust it? Where do you draw the line of broken trust?

We're not all people.

I don't know. It hasn't happened. They haven't done that. So how can I know?

They have asked us to voluntarily leave ourselves exposed to danger, without any reason given. Not even an 'it's necessary.'

That isn't enough for you, so I'm wondering what is.

A lot of my friends are liars.

One of them hurt people, innocent people, and let others take the blame.

One of them is going to. Because he has to. Thinks he has to, even though he doesn't want to, takes no joy in it. End one world to fix his mistake. Halam'shivanas.

It's wrong.

But I still trust them.

...The Storyteller. They're more like me. Maybe that makes it easier.

One of my party is an evil little monster who would probably be one of the biggest apocalypses on the planet if he wasn't stuck with me.

One of them killed so many beings on the planet out of spite and vengeance that the number is probably in six digits if not seven.

One of them's just an idiot, really.

I trust them all because they've earned it. They made mistakes, they did bad things, some absolutely aren't good people, but they have stood by me in doing what we need to do.

The Storyteller hasn't. Even their beneficial deeds are transactional. They've made a lot of good noise about empathy and apologies, but for whatever reason, maybe even a good one that we do not know, their actions have ranged from neutral to self-serving to inscrutably harmful to us. I can't trust that. I can trust certain parameters of that, but I can't trust the being theirself.

You don't have to. Trust is... complicated, I think. But you're telling everyone else not to either.

That's correct. But I should add that we can, I think, trust the transactional benefits we have. Trading stories for favors. But its benevolence, empathy, reliability? I believe those are now officially untrustworthy.

If the Storyteller asked you to jump off a bridge, would you then ask the rest of us to die with you?

???

What bridge?

We have a bridge?

You've clearly never been betrayed before, and are an idiot. Do Roy a favour and shut up.

I know what being betrayed is like.

Would it be a favor? Isn't talking the point of this?

Did betrayal hurt? Is it something you'd wish on another person?

That's essentially what you're advocating, and that's why you're making Roy angry. Upset, even.