I always thought Daisy was the entity inside the artifact as opposed to the tadpole. I even made a theory thread about it during the early access period. All the early signs pointed toward that, imo.

That said, I don't like the Emperor approach. Don't get me wrong, I do like that the entity is inside the artifact and not the tadpole. I just don't like the choice of who the entity inside the artifact is. In fairness, though, I acknowledge how tough it must have been writing that part of the story and settling on something. They wanted to be surprising, but still keep everything setting appropriate for WotC.

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I think concerns about the game telling you how you felt were overblown.

For one, it's only worth discussing if there are specific examples to analyze.

But my point would be simply this: we're talking about psionics. A tadpole inside a head. It's not a far stretch that the story might sometimes tell you that you "feel" this certain way, even if it comes as a surprise to you. There's a level of mental and emotional manipulation going on. If anything, there should have been more of that.