Even though the true souls competing for the favor of the absolut suggests that they are not entirely enslaved. Someone mentioned that they get 'their' tadpoles at an initiation at moonrise towers. Probably they go there to become true-souls voluntarily but no one tells them about the little surprise ingredient to their new power.
Which is absurd because the player is keenly and immediatly aware of this, since the opening cinematic. I read in the transcript of the Kevin vanOrd livestream that the Nautiloid section was one of the last things they added, if that is true they royally screwed up their own plot by making us aware of the true nature of the Absolute. It also makes the "evil" path one where you choose to ignore this information and do something you know is not in your best interests, separate even from the fact that you mass murder a small town's worth of people.
