I notice a lot of folks saying the Emperor was a late addition to the game, as if the character of the Emperor was shoehorned in at the last moment.
There's no evidence for that. Changing Daisy into the Guardian has nothing to do with whether or not the Emperor was always the force behind the dream figure.
I maintain that it was always the Emperor.
In fact, I remember back in early access when they changed the look of the mind flayers at the helm on the nautiloid. At the time, I wondered why. They noticeably changed the head. I believe this was specifically done to make it obvious that another mind flayer was responsible for the tadpoling.
That mind flayer turned out to be the Emperor. All the clues are there. They've been there from the very beginning, way back in early access.
I remember making a theory thread about how the dream persona was coming from someone inside the artifact, and that it was associated with the initial gith rebellion. People came in left and right into that thread and dismissed the idea, certain that it was all coming from the tadpole. Later on, when it turns out the theory was right, those same people insisted that it all must have been a last minute change by Larian.
