Ione and Carissa did have some persuasive arguments, though, about talk-control working better if people know it exists - that's already known to be true for a lesser case of talk-control called 'hypnosis', though that only works on very few people, which is sad because it's so fascinating and so useful for the few people who are 'hypnotizable' - or talk-control actually being a cover for some other form of magic.

Even taking that into account, though... basically Keltham's brain is reporting that it's not convinced here.  Dath ilan is too nice of a place to live, even for weird people like Keltham who disagree with it.  Civilization trains its children too thoroughly to be able to fight Dark Conspiracies and Hypothetical Corrupted Governance.  Maybe call it 2.5% instead of 2% pending consideration of some of the points raised here.

Cheliax obviously seems like it'd have some Dark Conspiracies, heck, dath ilan probably has some Dark Conspiracies, the question is whether those Dark Conspiracies are running everything.

Keltham's pretty sure he knows who's secretly running Cheliax if Abrogail isn't, for the record, but he's avoided naming that person to anyone so far, and they should consider having a frank chat with him about tropes before they try anything there.

Ione and Carissa did have some persuasive arguments, though, about talk-control working better if people know it exists - that's already known to be true for a lesser case of talk-control called 'hypnosis', though that only works on very few people, which is sad because it's so fascinating and so useful for the few people who are 'hypnotizable' - or talk-control actually being a cover for some other form of magic.

Even taking that into account, though... basically Keltham's brain is reporting that it's not convinced here.  Dath ilan is too nice of a place to live, even for weird people like Keltham who disagree with it.  Civilization trains its children too thoroughly to be able to fight Dark Conspiracies and Hypothetical Corrupted Governance.  Maybe call it 2.5% instead of 2% pending consideration of some of the points raised here.

Cheliax obviously seems like it'd have some Dark Conspiracies, heck, dath ilan probably has some Dark Conspiracies, the question is whether those Dark Conspiracies are running everything unbeknownst to Abrogail Thrune or Aspexia Rugatonn or Contessa Lrilatha.

...which would be a lot more likely if tropes, in fact.  So, good thing it's currently looking like no tropes.

Ione and Carissa did have some persuasive arguments, though, about talk-control working better if people know it exists - that's already known to be true for a lesser case of talk-control called 'hypnosis', though that only works on very few people, which is sad because it's so fascinating and so useful for the few people who are 'hypnotizable' - or talk-control actually being a cover for some other form of magic.

Even taking that into account, though... basically Keltham's brain is reporting that it's not convinced here.  Dath ilan is too nice of a place to live, even for weird people like Keltham who disagree with it.  Civilization trains its children too thoroughly to be able to fight Dark Conspiracies and Hypothetical Corrupted Governance.  Maybe call it 2.5% instead of 2% pending consideration of some of the points raised here.

Cheliax obviously seems like it'd have some Dark Conspiracies.  Heck, dath ilan probably has some Dark Conspiracies.  The question is whether those Dark Conspiracies are running everything unbeknownst to Abrogail Thrune or Aspexia Rugatonn or Contessa Lrilatha.

...which would be a lot more likely if tropes, in fact.  So, good thing it's currently looking like no tropes.