and you say that no emperor no us, i will say the God of the gods won't allow the chess game be stopped just because of a failed chessman, this you can see my last last post.
Without the Emperor we'd transform into mindflayers during ACT 1 as soon as we either pass the Goblin Camp bridge, the bridge to the Mountain Pass or the hidden path prior to the Goblin Camp.
And if you kill the Emperor at any point before the very end, you transform into a mindflayer.
So I don't really care about any divine intervention nor what Ao or any other God has to say when the entire party transforms into mindflayers and the Absolute starts her Grand Design ^^