Think about it from his perspective. If he shows up as a mind flayer, there's zero chance for you to trust him. He withholds information out of necessity.
I wasn't talking about his motives there. I was merely refuting your claim that he wasn't lying.
What's the lie about Stelmane?
He talks about Stelmane as a friend and associate when in reality she was enthralled by him and eventually died to a stroke likely due to the Emperor's psychic control.
His intentions are good considering what he intends is to stop a threat to all of Faerun. That thing is also a threat to him, yes, but his actions result in an outcome that is good for everyone. There are a lot of things that feed on people. We have no evidence that what he says about only eating criminals is a lie. I've probably got a bigger body count than he does.
No, his intentions are primarily selfish. He wants to preserve his own life and freedom. Averting disaster from Faerűn just so happens to be the only way to achieve that. The positive outcome does not ennoble his motivations. Also killing people in combat is hardly the same as locking people who may or may not have been criminals in your basement for feeding purposes.
It's actually a pretty high bar when world domination is right at his fingertips. There isn't really a better test of one's character than giving them power and seeing what they do with it.
Not wanting to be an absolute ruler over everything and everyone does not mean you're a good person. I also listed a couple of reasons why he might consider it to not be in his best interest due to potential bad outcomes in the future.
I don't think his refusal to work with Orpheus is unreasonable. Orpheus can see we haven't turned illithid yet. It's entirely possible he'd be less amicable if the Emperor was standing right there. I think him having access to world domination and relinquishing it is a better indicator of his character.
Orpheus turns himself into a mindflayer to do what's necessary without hesitation after we reveal our information to him. I don't think the presence of a mindflayer would change much about the situation there.
