Even for Golarion, this is not business as usual.
But it does seem to be true. Credible sources of rumor have repeated the key facts, there are multiple accounts.
Maybe other things... might also be true?
Skepticism breaks, not completely, but far enough to permit mutation and variation to propositions more interesting than usual in an Inner-Ring rumor. The variety and strangeness of the rumors is sufficient that each 1 remark sparks >1 other remarks, people competing to say what they heard; the host population is large enough that new mutated rumors are being originated in the host population faster than individuals get bored with them.
A phenomenon is born that appears very rarely in Golarion. Any dath ilani would immediately recognize it; the victims here don't even know what's feeding on them. It's gone past rumor, it's gone past avidly repeated rumor, it's gone past wild rumors that you can hear out in one night's drinking and that most people don't actually believe.
In the heart of Cheliax within the Imperial palace in Egorian, among the members of the Inner Ring of Asmodeus's tyranny, 'Project Lawful' has become a meme.