Niara, the forum member, is infected?!?
I mean, it's fine that a player can speculate about what's going on. There are a few clues here and there. But it doesn't feel like we have a lot of fleshed-out characters here - like there might be a really rich world behind what we see, but it doesn't feel like you can really interrogate it.
If I'm trying to play a charming character that talks people out of their secrets, I don't see any opportunities - there's not much room for subtlety. The only option to really ask questions of Edowin's followers is you saying "What's the Absolute?" and results in them attacking you. End of conversation. I'm not saying that Larian needs to program in a rich, deep backstory for every single NPC in the game - that's unreasonable. But I have no idea what most of the characters in this game actually care about. Edowin's followers stand out from the crowd, so they'd be a good candidate for fleshing out a little more.
There are rare exceptions. Hearing about Mol's schemes is engaging. The goblin that's up on the wall reading Volo's book has personality. But most of the NPCs in the game don't seem to have depth beyond what they are doing right this second. Even though people move around a little (not much), we're basically encountering a static, flat world. When the desire to poke and prod at that world gets repeatedly shut down by limited options, it's unsatisfying.
